The lure of low-brow: Why we love bad movies

Research suggests the lack of emotional investment is a big draw. The stress-free suspense and absurdity also offer an increasingly rare thing: novelty.

Shark-infested tornadoes. A priest who routinely turns into a dinosaur. A love affair set in a town besieged by exploding mutant birds.

Movies such as Sharknado (2013), The VelociPastor (2017) and Birdemic (2010) all belong to the genre of films so bad that they’re good.

New research is seeking to explain why people are drawn to such content; drawn so intensely, in fact, that Sharknado spawned a five-film franchise.

A 2023 paper by researchers at the Wharton business school, WP