THE PASSION FOR THE TERRIBLE: PEOPLE'S PARADOXICAL LOVE OF THE WORST FILMS

Edit: This story was actually written back in 2017 for another one of my classes, so this is why it refers to the film "The Disaster Artist" as "newly released"

The sounds of laughter echoed throughout the auditorium of the Alamo Drafthouse, audience members radiated joy and acted as giddy as young children on Christmas Day. At first glance, a casual on-looker would think that these people were watching an entertaining, touching and well-made movie, but that wasn’t exactly the case.

Instead, the people in the movie theater erupted with joyous and bewildered laughter because they were in the middle of watching the cult classic, “The Room.” The movie is considered by many critics and audiences alike to be the worst movie ever made.

“What the f@*k is going on,” shouted several audience members while watching the film, along with bursts of laughter and frustrated groans.

In celebration of the newly released film, “The Disaster Artist,” by James Franco, the Alamo Drafthouse, as well as hundreds of other theatres across the country, held special screenings of what some say is an infamously bizarre movie.

Considered by critics and audiences alike to be a film “so bad, it’s good,” “The Room” is yet another example of the trend of a bad movie developing a significant cult following and popularity. Written, directed, produced and starring Tommy Wiseau, “The Room” centers around Johnny, a financially successful banker whose fiancé, Lisa, begins cheating on him with his best man and friend Mark.

No one seat was left empty within the theatre of the Drafthouse, and this sold out screening along with dozens of others serves as yet another example of a movie achieving financial success despite its poor reception.

Movies like “Birdemic,” “Troll 2,” “Manos: The Hands of Fate” and, of course, “The Room,” despite their numerous problems, have gone on to develop major cult followings and fan bases who enjoy them because of their issues, explaining simply “it’s so bad, it’s good.”

Danielle Houtkooper, the host of the special screening at the Alamo Drafthouse, believes that these films’ popularity stems mainly from their unintentional similarities to most comedies.

“People love to cringe, something like ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ are so hard to watch, and because they’re so hard to watch it makes us laugh as a defense mechanism.” Houtkooper said, “It’s the same thing with this movie, it’s not intentionally funny but you still get that cringe that you get from comedies.”

Jennifer McClearen, Radio-Television-Film lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, also tried to explain why people love “so bad, it’s good” movies and said that the reason stems from the films taking themselves completely seriously, but ultimately failing due to its quality and thus making it comical for audiences. McClearen also said that audiences also enjoy bad movies because simply it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Nearly every critic and casual viewer has pointed out the lack-luster plot, bizarre editing and cinematography, cheesy green-screen backgrounds and, most infamously, the fascinatingly bad acting from Wiseau himself. 

But the interest of “The Room” is not limited to just what happens within the context of the film. Its production and financial history is like a reflection of the movie itself, riddled with inconsistencies and mystery and all centered around Wiseau.

According to Greg Sestero, author of “The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room” and the actor who portrayed Mark, he and everyone working on the film knew next to nothing about Wiseau’s personal history, not even knowing how old he was or where he was from. To this day, Wiseau has remained extremely quiet about where he was born, only saying that he grew up in New Orleans, how old he actually is or where and how he acquired the film’s $6 million budget.

Elizabeth Gomez, one of the audience members of the special screening at Alamo, said that the worst and most interesting part of the movie is Wiseau, describing his acting to an alien or zombie trying desperately hard to convince others that he is human and failing miserably.

Other audience members at the screening, like friends Kuro Tawbuil and Wilson Henderson, also talked about the moments from the movie that were especially jarring for them, pointing out the confusing editing and cinematography throughout it.

“The way it cuts is insane, there’s so many shots that just go nowhere.” Tawbuil said, “There comes a point where you have to wonder what the heck were they thinking when they putting this all together.”

Houtkooper also pointed out that another major aspect of the enjoyment comes from how serious the movie takes itself.

“I think a big part of it is that Tommy Wiseau was so into it himself.” Houtkooper said, “He put up the capital for it, found the crew to be a part of it. His heart and soul was absolutely put into it.”

Audience member, Wilson Henderson also shares this opinion after seeing the film for the first time.

“I think what makes it good is that they’re trying, they weren’t trying to make a bad movie.” Henderson said, “They poured their hearts into it and just tried so hard and you can see that they did in a weird way.”

One major question that comes up when discussing “so bad, it’s good” movies is why do people come out in droves to watch them in major screenings rather than watching it by themselves in the comfort of their own homes?

Bryan Romero, another attendee at the Alamo Drafthouse movie party, also gave his ideas as to why people come out to seeing bad movies like “The Room.”

“I think it’s because if people have a chance to see a famous movie on the big screen, good or bad, they’re going to see it.” Romero said, “Just the idea of seeing it in that large setting is just something so alluring to a lot of people.”

“There’s a lot of different reasons for that,” McClearen said, “but I think that it’s because you can not only enjoy it itself, but also enjoy talking about it afterwards…it isn’t just about what happens on screen, but it’s our experience and relation to other people that watch it with us.”