Imagine turning on a Halloween horror movie late on a Friday night. 30 minutes in, it’s clear the movie has little art direction or coherent story. And yet, it has laughable moments and is even enjoyable at times. Why?
The “so bad it’s good” phenomenon is well documented in the film industry and has become a popular subcategory of movies, especially with the meteoric rise of streaming.
The special effects are often lacking, especially with low-budget films. This is one of the most obvious drawbacks when watching a film and can give the viewer a certain impression of the overall quality of the movie right away.
I am by no means a film critic, but I recently watched “Jeepers Creepers 2” and the new Hulu original “Mr. Crocket”. Both films made me appreciate higher budget movies. Despite their evident shortcomings, I enjoyed both films.
The first sign these movies were bad was that they were both marketed as horror movies, yet neither had more than two scary scenes. The jumpscares were highly predictable, which ruined the scare factor.
“Jeepers Creepers 2” starts with a family whose son is taken and killed by the Creeper, but this cold open is unconnected to the rest of the movie. It then cuts to a bus of high school athletes that eventually gets attacked. The only reason the two plot points are connected is by coincidence when the father happens to pick up the distress calls of the bus on his radio.
The story is thrown together and often does not fit well, with events happening just to create conflict or cheap deaths to get a rise out of the audience rather than making coherent sense for furthering the story. It’s clear why this film received a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes.
It is supposed to be a sequel, but the only continuity between this and the first is the existence of the Creeper. It doesn’t build on anything and even switches the Creeper’s entire M.O.
“Mr. Crocket” has a different problem: the horror aspect is lost due to comedic kills. The movie takes aspects from analog horror to create an eerie atmosphere that works well, but weird deaths rip the viewer from this ambiance.
Mr. Crocket is the host of a kids show, reminiscent of Mr. Rogers. His colorful set and catchy theme song engross kids for hours, great for neglectful parents.
Crocket murders a handful of nameless parents that are mean to their kids in order to “help the children.” His divine punishment is inexplicably inconsistent as he murders some parents brutally while letting others go with little harm.
Crocket’s actor, Elvis Nolasco, puts on a stunning performance in an otherwise unremarkable film. The special effects are fine at times and rudimentary at others. This juxtaposition is strange and takes the viewer out of the moment, even when they try to be powerful.
Like the show Crocket hosts, the film tries to teach the audience a valuable lesson: abusing your children is not a good solution to any conflict and may result in dire consequences. The film ends in a way that leaves the characters happy while allowing for a sequel.
Despite these movies receiving low critic and audience scores, I personally enjoyed them both in an odd way. I watched both with friends and we had a good time pointing out all of the flaws and laughing at the bad deaths in both films.
“Jeepers Creepers 2” is enjoyable simply due to the ridiculous decisions made and the goofy kills are funny every time. “Mr. Crocket” had a better story and an incredible villain, but is held back by out of place special effects and a lackluster screenplay.
There is a fine line between being a bad movie and being a bad movie that is good. It’s very easy for a movie to be plain bad, but less common for it to be enjoyable despite being a bad film. These two walk that fine line with class.
DeGear can be reached at [email protected].
