There are good movies, there are bad movies, and there are movies that are so infinitely terrible, cheesy, and/or sappy that it’s hard not to love them just a little bit. Even if you don’t want to admit it. Movie lovers hold a special place in their hearts for these cinematic guilty pleasures. They may hide their well-worn DVD copies in the back of a very dark closet, but they are always there—waiting to delight, no matter how embarrassingly bad they might be.
Looking for a good guilty pleasure movie to watch the next time you have the TV to yourself? Here are 60 of our favorites.
1. Anaconda (1997)
Anaconda did for snakes what Jaws did for sharks—with one major difference: Whereas Jaws is a finely-crafted, taut thriller in which much of the terror is implied, Anaconda revels in its lack of subtlety. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Owen Wilson are part of a film crew dispatched to the Amazon in search of a mysterious indigenous tribe, but instead find themselves being forced to help a creepy snake hunter (Jon Voight) track down a giant anaconda. The snake, of course, is so enormous that it’s laughable—which is an apt description of the whole damn premise. Though it was (understandably) a box office dud, the film gained a cult following when it debuted on home video—so much so that it has spawned four sequels, a companion novel, and several video games. —Jennifer M. Wood
2. Bad Taste (1989)
Twenty-five years before Peter Jackson was breaking box office records and winning Academy Awards, he was cutting his teeth on Bad Taste, a low-budget splatterfest that sees a group of human-eating aliens invade Earth in order to restock the fridges at their intergalactic fast food restaurant, which specializes in serving up human flesh. The movie, which marked Jackson’s feature directorial debut, took about four years to shoot; the budding auteur shot on a 25-year-old camera, on weekends, and cast himself and his friends in multiple roles. Those with an aversion to gore will probably want to skip this one; as the movie moves along, the ways in which people are killed become more bizarre and gruesome. But it’s all done in such a tongue-in-cheek way that it’s easy to see why the film has become a cult classic over the years. —JMW
3. Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Though the gender and racial politics haven’t aged perfectly, it’s still fun to watch a young Kurt Russell as a macho truck driver helping a friend in Chinatown rescue his fiancée from supernatural thugs. The special effects, fantastic soundtrack, and crazy chase sequences make for an enjoyable ride, as long as you’re not terribly concerned with character depth or development. But c’mon, just how many comedy fantasy martial arts movies are there? (Or at least ones directed by John Carpenter?) —Bess Lovejoy
4. Bloodsport (1988)
Based (very) loosely on the alleged real-life exploits of martial artist Frank Dux, Bloodsport doesn’t appear much different than other B-movie fight films that lined video shelves in the ‘80s. It stands out thanks to the charisma of Jean-Claude Van Damme, playing an earnest Dux out to honor his sensei by winning the underground Kumite tournament. As an oafish American brawler, Donald Gibb (Revenge of the Nerds) brings a buddy-cop element to the hackneyed plot; Bolo Yeung is excellent as a sneering returning champion. In his first major starring role, Van Damme proves that film stardom isn’t always about acting—though he’s actually better than he’s given credit for—but watchability: You want to watch Dux kick people expertly in the solar plexus every time this comes on television. —Jake Rossen
5. Body Double (1984)
Director Brian De Palma cribbed a lot from Alfred Hitchcock—but Body Double is more subversive, sexually charged, and more violent than anything Hitchcock ever made. (Plus, it was made in the ‘80s, and everything looks very ‘80s.) The LA film noir/erotic thriller (Hollywood doesn’t make these movies anymore) follows actor Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), who’s house-sitting for a friend and becomes a Rear Window-like voyeur, spying on his sexy neighbor (Deborah Shelton). He witnesses her brutal murder and gets caught up in solving it, which leads him to porn star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) and to him starring in a music video for Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax.” Academics and critics have written a lot about the film: Is it misogynic, or is it self-aware? Either way, while watching, we know it’s not Hitchcock and we know it’s not as revered as De Palma’s Carrie and Scarface, but we watch because, well, maybe we’re all voyeurs, too. —Garin Pirnia
6. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Francis Ford Coppola’s interpretation of Bram Stoker’s novel gives us an array of brilliant performances with one glaring exception. As the title count, Gary Oldman manages to chew the Gothic scenery with only two giant fangs; Winona Ryder and Sadie Frost, as friends Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra, rebel against Victorian expectations of women; and Anthony Hopkins and Tom Waits (!) are appropriately unhinged. The lush costumes and shadowy lighting complete Coppola’s Romantic reimagining of the classic vampire story. And then there’s Keanu Reeves. Doing his best imitation of a tree, Reeves minces through each scene and murders his British accent, utterly inconceivable as up-and-coming young barrister Jonathan Harker. No amount of makeup and period costume can mask this miscasting. —Kat Long
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
Think of this 1992 movie as the first draft of what would become Joss Whedon’s breakthrough TV show about a teenager with a birthright to protect the world from vampires. Directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, the movie went in a different direction than Whedon’s series would later on, but it’s still a delight to watch. Kristy Swanson stars as Buffy Summers, a blonde teen cheerleader who is horrified to realize that she’s The Slayer and must pick up a stake to protect Los Angeles from vampires. (The clue that she’s in the presence of vamps? Cramps!) She’s assisted in her quest by her Watcher, Merrick (Donald Sutherland) and sidekick Pike (Luke Perry). Rutger Hauer stars as head vamp Luthos; Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman, plays his right-hand man, Amilyn. The cast also includes two future Oscar winners: Hilary Swank, who plays a mean girl to perfection (at one point declaring “get out of my facial!”), and Ben Affleck, who has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role as a basketball player on a rival team. This version of Buffy is significantly more Valley Girl than the one from the TV series, but she’s still a badass. And the movie definitely has the sharp humor Whedon would become famous for—which may be why this movie still manages to resonate, despite its silliness. —Erin McCarthy
8. The ‘Burbs (1989)
Universal Pictures released the Joe Dante-directed dark comedy The ‘Burbs on February, 17, 1989—just one day after Tom Hanks’s first Oscar nomination (for 1988’s Big) was announced. Until then, Hanks had primarily been known as a comedic actor, but in the late ‘80s he began his ascent to serious A-lister. But The ‘Burbs remains one of Hanks’s finest comedies (check out 1988’s Punchline, too), mainly because it’s so absurd. Hanks plays Ray Peterson, a bored suburbanite who’s on vacation. Instead of going out of town, he and his neighbors decide to spy on new, foreign neighbors, the Klopeks. They act weird and Ray and his friends create a conspiracy that they killed another neighbor; the entire film takes place in the cul-de-sac, lending to the simple premise. Today, the film’s influences can be seen in everything from American Beauty to the 2018 horror flick Summer of 84. If you look closer, The ‘Burbs is really about distrust, bothering people, white flight, paranoia, immigration, invasion of privacy, and the dangers of ennui—that’s a lot to unpack from a wacky comedy. —GP
9. Cat in the Hat (2003)
Cat in the Hat is a movie so reviled, so despicable that Dr. Seuss’s widow, Audrey, vowed to never let Hollywood produce another live-action work based on her late husband’s books again after its release. Oh, but don’t let that fool you into thinking the movie is bad. It’s surreal and repugnant, with humor seemingly aimed that the crassest adults in the audience. But that’s what makes it such an enchanting oddity. Mike Myers’s portrayal of the Cat is both erratic and vaguely homicidal, with a darkness lurking just beneath his iconic red-and-white striped hat. In fact, the whole production is full of lewd jokes from everyone (even the kids), giving the sense that studio execs were completely asleep at the wheel when this thing was going through script drafts. But if you love the lowest of low-brow comedy, ignore the movie’s abysmal 9 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and soak in the wild wonder of Cat in the Hat. —Jay Serafino
10. Cobra (1986)
Cobra isn’t just another ‘80s action movie—it can be argued that it’s the ‘80s action movie. You’ve got Sylvester Stallone (playing the beautifully named Marion “Cobra” Cobretti) as a hyper-violent cop looking to wipe Los Angeles clean of a rising organized terrorist group in the 1980s. But this guns-a-blazing mentality puts him at odds with all of his superiors and the media, who claim he’s just as big of a danger as the murderers he’s gunning down. Still, this was the ‘80s, and the rule of law was nothing in the face of vigilante justice. Though it was derided at the time as a lesser Dirty Harry knockoff, Cobra has clawed its way to being a well-deserved cult classic. —JS
