Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed and starred in the amazingly bad “The Room.” Photo courtesy of theroommovie.com

Do you ever get tired of watching good movies? Are you overwhelmed from reading too many wonderful books or experiencing too many great moments? I believe that to truly appreciate the good things in life you need to get a taste of the bad things — for happiness cannot exist without sadness, we could not put a label to good if there was no evil and there can’t be light without darkness.

This was just a profound introduction for me to say I love watching terrible movies. Bad movies are an art form that never gets old, they can make you laugh more than the most critically acclaimed comedy or make you question life more than any deep philosophical art film.

Some of the best memories I have involve hanging out with a group of friends while we try to find the lowest rated and worst reviewed movies on Netflix. There are tons of bad movies out there, but a movie that’s so bad it’s good takes some digging to find. It’s a process similar to panning for gold.

Movies that are so bad they’re good are the ones that keep you laughing or mesmerized by how awful they are throughout their runtime. The stars must align to spark that perfect combination of bad acting, bad directing and bad filming or camera quality. If you’re unsure of where to start your bad movie journey or if you just want to see if this genre is right for you, I’ll briefly describe the two most hilariously bad movies that introduced many people to the genre.

The Room

“The Room” is a “drama” directed, written by and starring the misunderstood genius that is Tommy Wiseau.

The story follows Johnny (played by Wiseau) and his girlfriend Lisa. Lisa is secretly cheating on Johnny with his best friend Mark. Johnny is a big brother figure to a kid named Denny, who has no reason for being in the movie.

The story of “The Room” sounds bland but the magic comes from the awkward lines delivered by bad actors. Johnny has a weird accent that no one can identify as being from a human language, he looks like a muscular vampire wearing a long black wig and he is a bad movie god.

The movie grew so famous that theaters now hold fan screenings of it and Adult Swim still airs it from time to time.

I can quote this movie by heart and I am not ashamed (yes I am).

Troll 2

“Troll 2” isn’t actually a sequel to any movie called Troll — it’s just a random straight to video “horror” movie that came out in 1990 and was forgotten until the mid-2000s when it was rediscovered and became a huge cult classic.

“Troll 2” started the so-bad-it’s-good movie craze with some of the most unintentionally funny special effects, lines and acting that has to be seen to be believed. “Troll 2” received a Blu-ray release, has festival screenings around the country and there’s even a documentary about it, “Best Worst Movie,” which is funny and insightful in trying to figure out what makes a movie so bad that it becomes loved for its awfulness.

My theory is due to a psychological condition we’re all suffering from. If you need to unwind from studying, the best remedy is to get some friends together and watch bad movies. You can bask in each other’s suffering and quote these movies long after they’re over; it’s all part of the magic.

Alisabeth Otto is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]