10 Essential Trash Films You Need To Watch

It had to happen: after undertaking a survey of trash films, two academics have concluded that the enjoyment of such fare is linked to high intelligence.

According to the snappily-titled Enjoying Trash Films: Underlying Features, Viewing Stances And Experiential Response Dimensions, the true aficionado perceives trash as “an interesting and welcome deviation from mainstream fare. We are dealing here with an audience with above average education, which one could describe as cultural ‘omnivores’."

Authors Keyvan Sarkhosh and Winfried Menninghaus then go on to say that, “They conceive of their preference for trash films in terms of an ironic viewing stance.”

Which is a highfalutin way of saying what we non-academics have known all along – that those of us who enjoy Attack Of The 50ft Woman don’t sit there discussing tonal shifts and subtext and whatnot. We like it because it’s fun and the effects are a hoot, especially the bit where Allison Hayes is menaced by a giant papier-mache hand.

(On a side note, does this mean that the reverse is also true? That if you enjoy “good” movies like The Artist, then you are in fact a boring S.O.B? No conclusions here, just some food for thought.)

If you’re looking to raise your IQ and become a cultural omnivore, here are 10 films you need to add to your cinematic diet.

In among all the usual rip-offs that greeted the release of Jurassic World was a movie that, despite its obvious lack of budget, just wanted to give the audience a good time. Owing more to John Carpenter than Steven Spielberg, Jurassic City is basically Assault On Precinct 13 with sexy sorority girls, sinister scientists and rampaging raptors.

You see, there’s a bunch of hotties who find themselves behind bars just as a consignment of dinosaurs is rerouted to the jail (don’t ask), and faster than you can say “unbelievable plot contrivance”, the girls end up being pursued through the corridors by flesh-eating dinos. So if you like chicks with guns and don’t mind SyFy Channel-level effects, you need to own this movie.

What seals the deal is the cast, which includes Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), Kevin Gage (Heat) and Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2), though female leads Dana Melanie and Kayla Carlyle also do well with otherwise thankless roles. The movie ends on a cliffhanger, so hopefully director Sean Cain is planning on bringing the survivors back when the Jurassic World sequel comes out.