Badfilm: Incompetence, Intention and Failure

by Becky Bartlett

This fascinating book examines badfilms; a subcategory of ‘bad cinema’ marked by incompetence, and typically exacerbated by material poverty and restrictive production conditions. It develops a framework through which the formal characteristics of failure are identified and analysed, and identifies intentionality as central to how badfilms are appreciated and valued as cult texts. Drawing on debates about cult cinema and film form, the book includes a series of case studies of classic ‘so bad they’re good’ films, like Plan 9 From Outer Space , Robot Monster and The Beast of Yucca Flats , investigating the impact of failures in post-production sound, recycled footage, performance and editing in American badfilms from the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, it offers ways to consider how we identify and respond to failure, and how failure itself works.

200 pages, Hardcover

Published September 22, 2021