Consider this entry of the T-O-M to build on Ard's previous ode to the Cat III craziness for The Seventh Curse by taking a closer look a camp madness.  The recent  Werner Herzog double bill at the Toronto International Film Festival consisting of Bad Lieutenant:  Port of Call New Orleans and My Son My Son What Have Ye Done also inspired things.  Herzog's films are often laced with a very excellent sense of humour.  Is this intentional or merely a biproduct of his own earnestness?  It begs the question of "Do you enjoy a bad film?"  I know several people who seem to be at odds with this statement, citing that there are so many great films out there, why spend time on the awful ones.  But greatness is not necessarily 'quality,' in art.  There are mountains glorious trash cinema and fans and text on this sort of stuff is contained both within the Twitch pages and also on dozens of websites and forums that can bury you in it.  Hopefully this entry can act as some sort of entry point as it is going to focus on the ones that have almost (or perhaps should have) bubbled up into mainstream culture.

Of course the great Ed Wood, purveyor of some of the longest standing campy exercises (Plan 9 From Outer Space and Glen or Glenda (image featured to the left)) is now pretty much the godfather of the 'lets sit down and truly enjoy the experience of watching a bad movie.  To put it more academically, here are the words of Susan Sontag in her famous essay, Notes on Camp:  

"And Camp is esoteric -- something of a private code, a badge of identity even, among small urban cliques...To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it. If the betrayal can be defended, it will be for the edification it provides, or the dignity of the conflict it resolves. For myself, I plead the goal of self-edification, and the goad of a sharp conflict in my own sensibility. I am strongly drawn to Camp, and almost as strongly offended by it. That is why I want to talk about it, and why I can."

Thus here are 5 (plus 1) examples (most of which will likely be familiar to Twitch readers) of deliriously bad but certainly fun, exercises in WTF filmmaking that transcend their awfulness to become, well, something great.

Bad Lieutenant:  Port of Call New Orleans - Werner Herzog has found his next Klaus Kinski in the guaranteed screen chewer Nicholas Cage.  For most movies that would be enough, but the German auteur's version of Bad Lieutenant is part remake, part mad scientist experiment featuring extreme close-up footage of iguanas, the 'hero' depriving old ladies of their oxygen supply, lucky crack pipes, childlike melt downs in drugstores and the now infamous "Shot him again, his soul is still dancing!" bring this parody/satire to often dizzying levels of entertainment.  Herzog is always a tough one to read so how much of Port of Call New Orleans is gag and how much is a serious attempt at a potboiler crime film?  Who knows, but for those who thought Harvey Keitel was just a hairs breath from camp in Abel Ferrara's more serious film on bad cops, evil, redemption and catholic guilt, they get a far more secular goof-off in this one.  This one will be quoted by fans and members of its own guaranteed cult "to the Break of Dawn Muthafucka!"

The Room / Troll 2 - In the 2008-2009 what is the best worst movie derby, the contestants are (oddly enough) a 2003 movie and a 1990 movie, both of which have been running neck and neck for some time now.  Hey, they each even have Rifftrax (mock commentaries from the former MST3K crew) available.  Screening all over North America (and Britain) in midnight and festival events this year and last, Tommy Wiseau's The Room has recently been getting a fair chunk national attention (after breaking out of Los Angeles screenings where it had many many screenings and the beginning of its cult) as the potential replacement for the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  I was recently at the Revue Cinema in Toronto for one of these events and the energy and participation was 'intense' to say the least.  Spoons were hurled and footballs were tossed in close proximity whilst catch-phrases were yelled at key points, particularly as Wiseau is sexed up, betrayed and 'Torn Apart!' by his diabolical girlfriend.  The filmmaking ineptitude (bad focus, lengthy non-sequitur establishing shots, endless pans along the Golden Gate Bridge, incoherent (and fluid) narrative chronology and characters stumbling into scenes for no logical reason are many of the delights.  On the other hand, Troll 2 already has its own mythologizing documentary ("Best Worst Movie") made by the child-star of the film, Michael Stephenson, which frequently tours as a double-bill with the famous sequel with no relation to the original.  Made in America using inexperienced actors by Italians with little grasp of the English language, what is lost in translation is the genius of the film.  Troll 2 is not without its own catchphrases, "And you can't piss on hospitality! I WON'T ALLOW IT!" that generate their own level of enthusiasm as you slog through horrid performances, an abundance of latex and goop in service of a completely nonsensical story.  Goblins in the town of Nilbog, who'd a thunk?  Although turning people into plants for a little vegan smorgasbord is loopy enough that it just does work.

Manos: The Hands of Fate - Perhaps the most popular MST3K episode for the series 10 year run was this no-budget head scratcher starring, directed by and financed (literally on a bet) by a fertilizer salesman in Texas.  It has an endless 'nothing happening' opening credits sequence (which is a significant percentage of the runtime for a film that clocks in at only 74 minutes), horrid acting and a schlocky 'satanist' premise.  But the coup de grâce is the man-satyr character Torgo who walks funny, speaks funny, acts funny and is just plain awesome.  Probably not coming to a cinema any time soon (but there was a Stage Musical version of the film in Chicago!), but the film is wildly available in mocked and unmocked formats on DVD.

Future Cops - There have been no shortage of bad films based on the successful Capcom video game, Street Fighter II.  There was the gaudy and boring 1994 Jean Claude Van Damme version and the blink and you missed it 2009 Legend of Chun Li.  But these films are mere toddlers next to the glorious insanity of the 1993 Hong Kong version, Future Cops.  Merging most of the characters from the game with plot that is 50% The Terminator time travel and 50% slapstick undercover high-school shenanigans, it boggles the mind who came up with the plot, but one thing is for sure, every single attempt at comedy (and there are multiple attempts per minute) is a total failure.  This merely makes the film more batshit crazy.  That the film features a powerhouse cast including Andy Lau, Simon Lam and Charlie Yeung all embarrassing themselves mightily for your entertainment.  Zany wire work, hilarious props and the pure bliss at never having to make any sense all add up to an energy level that cannot help but be infectious.  I have no idea if the producers actually bought the rights to use the Street Fighter characters, as all the names in the film have been changed (to protect the innocent), but that does not stop director Wong Jing from adding unfathomable musical numbers, Jedi mind tricks, a plethora of other snips and clips from popular western science fiction movies and video games, in particular, a magnificently inappropriate (visually and sexually) Mario Brothers moment.  The final full on battle royale in Future Cops has to be seen to be believed.  Only at the height of HK cinema fame and recognition is something this flat out weird even possible.  Forget Naked Killer, you need Future Cops.

Freddie Got Fingered - This one was a fair bit of a head scratcher when it first invaded multiplexes 2001.  Voted the worst film of the year by several critics, and Green himself showed up in person to accept his own Golden Raspberry (Razzie) being first person to attend a pick up the 'trophy.'   But screw all that, as a Kaufman-esque stunt the film is sublime in its own fashion.  Rip Torn seems more than game, even at the request of "Daddy would you like some sausage?" as they are suspended from dangling wires attached to Greens' fingers while he pounds out noise from an electric keyboard.  Deer carcasses and elephant ejaculations are not normally the stuff of American multiplex comedy (or at least was not in 2001) and the plot is pure satire of the usual SNL or star-of-the-moment comedy vehicle.  It is so relentlessly unfunny that it crosses the line into dada-ism and its own kind of crazy genius.  It should have put the gross out movie to bed for good (just look at the title for chrissakes!), instead it terminated Tom Green's Hollywood career.  It was totally worth it.