Greatest Unintentional Camp Film of all Time

I almost picked Valley Of The Dolls, but had to go with Plan 9 From Outer Space, because a) star Bela Lugosi died shortly after filming one or two scenes. "His" other scenes were a chiropracter with a cape shielding his face. and b) the commander of the spacecraft (Bunny something) is the gayest gay that ever gayed.

Anything but Mommie Dearest which is a fabricated hit job. Thankfully Joan's legacy has been restored since then and everyone knows Mommie Dearest is about as factual as Amber Heard's sob stories.

All of these make me laugh when I watch them. Julia Roberts is so bad in Sleeping with the Enemy and we all know Madonna can only play herself and Susan.

Of the ones I've seen, the "best" is Valley of the Dolls; it sustains the camp all the way through to the end. Mommie Dearest is a close second; it has bigger belly laughs, but the last twenty minutes or so are dull.

I don't consider Sleeping with the Enemy to be camp.

Skidoo, skidoo...

Why is Sleeping With The Enemy camp?

The Silence of the Lambs

The Swarm should have been included for this scene alone with our Dame Livvie.

Good options. I had to go for Mommie Dearest. Faye Dunaway gave it her all and it was too much.

R6, Sleeping with the Enemy is hilarious. It might be Julia Roberts' most inept performance, which is saying something. Every move of the screenplay is telegraphed way in advance. The audience howled when I saw it when it was first released.

Soooo bad

I think Mommie Dearest had the best campy lines. “I said no wire hangers ever!”, “Christine get my ax!”, “Don’t fuck with me boys!”

Delicious.

I can only assume the people dissing Sleeping with the Enemy are the usual Julia haters. It's hardly great art, but it's not camp.

Vampira was a better actress than Julia Roberts and Madonna.

Crash (the Racism Is Bad one that won the Oscar) is super camp.

Plan 9 from outer space - Criswell was the apotheosis of camp. It's unfathomable how camp he was. Cosmic camp. Made Walter Mercado seem normal.

Do people realize that the Madonna version of "Swept Away" (which no one saw) is a remake of a highly regarded Italian film by Lena Wertmuller from the 70s?

[quote]Was chosen by Premiere magazine as one of the "100 Movies That Shook the World" in the October 1998 issue. The list ranked the most "daring movies ever made."

I find it weird that people only know the unwatchable Madge version.

R12 Your quotation skills are atrocious

Was Battlefield Earth "unintentionally" campy? That whole movie is a mystery to me.

Eh, Sleeping with the Enemy was fine.

R8, I don't think Irwin Allen had any aspirations for The Swarm to be more than a box office hit.

Agreed, r17 - the original Swept Away is a magnificent film.

Sleeping with the Enemy

Is that the movie where she talks about roast lamb, baby peas, that bread you like and peach chutney like she's talking to a kindergartner? And where her husband barely slaps her face and she goes flying across the room as if there had been an explosion?

I love Sleeping with the Enemy. I don't consider it camp. It's got some cheesy aspects, like the "let's-throw-in-a-music-montage-like-Pretty-Woman" and Kevin Anderson's character is as creepy and controlling as Patrick Bergin's character, but Julia's star power really carries the film.

Of that group it has to be Mommie, because camp is sometimes described as, "Straight people trying to be serious but failing". Everyone involved thought they were going to sweep the Oscars.

R24, I think Sleeping rivals Mary Reilly and Stepmom as Julia's worst film/performance.

That Kevin guy is very creepy. But at least his eyes don't bug out of his head in rage like the husband.

I'm not a Julia Roberts hater--I've mostly been indifferent to her all these years--but I do think future film fans will regard her as a rather strange curiosity. Many of her performances are weirdly mannered and over-the-top (and definitely approach camp).

I also think she's improved over time, or at least become a little more authentic onscreen.

Imagine Julia Roberts' career if she didn't have more teeth than any known human.

The Room in a knockout. You're tearing me apart!

"Gone Girl" should've been one of the options, OP.

No love for Body of Evidence? Madonna is so...Madonna-y in it.

I'm surprised Hush starring Jessica Lange and Gwyneth Paltrow never took off as a camp classic.

The Apple is the great camp musical.

Does anyone remember the Stallone-Parton comedy Rhinestone? It deserves to be on any camp movies list.

Faye was the absolute worst. So over the top.

I must be the only person on earth to think that Mommie Dearest is a solid film and not campy at all.

R37, have you ever seen it with an audience of gay men?

[quote] “Christine get my ax!”

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

I think [italic]Mommie Dearest[/italic] is good [italic]and[/italic] camp as fuck.

Before it came out, I was expecting an Oscar contender in terms of quality, based mostly on that fact that Anne Bancroft had been cast first. But when I finally saw it, there were points where I almost laughed out loud.

The camp is brilliant and insane, but there are also scenes I find genuinely well done, such as the one where Joan opens up to Christina about the state of her career and her worries for the future.