The ‘Worst’ of Cinema 2013: An Introduction

From https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCjerqPiEQzpig332l5cF4L-8fuNWEi7mugbUgiN4JipRhC1CSeDbaJqEsnYrI3sIZ4mg-DfbmK-KiZejFURqhfDwIRnheL0B5GnmC6ci3mUTfaQsqkIRShuKODjCjHcJcYJkQymJdo7O8/s1600/troll_2_05.jpg

[Note – This will be the last post, aside from a This Week... article or two, that I will put up this year. In January this series I am introducing now will start immediately. Additional Note - Screenshots used in this introduction are from films that may or may not be part of the season.]

There is something odd about me doing a season on terrible cinema in that I completely detest the concept of the ‘so-bad-its-good’ film or mocking films like Mystery Science Theatre 3000. A bad film is not a guilty pleasure, just painful to sit through, while films others would call guilty pleasures are erratic gems for myself, full of glaring flaws but with virtues as well even if they were accidental. I am the wrong person to do a thirty one day series on ‘bad’ cinema, but this could be to my advantage as I attempt one with trepidation and morbid curiosity. I decided to change the series from its original concept – ‘The Worst to the Worst’ – to ‘The ‘Worst’ of Cinema’, with the intention of choosing films that, within the categories I have selected, have been dismissed as awful films. They could be as terrible as their reputations suggest, but they could turn out to be great or at least far more rewarding then one’s expectations for them were originally. The three categories that my choices will be drawn from are simple and to the point –

1. The worst films. Any genre, any type of films.

2. The films called the worst by film critics and viewers throughout the decades, including those that have been critically re-evaluated.

3. Films that I have viewed as the worst I have seen since I started recording my opinions and scores on the films I have watched since I was a young adult.

From http://oscarmovs.com/manos2.jpg

Within these rules, anything can be reviewed if it qualifies in these categories. Like the last month long project I did in October, I have rules for how to do the series. This time I have the previous experience to help me modify them.

From http://filmdump.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/showgirls-2.jpg

A. Real life if more important. If I miss days, I will make up for it in February so thirty one reviews are posted up.

B. I will try to keep the balance between rewatches and first time viewings right, so I can have immediate reactions and second opinions together. With the films I had as my worst viewing experiences to be re-reviewed within public blog writing, there is going to be a few more rewatches then last time.

C. No Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010), The Room (2003), or anything from The Asylum or on the Syfy channel. They go against my desired goal to make this an open minded excavation of the critical scrag big, with any jokes made side-by-side with them secondary, rather than a cheap excuse to mock instant ‘cult’ classics.

D. Just because a film is included in the series doesn’t mean I will give it a bad review. Even if it is a negative review, it’s better to agree to disagree rather than argue about it. Any negative critiques and jokes at a film’s expense are my personal opinion only.

Again with this season, I have not included a set list of films, but there are many potential candidates to choose from, too many for the thirty one slots. I hope to have as eclectic a collection of reviews as I did with the Halloween 31 For 31 series, with a further advantage that the subjective ‘worst’ of cinema can be even more diverse then the entire horror genre, not also taking into account how horror films by themself are a significant slice of this concept in film viewing. When the series starts on the 1^st January and the New Year, I dread what I can dig up to review, but hope that amongst the lunacy and bad parody films that I will learn an important message from all of this. Whether my masochistic viewing tastes will protect me during this experience will depend on how legible my typing is by the end of this all and whether I don’t have nightmares about Troll 2 (1990) and the ilk.

From http://www.anime-planet.com/images/anime/screenshots/rootssearch1.jpg