A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)
Sep 3, 2005Town of Vampires
Cult director Larry Cohen makes a sequel to the Stephen King mini-series but throws most connection out to make his own wry, occasionally amusing vampire film
Tara Reid
Urban Legend (1998)
May 9, 1999Slasher Film
Following the success of Scream, this was an attempt to make an upmarket slasher film based around the motif of urban legends in the same way that Scream used 1980s slasher films. It is a stretch to make urban legends fit in some cases but director Jamie Blanks delivers reasonable tension
Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
Apr 15, 2001Girl Rock Group's Adventures/Cartoon in Live Action
A live-action film based on the animated tv series about a girl rock band who originally appeared in Archie comics, this gets buried under its own efforts to be cutely ironic
Just Visiting (2001)
Apr 7, 2001Time Travel Comedy
The US remake of the French time travel comedy Les Visiteurs. With a script by John Hughes, this imports the original film's stars but misses its comedy charms by a mile
The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)
Sep 1, 2007Resurrected Avenger
The third of The Crow sequels, starring a miscast Edward Furlong as a resurrected trailer park kid. This has a bad movie ridiculousness that killed the series off
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Jul 26, 2007Videogame Adaptation/Monsters
Uwe Boll gained a reputation as the world's worst director on the basis of his videogame adaptations. Prize exhibit was Alone in the Dark, which abandons the game and is a series of action scenes without explanatory rationale
The Fields (2011)
May 5, 2014Coming of Age Story/Backwoods Happenings
This feels like Children of the Corn remade by Terrence Malick. The film does nicely with the wry, quietly observed naturalism of its Coming of Age story, less so when it moves into horror territory
Sharknado (2013)
Aug 12, 2013Storm of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
This arrived as the same instant full-born bad movie cult sensation. Although you cannot help but feel that the people who ridiculed the film are missing out on the joke – in not seeing that it has been made as something intentionally absurd
Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)
Aug 17, 2014Storm of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
Sequel to the bad movie phenomenon Sharknado Accompanied by a host of celebrity cameos, there is less the cheerful absurdity of the original than a film that is trying to recapture a spontaneously generated fad
The Hungover Games (2014)
Jan 18, 2018Parodies of Various Films
In the vein of the Scary Movies films, this offers the amusing idea of a mash-up between The Hunger Games and The Hangover where the characters are forced into a death match against characters from other media franchises
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015)
Aug 16, 2015Storm of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
Sharknado was an instant bad movie phenomenon; the first sequel felt a forced attempt to copy that. The good news is that with the third entry, the series gets the balance of tongue in cheek absurdity just right
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)
Aug 14, 2016Storm of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
The bad movie hit of Sharknado was a surprise to everyone and spawned sequels. By this point, creativity appears to have dried up – essentially, the Sharknado series has jumped the shark
King Cohen (2017)
Jan 3, 2023Genre Director Documentary
A documentary about cult director Larry Cohen, best known for It's Alive and other works. This is filled with hilariously entertaining stories of his guerrilla film-making methods
Sharknado 5: Global Swarming (2017)
Aug 19, 2017Storms of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
By this point, the Sharknado series has gone from an amusingly tongue-in-cheek original to a series that is widely signalling that it is not taking anything that happens remotely seriously
Party Bus to Hell (2017)
Sep 30, 2019Party Bus Surrounded by Satanists
A party bus is stranded in the desert and surrounded by Satanists. At least this is a film that you cannot complain delivers exactly what it promises - plentiful toplessness, gore and cheesy creature effects
The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time (2018)
Dec 14, 2018Storm of Sharks/Deliberately Bad Film
The sixth of the Sharknado films, this has the usual crew fighting sharknados throughout history. With this comes the recognition there is nowhere more ridiculous and over-the-top for the series to go