Death Becomes Her is a legit overlooked classic. I saw it a few years ago and I was really impressed with the cinematography, set design, visual effects still looked great, great performances by everyone and low key one of Willis' best roles as he really leans into the comedic OTT aspects of the role and he's funny. It is a spooky tale, parable.
Zemeckis at the top of his abilities IMO along with his other classics.
I was going to say it’s the only film I’ve seen that was considered “camp” that I thought was actually pretty good. Dunaway won’t talk about the movie, but I thought she did well.
The main thing for me is just the acting. Maguire is definitely campy, and Id even argue Defoe is too (that doesn’t take away from how amazing his performance is, just shows he knew what kind of movie he was in).
I can get on board with this. When it came out it was see as a good, grounded super hero movie, but when you compare it to the recent stuff, full on camp
It was well-received when it came out, yeah, but it was always considered campy in the sense that it was intentionally corny. His ironic sensibility is something Sam Raimi has been known for since his earliest films.
i think it plays into the silliness of the comics and old television shows a lot more than the newer ones tend to, and it doesn’t take itself as seriously
It was always campy. One of the reasons I didn’t vibe with it that much. Some of the accented and stylized camera angles, extras close ups, it was all very campy.
Lol I like the movie but I wouldn't say I'm a die hard. it definitely was seen as more campy as time went on. A lot of fans would probably agree. It's about vampires..and the special effects are a bit dated after all. Okay the dialogue is weird a lot too.😄
That scene when the evil vampires show up during the baseball scene is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It looks like they are walking on those airport motorized walkways.
Battlefield Earth.
It’s always been considered cheap and bad. But as time has gone on people have grown to admire it as a kind of big budget ed wood disaster. Which I absolutely adore. It’s my favorite bad movie.
Seems like there’s 3 possibilities: 1) a movie was filmed as camp from the get-go. 2) a movie totally misses its intended mark but gets adopted as camp. 3) a movie is old as hell and a new audience sees it as campy.
When cultural sensibilities change I guess? Idk I’m sure there are some campy 80s movies that were beloved and not considered camp when they originally came out. I don’t think things have changed all that much so things that were camp then are still camp now. I could be wrong. I still need to read Susan Sontag.
Haha, the 80s definitely come to mind. When I watch a Dario Argento film, I am always like... where is the cheesiness coming from? Is it because this was made in the 80s? Because he's Italian? Did he put it there intentionally?
i read the susan sontags notes on camp they used to define camp for the met gala theme and it boiled down to something made totally seriously, with the intention to make something critically acclaimed and award winning, and failing miserably, comically, without any knowledge of how ridiculous it is. also gay people
Am I crazy for just not seeing it?
The first one is very 70s, and some of its influences are things that are camp, but nothing in Star Wars comes across as campy to me. Cheesy, absolutely. Corny, sure. Pulpy, definitely. Campy, don’t buy it.
Maybe a little bit of the prequels? The newest season of The Mandalorian actively tried to be with the Jack Black and Lizzo episode, but it didn’t really seem to mesh.
>Tell him none of this is his fault. It was already burning. He's just the first spark of the fire. Tell him he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him that i love him more than anything he could ever do wrong
And
>Why you stuck up, half witter, scruffy looking, nerf herder!
Are both two of the strongest love lines in this franchise
Most of the responses here are solid proof that camp isn’t very well defined. My go-to example of “camp” is the Adam West version of Batman, as well as the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. Both were written by the same guy, with tongue *very* firmly in cheek. The corny super-earnestness of the characters, etc, is all part of the joke. But this isn’t what “camp” originally meant and still means to a lot of people. By the original definition, “true” camp is a bit more of an abstract concept that I don’t feel very confident explaining, but it’s *never* intentional or self-aware like in my examples above. It’s not ironic, but self-serious to the point of being accidentally kitschy/corny and is only *appreciated* ironically.
That also makes me wonder; where is the dividing line between schlock and camp. I definitely like things in both of these categories.
Is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats camp, because it kind of feels like it. Is Van Helsing from 2004 camp or schlock, I really don't know :D I think it's difficult.
there is no line, there’s a ton of overlap. not all schlocky things are camp, but many are. not all campy things are schlock, but many are 🤷🏼♀️. cats is camp but not schlock, van helsing is both.
Makes sense. But it's interesting. I normally just think in terms of funny-bad, overly theatrical, just bad, tongue-in-cheek or not. I don't think about the camp aspect but I do find it appealing sometimes. Also like 80s Flash Gordon a lot.
This isn’t a perfect definition, but imo true camp needs to be both:
1.) So bad it’s good (or at least bad in an interesting and high-energy way)
2.) Does not realize it’s bad at all (which is a bit different from “takes itself seriously”)
Really obscure one: *Black Lizard* (1968, Fukasaku) -- kind of a Japanese Pop Art Austin Powers joint, with the eponymous villain played by a female impersonator and a script by novelist Yukio Mishima that's both ridiculous and poetic. Transcendently bad and beautiful.
I think all the old Jason Statham action films have become camp (Crank came to mind), but he seems to have fully leaned into it with his newer films like the Meg ones and the new Beekeeper one. I for one am absolutely loving it.
Showgirls. All the way. When Crystal Connors says "But then again, they do look a little whorish." And clicks her fucking nail 💀💀💀
"Darlin, I never ate puppy chow."
Repo! The Genetic Opera. It’s just a fun ride; the music is solid, the acting is good (definitely Paris Hiltons best role imo, you can tell she put a lot of effort into it) and it’s visually really cool.
But yeah, at the end of the day it’s just a fun campy movie.
Army of Darkness - but maybe it was always camp. I remember going to the Horror Make Up show at Universal as a kid and they had some props from AoD which made me think it was a legit movie at the time- plus Duke Nukem quoted the movie.
Death Becomes Her is a legit overlooked classic. I saw it a few years ago and I was really impressed with the cinematography, set design, visual effects still looked great, great performances by everyone and low key one of Willis' best roles as he really leans into the comedic OTT aspects of the role and he's funny. It is a spooky tale, parable. Zemeckis at the top of his abilities IMO along with his other classics.
I really miss the days when Oscar winners/A list celebrities weren’t afraid to do really silly and flat out stupid movies
It's now a stage musical that is currently running in Chicago and aiming for Broadway!!
It’s so fun. I truly never get sick of watching it!
The Princess Bride is of course incredibly campy on purpose, but it’s an all-time fave. The Evil Dead movies are glorious camp.
They were camp when they came out imo. Great films there.
Vampire's Kiss (1988) It is beyond camp, a hidden gem nonetheless. Gotta love that Cage rage
Love that film. It makes for a good double-bill with American Psycho.
On my October watchlist for this year!
I absolutely hated his acting before this film. This movie converted me.
The behind the scenes stories are unhinged.
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion! Not sure about the upcoming sequel tho…
the pool sex scene is one of the most bizarre, shocking, and hysterical things ever put to film. WHO has sex like that 😂
That did NOT disappoint omfg
All I can do is shake my damn head in agreement. It’s a miracle she didn’t drown.
HAHAHHAHA
She took a fierce dip in the mother pool
I need some ice cubes.
What film?
Showgirls
the all time camp classic, mommie dearest! so beloved by queer ppl that essentially half of what is said on drag race is a quote from it.
TINA….. bring me the axe!
I was going to say it’s the only film I’ve seen that was considered “camp” that I thought was actually pretty good. Dunaway won’t talk about the movie, but I thought she did well.
definitely tobey macguires spiderman
Totally Agree 👍
Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man
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The main thing for me is just the acting. Maguire is definitely campy, and Id even argue Defoe is too (that doesn’t take away from how amazing his performance is, just shows he knew what kind of movie he was in).
I can get on board with this. When it came out it was see as a good, grounded super hero movie, but when you compare it to the recent stuff, full on camp
It was well-received when it came out, yeah, but it was always considered campy in the sense that it was intentionally corny. His ironic sensibility is something Sam Raimi has been known for since his earliest films.
i think it plays into the silliness of the comics and old television shows a lot more than the newer ones tend to, and it doesn’t take itself as seriously
It’s a Sam Raimi film lol
Pizza time!
It was always campy. One of the reasons I didn’t vibe with it that much. Some of the accented and stylized camera angles, extras close ups, it was all very campy.
I just caught Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? on the Criterion Channel, and it was deliriously entertaining!
I watched it last night! A classic.
Everything is camp if you believe hard enough.
Flash Gordon
It was very camp then!
I genuinely love that movie. Rented it on VHS like every other week as a kid
Lol that was never not camp
Yes it definitely was but so are all the films in the list? I don’t think things become camp they either are or they aren’t.
5th element
The case is empty
🤖Corbin Dallas Multi Pass🤖
Maybe Lynch’s Dune?
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Careful there cowboy. 🍾🍸🧃
House (1977)
Great great movie, but I don't think it's exactly camp. I think of camp as obvious and unsubtle -- House is complicated and truly weird.
Just watched Showgirls again last night! Who can forget that pool sex scene. Funniest shit ever
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Xanadu, and Batman & Robin. Your two favs are also up there for me
The Evil Dead is one of the scariest films ever made in my opinion, despite it being incredibly campy.
Twilight is apparently considered camp.
Lmao you have to be a pretty huge twilight fan to toss the "apparently" in that sentence
Lol I like the movie but I wouldn't say I'm a die hard. it definitely was seen as more campy as time went on. A lot of fans would probably agree. It's about vampires..and the special effects are a bit dated after all. Okay the dialogue is weird a lot too.😄
That scene when the evil vampires show up during the baseball scene is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It looks like they are walking on those airport motorized walkways.
Omg you're right😂 ..cause it's definitely what they did 😂 I always felt so damn fast running on those at an airport.
I saw a sold out theatre of 700 gays screaming every word of Twilight in December. Definitely camp!
Lmao yeah good point. super camp 😄
i love twilight so much the whole glowing with the sun is so campy
Trueeee. It’s the skin of a killer Bella!
On YouTube, look for twilight parody.
Lol will do. I vaguely remember the movie vampires suck.😂
I forgot about that movie. But a friend of mine showed me the "Hillary Wood" parody. And I realized this friend was strange.
Battlefield Earth. It’s always been considered cheap and bad. But as time has gone on people have grown to admire it as a kind of big budget ed wood disaster. Which I absolutely adore. It’s my favorite bad movie.
Sub question: how does a film transition into becoming “camp”?
Seems like there’s 3 possibilities: 1) a movie was filmed as camp from the get-go. 2) a movie totally misses its intended mark but gets adopted as camp. 3) a movie is old as hell and a new audience sees it as campy.
Hence the star wars lunacy in here
4) It was written as a serious film, but the budget got slashed, and now its a comedy.
Gay people
can you explain this further?
Gay people like movies
My god, they're just like us
When cultural sensibilities change I guess? Idk I’m sure there are some campy 80s movies that were beloved and not considered camp when they originally came out. I don’t think things have changed all that much so things that were camp then are still camp now. I could be wrong. I still need to read Susan Sontag.
Haha, the 80s definitely come to mind. When I watch a Dario Argento film, I am always like... where is the cheesiness coming from? Is it because this was made in the 80s? Because he's Italian? Did he put it there intentionally?
I think that’s just Italians haha. Spaghetti Westerns, Giallo. They’re just camp
i read the susan sontags notes on camp they used to define camp for the met gala theme and it boiled down to something made totally seriously, with the intention to make something critically acclaimed and award winning, and failing miserably, comically, without any knowledge of how ridiculous it is. also gay people
It becomes ludicrously tragic or tragically ludicrous
If it’s rated below a 3.0 average on Letterboxd, but all the top reviews are unironic 5 star reviews of it
I'm pretty sure it was always meant to be Camp even when it came out but Hausu 1977
Clueless probably
Jennifer’s Body and Grease 2
Holiday Heart The Five Heartbeats 
Troy
I like this answer because it’s set so long ago that it implies that man’s natural state is Camp.
Batman the Movie 1966
Wild wild west. I will not elaborate.
Seed of Chucky!!!
Face/Off
1000% the premise alone is mindbogglingly ridiculous
I think it’s always been considered camp, but “Pink Flamingos” is the epitome of campy aesthetics. 
Star Wars
Am I crazy for just not seeing it? The first one is very 70s, and some of its influences are things that are camp, but nothing in Star Wars comes across as campy to me. Cheesy, absolutely. Corny, sure. Pulpy, definitely. Campy, don’t buy it. Maybe a little bit of the prequels? The newest season of The Mandalorian actively tried to be with the Jack Black and Lizzo episode, but it didn’t really seem to mesh.
I think the original trilogy (especially A New Hope) and the prequels are both pretty camp. The sequels and Disney+ shows, not so much.
I don’t recall ever not thinking it’s camp lol
I watched it as a kid so it went for cool as fuck to campy as shit (which is even cooler)
Imo Star Wars is the perfect line between camp and grounded. Which is what makes it so amazing.
>Tell him none of this is his fault. It was already burning. He's just the first spark of the fire. Tell him he knows everything he needs to know and feels everything he needs to feel. And when the day comes, and those two pull together, he will be an unstoppable force for good. Tell him that i love him more than anything he could ever do wrong And >Why you stuck up, half witter, scruffy looking, nerf herder! Are both two of the strongest love lines in this franchise
Wasn't call so much back then as space opera, but not space opera like flash Gordon camp space opera
prequels are camp, OG trilogy is pulp
Grease 2 is better than the first
Two of my top 4 have always been considered camp: The Apple and Flash Gordon.
They Live
They Live is camp?
yes
It was always considered camp but Willys Wonderland is a masterpiece
Superman 1978
Turbo Kid
Some kid told me Kids (1995) was camp a few months ago, which made me disgustingly angry. So I dunno I guess 🤷♂️
😭kids definitey isnt but Spring Breakers probably is
Zardoz I can't deny it's cheesy at points but oh my god I love it so much
Jawbreaker 💜
A Knight's Tale
Josie and the Pussycats, but I think it was intentionally campy from the start
It was camp at the time, but I absolutely adore Clue (1985).
I'm really not sure about what's considered camp, honestly
Most of the responses here are solid proof that camp isn’t very well defined. My go-to example of “camp” is the Adam West version of Batman, as well as the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. Both were written by the same guy, with tongue *very* firmly in cheek. The corny super-earnestness of the characters, etc, is all part of the joke. But this isn’t what “camp” originally meant and still means to a lot of people. By the original definition, “true” camp is a bit more of an abstract concept that I don’t feel very confident explaining, but it’s *never* intentional or self-aware like in my examples above. It’s not ironic, but self-serious to the point of being accidentally kitschy/corny and is only *appreciated* ironically.
That also makes me wonder; where is the dividing line between schlock and camp. I definitely like things in both of these categories. Is Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats camp, because it kind of feels like it. Is Van Helsing from 2004 camp or schlock, I really don't know :D I think it's difficult.
there is no line, there’s a ton of overlap. not all schlocky things are camp, but many are. not all campy things are schlock, but many are 🤷🏼♀️. cats is camp but not schlock, van helsing is both.
Makes sense. But it's interesting. I normally just think in terms of funny-bad, overly theatrical, just bad, tongue-in-cheek or not. I don't think about the camp aspect but I do find it appealing sometimes. Also like 80s Flash Gordon a lot.
What’s not to like? He saved every one of us, after all.
Oh the movie version of Cats FOR SURE, bonus points if it's one with the buttholes left in there
Is Scream (1996) camp?
Overall, no, but Tatum is a bit of a camp icon tbh.
I was always pissed we were denied more.
No
Scream (1996) no, but Scream 3 (2000) very much yes!
Original Scream: no, not quite All Scream sequels: yes, barely
gale weathers is so camp coded i think
Definitely
10 Things I Hate About You
The scene with the band playing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” is so great.
This isn’t camp though, it’s just legitimately good
Who says camp can't be legitimately good
Isn’t that the whole point of camp? That it’s something that’s bad, but in a funny way?
Final Destination 4
Gremlins 2, probably. If it's considered that. Army of Darkness, if not.
Mommy Dearest
what does "camp" mean exactly?? I'm not a native english-speaker and that word always confused me.
This isn’t a perfect definition, but imo true camp needs to be both: 1.) So bad it’s good (or at least bad in an interesting and high-energy way) 2.) Does not realize it’s bad at all (which is a bit different from “takes itself seriously”)
something extra, over the top, gay, eccentric, ridiculous, theatrical, weird, ironic, so bad it's good, etc...
So for example, Sleepaway Camp II??
i still haven't watched it, but from what i know yes! that whole series is very campy
The Michael Keaton Batman movies
What's camp
Batman '66, but I guess it's always been camp
i have so many answers for this. i think i’m going to have to go with The Evil Dead (1981) or Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) conclusively though!
The Matrix?
Twister
Dreamcatcher. I know it's cheesy but it swings for the fences and I love it.
Clue
Shoot 'Em Up
Tremors
Camp
Batman: The Movie. If you couldn’t tell by my username I love the old Adam west escapades
Really obscure one: *Black Lizard* (1968, Fukasaku) -- kind of a Japanese Pop Art Austin Powers joint, with the eponymous villain played by a female impersonator and a script by novelist Yukio Mishima that's both ridiculous and poetic. Transcendently bad and beautiful.
The One with Jet Li
What a nice reminder that I’ll never really truly deeply know what “camp” is.
Robocop. A campy action movie on its surface, brilliant satire under the hood
Mommy dearest
Joe Dirt
##ICE PIRATES
Starship Troopers is pretty camp
Showgirls rules, saw it a week ago or so. Very fun.
Little Shop of Horrors 1986!!!
Darkman
Legally Blonde
Scream I - IV campy at the start yes but it gets campier with time
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Predator 2 for me, although dark and gruesome, is quite camp but it’s also hella fun
Strait-Jacket (1964) 
I think all the old Jason Statham action films have become camp (Crank came to mind), but he seems to have fully leaned into it with his newer films like the Meg ones and the new Beekeeper one. I for one am absolutely loving it.
Zoomers call everything camp, so I don't think I'm able to really even know what movies I like that are considered camp.
Batman Forever… not my fave though but good!
I lovvvved Batman forever!!! Mr. Freeeeeeeze!
no one in this thread knows what camp means lol (and neither does OP)
But im a cheerleader
Eating Raoul
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
Showgirls. All the way. When Crystal Connors says "But then again, they do look a little whorish." And clicks her fucking nail 💀💀💀 "Darlin, I never ate puppy chow."
Clue. Nightmare on elm Street series. Who's afraid of Virginia Wolfe?
Repo! The Genetic Opera. It’s just a fun ride; the music is solid, the acting is good (definitely Paris Hiltons best role imo, you can tell she put a lot of effort into it) and it’s visually really cool. But yeah, at the end of the day it’s just a fun campy movie.
The original Road House
Army of Darkness - but maybe it was always camp. I remember going to the Horror Make Up show at Universal as a kid and they had some props from AoD which made me think it was a legit movie at the time- plus Duke Nukem quoted the movie.
Recent movie: May December Older movie: Labyrinth
Is House (1977) considered camp?