And the Award goes to...

“It’s so bad its good.”

Not something you can often say about terribly made things. Movies are a strange exception.

Unlike other poorly made things in the world, the terribleness of a movie can actually be a part of its charm. IU has a club dedicated to watching movies of just this type: The Terrible Movie Club.

“Pretty much everyone can enjoy bad movies if they are strong enough,” says Amanda Kelly, senior and founder of the Terrible Movie Club. She and six friends enjoyed watching bad movies as a stress reliever and outlet. Since they lived in Collins Living-Learning Center, they realized it’d be easy to make it a club and share the experience with others.

The group has a sort of “standard” for bad. They can’t just be painful to watch, she says. They have to be funny bad — a good mix of bad dialogue, corny effects, and general low-budget crappiness.

The club has a Facebook group (“Terrible Movie Club”) and typically meets on Tuesday nights. Anyone, even those living outside of Collins, is welcome to attend. Most of the club’s communication is through the Facebook group.

Here's some movies the club has watched in the past. Many of them can be found on Netflix or in their entirety on YouTube.

“Rubber” — A tire has destructive telepathic powers and becomes obsessed with a woman. Featuring “Goodyear” as Robert the Tire. 

“Thankskilling” — “A homicidal turkey axes off college kids during break,” is what it says on IMDb, and we don’t really know a better way to describe it.

“The Room” — Johnny the Banker’s life is changed when his fiancé starts seducing Mark, his best friend, for reasons no one is sure about. Maybe she got tired of Tommy Wiseau’s inexplicable accent. A bad movie classic with extreme quotability.

"Surf Nazis Must Die" — In the post-apocalyptic future, a woman's grandson is murdered by neo-Nazi surf punks. Naturally, gun-toting Grandma decides bloody retribution is the only way to go.

"Santa Clause Conquers the Martians" — Martians are sad because they don't have anyone on Mars to give their kids presents, so they kidnap Santa. Doesn't go well for them, apparently.

“She’s Too Young” — A Lifetime movie of epic proportions. A woman discovers her 14-year-old daughter is having sex with multiple people, leading to an STD outbreak. Or something.

"Disco Worms" —This animated film about earthworms who want to make the world's greatest disco band actually has some awesome music, Amanda says. But it's still hilariously strange.

"Foodfight" —Charlie Sheen voices a super-sleuth dog who must unite popular brands like Chef Boyardee and Mrs. Butterworth to fight the evil Brand X. Hilary Duff was also somehow on board for this movie. "It's kind of a metaphor for Nazis," Amanda says. "And a children's movie with sexual overtones." As if the terrible 80's quality animation (it was made in 2012) wasn't enough.