Are you one of those people that sometimes just loves a bad, no-good, sh*t movie? And I’m not talking bad like how Suicide Squad is supposedly “bad,” but Halle Berry Catwoman bad. I’m talkin’ The Master of Disguise bad. I’m talkin’ Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 levels of suckery. You guys know what I’m talking about, when you and your buddies are hungover, you’ll plop your ass on the couch, maybe roll up a bit of the devil’s lettuce, kick back and just watch a godforsaken flick. Well, guess what bad-movie brethren? Apparently, an adoration of these crapfests has been linked to higher intelligence.
According to The Independent, academics have delved into this phenomenon, with the journal Poetics this week publishing a study entitled: ‘Enjoying trash films: Underlying features, viewing stances, and experiential response dimensions.’ Keyvan Sarkhosh, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, writes:
“At first glance it seems paradoxical that someone should deliberately watch badly made, embarrassing and sometimes even disturbing films, and take pleasure in them.”
The team started by trying to ascertain exactly what makes a film ‘trash’, with the most common characteristic respondents cited being their “cheapness.” Low budget horror films were the most common example. Here’s what they found about people who intentionally watch these movies:
Ironic viewing is obviously what is at play here, and the researchers found it is mostly film buffs who watch trash films, which would make sense, as very often their enjoyment comes down to analyses of production values, dialogue and plot structure.
“To such viewers, trash films appear as an interesting and welcome deviation from the mainstream fare,” says Keyvan Sarkhosh, postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics. “We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as ‘cultural omnivores’. Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.” He went on to explain that their engagement in film culture is demonstrated by their discussion of these films in blogs and forums.
So there ya have it folks: enjoyment of bad movies = Einstein levels of intelligence (not quite).
I have a handful of personal favorite “it’s so bad, it’s good” movies: ya got Constantine starring the one and only Keanu Reeves, and the video-game based movie Doom, starring future President of the United States, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Then, of course, are the two Joel Schumacher Batman films: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. If you find yourself craving a sh*t movie, I’d suggest you start with one of these.
