18. Monster Dog (1984)
Alice Cooper plays a rock star that returns to his childhood home to shoot a music video. When he and his crew get there, they discover there’s a pack of wild dogs, led by Monster Dog, killing off the local residents.
This movie has bad acting, terrible FX and awful music, even Alice Cooper’s voice is dubbed. It’s good because the head-exploding scene is hilarious, the werewolf transformation is such bad acting that it is laugh till you cry funny and because it features rock star Alice Cooper in a role that really pushes him, playing rock star Vincent Raven.
19. Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)
The movie is about a private detective trying to find a teenage runaway and ends up meeting a cult of Egyptian chainsaw-worshipping sex workers. Not only is its title ridiculously brilliant but also its tagline is ‘They charge an arm and a leg!’
An intentionally bad movie, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers is very tongue-in-cheek and has awful, cheap-looking special FX, power tool dismemberment and ends before it gets boring. It’s good low-budget fun that is better than you’d expect.
20. Dracula 2000 (2000)
The movie is about Dracula searching for Van Helsing’s daughter Mary in New Orleans. Because it’s Dracula 2000, it’s set in the modern day.
The movie is bad because of Jonny Lee Miller’s acting and the obscene amount of product placement for Virgin Records. There are also some really bad attempts at humour. It’s good because it’s fun, well shot and has an interesting but slightly silly script.
21. Brainscan (1994)
Brainscan is about a lonely teenager called Michael Brower who lives in his father’s mansion. His mother died in a car accident and his father is often away on business so he spends most of his time locked away in his room playing computer games or watching horror movies. His friend Kyle recommends an ultra-realistic, interactive CD-ROM computer game to him, which he decides to try.
The first time he plays it, he is encouraged to commit a murder in the game. After playing the game, he soon realises that the murder he committed was real and the police come to question him. Brainscan is bad because the real or fantasy thing is a bit of a cliché and it does seem a little preachy that violent games can make people violent.
While the ending is a bit of a cop-out, the film is still thoroughly enjoyable thanks to its cool early 90s FX, the ‘gamesmaster’ character who looks like an 80s hair metal guy and a bucket load of suspense.
22. Hellbound (1994)
If anyone is going to fight Satan then it’s got to be Chuck Norris. Except, in this movie Chuck ends up fighting Satan’s assistant instead, which is a bit of a shame. Hellbound is about two detectives who are sent to investigate the gruesome murder of a rabbi.
Turns out that there are supernatural forces at play and Chuck Norris must fight Satan’s emissary to save the world from apocalypse.
The movie is bad because it drags a bit but the premise is so awesome that it’s good. The fight scenes with the demon are also excellent.
23. The Gingerdead Man (2005)
The movie opens with a crazed man murdering a family in a diner. The crazed killer is caught and sentenced to death by electric chair. After his death, the killer’s ashes are sent to his mother who puts them in in a gingerbread spice mix.
The spice mix ends up at a bakery, blood is added when an employee cuts himself and it gets into the mixture. The mixture is baked and a tiny murderous Gary Busey gingerbread man is born.
This movie is bad for the acting, the story and it’s a bit slow in parts. It’s so bad it’s good because it has that retro, low-budget horror feel to it. It also gets points for an inventive murderer, Gary Busey and general fun ridiculousness.
24. Pumpkinhead (1988)
Another absurdly brilliant titled 80s horror, Pumpkinhead tells the story of a man whose son is killed when some teenagers are drunkenly messing around on motorbikes. He takes his dead son to a witch to see if she can revive him but says there is nothing she can do.
Angry that the teenagers didn’t show enough remorse for his son’s death, he asks the witch to summon a rage demon to punish the teenagers and kill them off one-by-one.
Pumpkinhead is bad due to its low-budget look and slightly dodgy FX but so good because of the giant rage demon, Lance Henriksen and the awesome morality tale at the end.
25. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
Considered to be the worst movie of all time, Plan 9 From Outer Space is about aliens who resurrect dead humans as zombies and vampires to stop humans from creating a terrifying bomb.
There is so much that is wrong with this movie, everything including acting, filming, framing of shots and props is done so badly that you wonder how anyone involved was ever allowed to make a movie. The spaceships are obviously on strings, the actors only have one emotion between them and no one seems to react to anything until its uncomfortably too late.
That being said, the movie is undeniably watchable. It’s so good because its funny and unbelievable that it was ever made. It has brilliant lines like “remember friends, future events like these, will affect you in the future” and “what do you make of that” after a cloaked skeleton was shot.
Author Bio: Elizabeth Goss is a self-confessed horror movie nerd based in Sydney. Her goal is to watch every 80s horror ever made, there are a lot.