The “So Good it’s Bad” Movie

We’ve all heard of movies that are so bad they wrap right around the spectrum and become “good.” A non-film example would be the Maryland State flag, which is so over-the-top it becomes good again. (Hence this phenomenon is called The Maryland Effect). Examples include movies with cult-like followings like The Room and Birdemic. And each movie has its own traditions; in some scenes in The Room, there are (for who knows what reasons) framed pictures of spoons in the background and when they pop up, the audience throws plastic spoons at the screen. 

So I thought, if a movie can be so bad it’s good, could it work the other way around? A movie so good it becomes bad? First, let’s work out what that means exactly. I would argue “good” and “bad” mean something akin to “subverted” and “expected” expectations. 

A movie, in a sense, is a mixture of “knowns” and “unknowns,” or cliches and subversions. This is why the Hero’s Journey is a guideline most writers follow and Save the Cat! is on the desk of most scriptwriters. Most people subconsciously know how a movie is supposed to start, move, and end. (Unless you’re talking about The Godfather: Part II which is one of the exceptions to the rule.) 

The way I see it, a movie that’s so-bad-it’s-good is just a hundred percent variable. There is no rhyme or reason to the story, to the scenes, the characters; anything could happen. That’s why it is so goddamn funny when Johnny, clearly angry, comes up the stairs to the rooftop talking about how “I did not hit her, I did NOT.” And then immediately does a 180 and changes to a friendly tone when he sees Mark who is also for some reason on the roof. 

Therefore, a movie that is so-good-it’s-bad would be a movie that is just a hundred percent cliché. A film so generic that if you’ve seen at least a couple of movies in your life, you would know with 100% certainty what is going to happen. And that isn’t to say the movie wouldn't be enjoyable to the right audience (my dad), just like how the right audience likes The Room.

(You could also say indie film house movies are in a sense complete subversion since they are purposefully trying to break from the usual medium of cinema, but again, they aren't “bad” if shown to the right audience.)