10 Movies That Are Still Great After Twenty Viewings

7. The Room

The Room
TPW Films

It makes little to no sense that a movie as downright terrible as The Room can offer viewers something after twenty viewings, but as is often found with really, really awful pictures, Tommy Wiseau's "Citizen Kane of dreadfulness" really is as enjoyable to watch on the twentieth viewing as it is on the first.

There, are, after all, so many strange tics and idiosyncratic oddities inherent to each and every scene, every subsequent viewing of The Room ("You're tearing me apart, Lisa!") gives way to more and more questions, mainly: "How in God's name did this thing ever happen?" And it's fun to ponder. Unlike the rest of the films included on this list, The Room is great because it's so plainly bad in almost every regard (the rest are rewatchable thanks to merits, rather than their failures).

Twenty is a lot of times to rewatch a movie that is inherently terrible, of course, but The Room doesn't go stale after you've seen it twice; it's like a kind of curious uncle who brings out a new weird quirk whenever you can be bothered to spend a bit of time with him. And because of that, it's perhaps the best bad movie ever made - one whose power is enhanced, not diminished, with every viewing.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.