If you’re not sure what a campy movie is then just think of the most over-exaggerated thing you’ve ever seen, something that takes a genre and pushes it so far over the limit that it goes beyond any reasonable level of credibility. That’s campy, and to be honest it’s becoming even more acceptable now than it’s ever been for reasons that are almost entirely unknown. It could be nostalgia or it could be that the trends are just switching around so fast that people are trying to latch onto something familiar and have settled for any port in a storm. But the love of campy films is coming back and more than that, the idea is starting to stick with modern movies too. While campy movies aren’t always horrible they’re sometimes a little hard to watch without rolling your eyes over and over and laughing uncontrollably. But that’s kind of the point sometimes.
Here are some of the campiest movies you might ever see.
10. Death Becomes Her
A film with Meryl Streep usually doesn’t have the chance to become this campy but this one swung for the fences and kind of stumbled over. Not only was it beyond believable in any fantastical sense, but the film was something that a lot of fans have wanted to forget for a while. It does have its charm and funny wit, but when it comes to camp this one just kind of went for broke and forgot how to collect.
9. Cry Baby
This is one of those movies that’s so bad that you can’t help but like it in part and will watch it at least twice just to be sure of what you were watching the first place. Johnny Depp as a motorcycle-riding greaser is kind of a fun idea but the songs and the overall acting kind of make this one go over the line a bit.
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
It seems like everything after the first half-hour of the first movie in this franchise was camp. This movie though incorporated some truly weird and unsuccessful ideas that to some people might have been great, but to others was kind of far from the mark of where such a movie should have been aiming. Plus the idea of dragging D&D into the film didn’t pan out the way they wanted it to.
7. She-Devil
Some films almost feel as though they were made to be campy, but this one could have gone a lot differently if the director had opted to make it a more serious story rather than a kind of satire that showed the downfall of a rich author that decided to steal a woman’s husband. Still, it wasn’t the worst on the list.
6. Showgirls
This was actually supposed to be a serious movie. Instead it became a running gag thanks to the overacting, poor directing, and the fact that it was only hyped because of an NC-17 rating that drove a lot of people nuts and had some guys flocking to the theater. After they discovered just what it was about however a lot of people felt kind of let down.
5. The ‘Burbs
This one was meant to be campy since it was highlighting the paranoia of a bunch of suburbanites that couldn’t handle the idea of someone moving into their neighborhood that might be a little bit odd. Of course their suspicions turned out to be correct but it’s still a kind of parody against anyone that’s a bit prejudiced against neighbors that don’t conform to their idea of normal.
4. The Room
This one gets the prize for being so bad that it was actually lauded as somehow genius. Taking it at face value is one of the best ways to go since the movie is quite awful and the acting is even worse. It almost makes one believe that the script was written in crayon and the acting was kind of a “do it and let’s see how it goes” kind of thing.
3. Barbarella
This movie really played up on the sex appeal of Jane Fonda and not much else. The whole story didn’t seem to make a lot of sense and the idea that sex was her main ability was, well, exciting but still kind of less than pertinent to a successful tale. It was fun at the time and was enjoyable when it stuck around for a while, but as far as being a classic it’s a part of nostalgia and we can leave it at that.
2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
If not for Tim Curry’s role there would have been no movie here. Frank is pretty much the whole dynamic of the movie even though there’s a lot more to be seen. If not for Curry though everything seems like it would have fallen flat.
1. Batman: The Movie
This is what was popular back in the day and this is what, as kids, we thought Batman was like. Then the cartoons came, then the new films, and we looked back at this and wondered “How in the world did we enjoy this?”. It was the times people, it was the times.
Campy movies aren’t that horrible really, they just tend to go a little further with the stereotypes than usual.
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