We all know those cheesy movies that are so bad they're hilarious. If you're a fan, a new movie club in Nottingham which encourages audience participation could be the night out for you.
The Notts Bad Movie Club has developed a bit of a cult following of fans in the city. It has something to do with the winning combination of bad films, audience participation and burgers from Annie's Burger Shack where the screenings are held. In fact, it's working so well that the team are planning to launch a 'good' film club to run alongside the main club.
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The club is the creation of three friends, Chris Barnes, Will Bailey and Gareth Winterman, who came up with the idea for the club based on their shared love of bad movies. Chris explains what makes a bad film and why people seem to love them no matter how bad.
"We all have slightly different ideas of what makes the best of the worst movies. We go for something that has had a slightly bigger budget, probably tied into something quite popular at the time and then just doesn't age well through CGI or poor writing. Our first bill was Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat," Chris explained.
"The CGI isn't great then you have the actor Raul Julia in Street Fighter just phoning it in and the liberties they take with some of the source material as well which is a lot of fun. We tend to move towards movies where it probably fits in well-known terrority but people haven't seen it in a while or think, I loved that as a kid and I wonder if it's any good now."
When it comes to celebrating the best of the worst, it can sometimes be less about the movie and more about getting people together to have a good time. Nostalgia for old films can play a big part in drawing people into the event.
"It's about getting people together to celebrate the unintentionally bad. We look for the 80s or 90s gems that haven't aged well but they hold a certain level of nostalgia. I'm 41 and I remember Masters of the Universe as one of my favourite films which I loved as a kid and you grow up with them," Chris said.
"There is a heavy sense of nostalgia in getting everyone in a room together to celebrate not quite the best. It seems to work quite well and we have people who keep coming back again because they love it. They love the idea of it and bring their friends with them the next time they come. The main aim is for people to enjoy the night even if they don't know the films."
The formula is clearly working as many of the film nights sell out in advance. The last event which was held on Friday, December 16 sold out and was a double feature of the sci-fi film, Mac and Me from 1988 and the horror film, Troll 2 from 1990. The team plan to announce their next screening for February in the coming weeks and tickets are already on sale.
Chris, Will and Gareth have fun with the features that they choose, often getting the actors or producers involved in the event. Audience participation is also key with fun, games and plenty of opportunities for cheering on the bad acting or scripts.
"We also do a bit of an introduction to the film too. At our last event, we screened Jason X and Anaconda so we contacted a few people from the movies. The guy who played Jason, Kane Hodder put together an introduction video for us so we put that on," he said.
"We had a guy from Anaconda do an introduction for the film. We are trying to push that a bit more now so we may have something like that for our next one. People want to get involved and cheer along with the film while having a few drinks. Participation can be as little or as much as people like but the main thing is that people have a good time."
Audiences love to spot when good films go bad often cheering on the particularly bad moments. This adds to the fun of a screening.
"The biggest cheering we got was when we put Anaconda on and there is this amazing weather waterfall which is quite clearly running backwards as they reversed the CGI from earlier in the film. So they clearly ran out of money and hoped no one would notice. Everyone loved it and was laughing their heads off and cheering."
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