10 Worst Parody Movies of All Time, Ranked

Parody and spoof movies have fallen out of favor in recent years, but they were popular in the 1980s and had a resurgence in the 2000s. This was the era of box office hits like Scary Movie and Meet the Spartans. The subgenre can be entertaining, with films like Young Frankenstein mining their source material for satire and genuine laughs. However, most parody movies struggle. For every Airplane! or The Naked Gun, there’s a Disaster Movie (or three).

Indeed, parody cinema is littered with poorly executed attempts that rely on cheap gags, forced references, and a lack of creativity. These films often confuse randomness for humor, leaving audiences cringing rather than laughing. With this in mind, here are ten of the subgenre’s worst offenders, marked by uninspired jokes and mind-numbing pop culture references.

10 ‘Repossessed’ (1990)

Directed by Bob Logan

“Who says an exorcism can’t be fun?” Repossessed sees Linda Blairparodying her own role from The Exorcist, this time as Nancy, a woman repossessed by a demon after years of peace. Enter Father Mayii (Leslie Nielsen), a bumbling priest who must exorcise the demon once again. This premise could have made for a goofy good time, but the finished product isn’t particularly spirited.

Despite the presence of comedy legend Nielsen, the jokes lack the energy and wit that made his earlier parodies classics. The humor is decidedly forced, with many visual gags that try too hard – a far cry from the effortless sight gags in Airplane! On the acting side, Blair doesn’t do much (the movie doesn’t utilize her meta casting to the full), and even Nielsen, while fine, is far from his A-game. For all these reasons, Repossessed currently holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

9 ‘Dance Flick’ (2009)

Directed by Damien Dante Wayans

“You can dance your way out of anything.” Dance Flick is a send-up of dance-centric movies like Step Up and Save the Last Dance, following Megan (Shoshana Bush), a small-town girl who moves to the city and dreams of becoming a dancer. Along the way, she teams up with Thomas (Damon Wayans Jr.), a street dancer from the wrong side of town. This material is ripe for parody, but the movie underwhelms with its gross-out humor and crude jokes.

To give a sense of the caliber of the comedy, one of the scenes revolves around a character named Ms. Cameltoe (Amy Sedaris). The end result feels more like a disconnected series of sketches than a cohesive story, awkwardly mashing together dance battles and often-confusing pop culture references. The only thing the movie has vaguely going for it is the energetic performances by Damon and Shawn Wayans.

8 ‘Scary Movie V’ (2013)

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee

“I see dead people… or just dead jokes.” Widely considered the worst in the franchise, Scary Movie V continues the downward spiral of its predecessors, offering fewer laughs and even more dated references. Ashley Tisdale and Simon Rex lead the cast as a couple haunted by a malevolent spirit, though, as usual, the characters serve more as a vehicle for the gags, slapstick, and celebrity cameos.

The problem is that the movie is low on actual satire, instead just recreating a bunch of movie scenes and calling it a day. Plus, many of the films it makes fun of came out six years earlier (or more), meaning they were out of date when this movie came out and are now totally stale. Some of the earlier Scary Movies were silly and juvenile but entertaining; this one struggles to hold the viewer’s attention. Even its director, Malcolm D. Lee, has admitted it’s “a bad movie.”

7 ‘Vampires Suck’ (2010)

Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

“I’m a killer, Bella. This is the skin of a killer.” Vampires Suck sets its sights on the Twilight saga, following Becca (Jenn Proske), a moody teen torn between Edward Sullen (Matt Lanter), a brooding vampire, and Jacob White (Chris Riggi), a shirtless werewolf. There’s a lot of negative feeling out there toward Twilight, but the spoofing here is lazy and unoriginal, to the point that even haters of sparkly vampires will struggle to enjoy it.

The movie takes the worst elements of bad vampire films and amplifies them into a chaotic, unwatchable mess. The cast of unknowns does little to elevate the material; their performances are as flat as the script itself. Consequently, while Vampires Suck aims to lampoon the melodrama of Twilight, it ends up being way more shallow and formulaic than the film it mocks. Like its characters, this movie should never have seen the light of day.

6 ‘The Starving Games’ (2013)

Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

“May the odds be ever in your favor. And by favor, I mean ‘against you.'” As Vampires Suck is to Twilight, The Starving Games is to The Hunger Games (though the title is even lamer). The plot, such as it is, revolves around Kantmiss Evershot (Maiara Walsh), who competes in a deadly tournament for survival. As one would expect, the story takes a backseat to the scattershot jokes and shoehorned references, including riffs on everything from The Avengers to Angry Birds.

The film is utterly lacking in creativity, attempting to round out its runtime with filler and blooper reels. It somehow feels overlong despite clocking in at just 82 minutes. Much of the slog is due to the shockingly low production values, with everything looking amateurish. Now, The Starving Games is little more than a tedious relic of its era, with its references to the likes of LMFAO and Psy. What a trainwreck.

5 ‘Date Movie’ (2006)

Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

“I feel like I’m in a bad romantic comedy.”​​​​​​​ This rom-com parody features Alyson Hannigan as Julia Jones, an awkward woman who undergoes a makeover to win the heart of her dream man, Grant (Adam Campbell). The source material being spoofed here includes Pretty Woman, Meet the Parents, Hitch, and Kill Bill. Despite some likable performers, like Hannigan and Jennifer Coolidge, Date Movie is grating and tiresome, offering almost no genuine laughs.

In terms of the rest of the cast, the performances are mostly over-the-top and annoying, especially from Carmen Electra. The filmmakers’ formula of crude jokes (including a ton of toilet humor) isn’t quite as atrocious as it would be in the years to come, but it’s certainly not good. Simply put, Date Movie is a mashup of clichés. It rightly won the Razzie Award for Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy. Despite these many flaws, it was still a solid commercial success, grossing $84.8m against a $20m budget.

4 ‘Plump Fiction’ (1997)

Directed by Bob Koherr

“You know what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? A mistake.”​​​​​​​ Plump Fiction is a failed attempt to poke fun at Quentin Tarantino‘s magnum opus, as well as other ’90s indie classics like Reservoir Dogs and Clerks. The convoluted story follows several interconnected plotlines and an ensemble of quirky characters, but, whereas the original successfully keeps all these plates spinning, Plump Fiction quickly collapses into a mess.

Some scenes are okay (Pamela Adlon‘s impersonation of Juliette Lewis is honestly pretty good), but the majority of the film is tedious and forgettable; just a lazy attempt to jump on a trend. Bob Koherr’s direction feels aimless, struggling to imitate QT’s style, with the jokes rarely landing and the performances ranging from exaggerated to completely flat. Unsurprisingly, Plump Fiction was a box office flop, bringing in just $71, 000.

3 ‘Casino Royale’ (1967)

Directed by John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, and others

“My doctor says I can’t have bullets enter my body at any time.” Decades before the serious version with Daniel Craig, there was a chaotic, star-studded James Bond parody released under the title Casino Royale. It stars David Niven as the original 007, who comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH. With a disjointed narrative and multiple directors, the film spirals into a series of scenes, many of which just don’t work.

Despite a cast that includes talents like Orson Welles, Ursula Andress, and John Huston, drifting aimlessly through its many weird set pieces. The movie frequently builds up a particular joke or scenario, only to abandon it later without explanation. Much of this is probably due to the fact that there were five directors working on the project. Too many cooks and all that. All told, 1967’s Casino Royale is just bizarre; it’s a wonder that it even exists.

2 ‘Breaking Wind’ (2012)

Directed by Craig Moss

“I’m a vampire, not a mind reader.”​​​​​​​ Surpassing even Vampires Suck in its awfulness is Breaking Wind, its title an ever worse pun. Once again, it features rip-off versions of the Twilight characters stumbling through a pointless storyline peppered with juvenile jokes. It’s all thoroughly lowbrow and inept, from the phone-in direction to the borderline offensive stereotypes. Here, flatulence is considered the height of comedy (the title is unfortunately not just a pun).

The performances only add to the awkwardness and lack of substance, making it hard to enjoy any part of the film. This extends even to Danny Trejo‘s cameo as an elder werewolf. Worst of all, there’s a sequence at the end where the movie mocks real-life fans. It’s a moment that reaches disdainful levels of mean-spiritedness. In the end, Breaking Wind honestly makes Vampires Suck look like Nosferatu.

1 ‘Disaster Movie’ (2008)

Directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer

“This is the worst day of my life.” When it comes to the very worst parody movie, it’s hard to top the aptly-named Disaster Movie, the nadir of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer‘s filmography. It takes aim at the disaster genre and everything else trending in 2008, from High School Musical to Iron Man. The plot follows a group of young adults as they navigate a series of catastrophes, while encountering a barrage of poorly executed celebrity impersonations and pop culture parodies.

The movie is almost like a checklist of pop culture references, going through the motions established by Friedberg and Seltzer’s earlier projects, but with even less humor. Rather than being fun, Disaster Movie is a slog, lacking even the gonzo silliness that made the first two Scary Movies watchable. Consequently, it was eviscerated by critics, many of whom ranked it among the worst films of all time.

NEXT: 10 Great Movies Recommended by Ridley Scott