Why People Watch "B-Movies" (Bad Movies/B-List Movies)

            People love to watch movies, it’s one of the few forms of entertainment that most likely will never go away. They’re a part of American culture, though they’re not limited to the United States alone. Love of film spans entire continents, groups, and generations. With the immense number of films produced year after year, it’s near impossible to watch every film ever made. With so many to choose from, there are always people discussing, and separating them in various categories. The simplest conversation relating to this idea of categories is what a good movie is, and what a bad movie is.

            For this particular post, I’d like to talk about what makes a bad movie, or B-Movie. The B in B-Movie can stand for Bad, or it can refer to a B list film. Something that qualifies as a B list film, is a film with actors you may have heard or seen before, but are not quite world famous. The production value of these films are high in quality, and the film has seen a straight to television, home video, or digital download release. A B-Movie qualifies as a very low budget production, sometimes with no more than a thousand dollar budget. Often the cast is primarily made up of 'no name actors,' many of these actors may in fact be starting out. The films will more often than not have some over use of sex, gore, or violence. And they’re fantastic in their own right for that.

            Film goers come in all forms of likes and dislikes. Some people prefer only the Oscar winning films over all else, others enjoy tracking down and viewing the hidden gems of the film industry. Then there are those film goers who search and dig for the absolute worst of the worst, the people who love watching movies so bad, they’re great.

            Take for example, a 1984 film, from little known Troma Entertainment, “The Toxic Avenger,” one of the more original super hero films of the B-Movie world. The setup to each film in the series sums up as follows…

            “In the small town of "Tromaville New Jersey," little 'Mop Boy,' Melvin Ferd, was a 90 pound scrawny, weakling, wimp of a nerd. Being teased and tormented eventually led to Melvin falling into a vat of toxic chemical waste. Soon he underwent a transformation that made him into a hideously deformed creature of super human size and strength.”

            Does this sound appealing to you? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, Troma films are not exactly for everyone. The film has a shoe string budget, was filmed on a camera that would have been considered high grade in the 70’s, and overuses sex and violence. However, it was also a massive hit with young film goers, and eventually the Toxic Avenger became the face of Troma Entertainment. But the company itself still operates making low budget projects that seek to shock an audience rather than deliver politically correct messages. The Toxic Avenger series, as well as several other Troma properties, are positively loaded with nudity, blood, guts, gratuitous sex scenes, racial and other forms of spectacularly crude humor.

            Yet in spite of all of this, Troma is a widely loved and celebrated house of independent arts. Their fans know and love that they do all they do for the love and reaction to their shocking entertainment. It’s so absurd and bizarre, some of the monsters, and plots they’ve created as a studio, and some of their material I honestly cannot describe on this post. This being because of how gross and gruesome some of their stuff is, but also in part due to the fact that I just can’t do it justice. More importantly though, none of it, no matter how disturbing or intense, is meant to be taken seriously. The fans know it, they’re just in it for the laughs, and to have a good time, and that’s what keeps classic B-Movies and their makers strong.

            Troma is just one example that I believe to be a fantastic point to jump off and into the world of B-Movies. I know I’ll cover more in the time to come. For now, know that people watch bad movies for these reasons and more. It gives the audience something they can’t see anywhere else, not even in a theater that plays multimillion dollar works from the most famous names in Hollywood. B-Movies are there to add a little spice to the DVD and Blu-Ray collections of film goers, they’re something that was made for the love of the craft. B-Movies, are entertainment at its finest.