Creating the perfect тιтle for a movie that hints at the plot of the film while creating a sense of excitement and intrigue is a difficult task. A snappy and intriguing movie тιтle is an important aspect of marketing, and a good тιтle can be enough to draw audiences to the theater. From overly lengthy and convoluted movie тιтles that overexplain the plot to тιтles that don’t make any sense, some examples are so bad they shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.

While some zany seemingly bad movie тιтles perfectly fit the tone of the movie, such as The VelociPastor, truly terrible тιтles do more harm than good to the movie. It’s important to have an eye-catching and memorable тιтle that captures the spirit of the film, which is something quite a few movies have failed to achieve.

10

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

Directed By Zack Snyder

The тιтle of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice isn’t the only issue with the movie, but it was a large issue that is heavily linked with the other issues that drag it down. For one, the famed and highly-anticipated fight between Superman and Batman that is referenced in the тιтle is a lackluster conflict caused by a misunderstanding and Lex Luthor’s manipulation, which is not what many were expecting. However, this was only part of the problem.

The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice тιтle led to endless debates over whether the тιтle should have used “v” or “vs”, and tacking on the words “Dawn of Justice” is a lazy choice that presumably set up Justice League. Even the screenwriter and director Chris Terrio and Zack Snyder respectively expressed their dislike of the тιтle “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and proposed alternate тιтles.

9

John Carter (2012)

Directed By Andrew Stanton

John Carter is a science fiction action movie with adventures between planets and lots of action. However, the тιтle does not reflect that at all. “John Carter” makes the movie sound like a biographical film instead of an action-filled and fun adventure that follows the тιтular character John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) after he’s accidentally transported to Mars, which is known as Barsoom in the film. The movie sees John attempting to stop the civil war brewing between the kingdoms of Barsoom while battling otherworldly creatures.

With no hint of an interplanetary adventure in the movie’s тιтle, John Carter cements itself as a bland, vague, and boring тιтle. An earlier adaption of John Carter based on the same series written by Edgar Rice Burroughs was тιтled Princess of Mars and released on DVD as John Carter of Mars, both of which were more interesting тιтles than simply using the name of the тιтular character and might have helped the movie perform better.

8

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)

Directed By Roger Spottiswoode

In defense of Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, the тιтle does set the tone of the movie pretty accurately. The buddy cop comedy film revolves around a mother-son duo and follows how the tough cop Sergeant Joseph Andrew Bomowski’s (Sylvester Stallone) copes with a visit from his overbearing mother Tutti (Estelle Getty) as she begins interfering with his personal life and job. However, the fact that Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is an accurate тιтle doesn’t make it any good or interesting.

Despite the interesting comedic premise and the popular actors Stallone and Getty starring in the movie, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot fell flat and received negative reviews. The awkward punctuation and length of the тιтle were not humorous enough to make the action comedy flick feel intriguing or interesting, and it is rightly considered one of the worst тιтles ever.

7

Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire (2009)

Directed By Lee Daniels

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, also known as Precious, is a case of a great movie with a really bad тιтle. As mentioned clearly in the тιтle, the movie is an adaption of the 1996 novel Push by the author Sapphire. The movie was originally тιтled Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, also known as Push. However, the тιтle was changed to Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire to avoid confusion with the action movie Push which was released in 2009, the same year as Precious was released.

Thankfully, the critically acclaimed heart-wrenching drama rose above its overly lengthy and explanatory тιтle and was successful at the box office and won two Oscar Awards and one Golden Globe Award. While a shorter тιтle could have done wonders for the marketing of the movie, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire managed to be a success despite its lengthy тιтle being made fun of.

6

Surfer, Dude (2008)

Directed By S. R. Bindler

Surfer, Dude is another accurate yet utterly bland and terrible тιтle that builds no excitement for the movie. In addition, despite only being two words, Surfer, Dude is a confusing тιтle, as it’s unclear why the тιтle has a comma between the words “Surfer” and “Dude”. Despite the bizarre comma placement, the тιтle is fairly accurate, as the comedy movie is about a laidback surfer Steve Addington (McConaughey) who faces an existential crisis after the waves die down and he’s unable to surf for days on end.

McConaughey and Woody Harrelson have had remarkable collaborations, namely True Detective, their third project together. However, their second collaboration, Surfer, Dude marks their worst movie together and is a lackluster experience. The nonsensical тιтle is an accurate representation of the film, as both the movie and тιтle are uninspired, boring, and perplexing.

5

I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (2006)

Directed By Sylvain White

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a chilling and intriguing movie тιтle that forces audiences to question which mysterious person knows the main characters’ darkest secrets and is hunting them down. The original тιтle is already lengthy, but it gets worse with the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequels. The second film is тιтled I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which is a lazy, unimaginative, and uninventive тιтle for the sequel.

However, the worst offender of terrible тιтles in the franchise is the third movie, I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. While the second movie’s тιтle can be forgiven, the third тιтle takes everything wrong with the sequel’s тιтle and makes it even worse. The killer goes from scaring the future victims by stating he knows about their misdeeds to the killer constantly reiterating that he “still” knows and will “always know”.

4

The Bye Bye Man (2017)

Directed By Stacy тιтle

The Bye Bye Man is a horror movie based on an urban legend about the тιтular figure. The Bye Bye Man is a mysterious figure that causes people to hallucinate and murder others before taking their own lives. While the idea of the Bye Bye Man making people commit violent acts is truly terrifying and an interesting premise for a horror movie, it’s impossible to take the villain seriously because of the ridiculous name.

The Bye Bye Man is a тιтle that feels like it was created by a child and the name of the creature and movie takes away any sense of fear. The Bye Bye Man doesn’t sound like the name of a supernatural horror and sounds like the name of a bad horror parody featuring a man who loves to wave goodbye, to the horror and disgust of everyone around him. Horror movies usually need a terrifying villain that will instill fear and terror into the hearts of the audiences, and the name “Bye Bye Man” doesn’t help.

3

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

Directed By Paul McGuigan

When a movie тιтle looks like a typo, it’s hard to garner intrigue and interest in the film. Lucky Number Slevin is a тιтle that is needlessly confusing and doesn’t give any hints about the film’s plot. Similar to John Carter, the тιтle hinges entirely upon the main character’s name, who is not already a prominent character in pop culture.

Lucky Number Slevin is an underrated neo-noir movie with an impressive cast, starring Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Lucy Liu, Stanley Tucci, and Ben Kingsley. The movie follows the тιтular character Slevin Kelevra (Hartnett) who is mistakenly dragged into a war between rival families. While the film is a lot of fun, the тιтle doesn’t spark any interest in learning what it is about and it is just an inexplicable play on words.

2

Excessive Force II: Force On Force (1995)

Directed By Jonathan Winfrey

Excessive Force II: Force on Force breaks the cardinal sin of movie тιтles, having an excessively long and redundant тιтle. The word “Force” makes up 50 percent of the six-word тιтle. It’s just a repeтιтive and redundant version of a generic action movie тιтle. The movie is a sequel to the 1993 film Excessive Force, which only justifies the first half of the тιтle and makes the second half even more bizarre.

Excessive Force II: Force on Force is a revenge-driven action movie that follows Agent Harly Cordell (Stacie Randall) as she hunts down her ex-boyfriend who betrayed her and became a criminal after almost killing her. However, the тιтle Excessive Force II: Force on Force doesn’t hint at a high-stakes revenge story and instead sounds like the тιтle of a movie revolving around the life of police officers.

1

The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill But Came Down A Mountain (1995)

Directed By Christopher Monger

The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain may not be the longest movie тιтle ever, but it is a shockingly lengthy тιтle that is perplexing and strange. The romantic comedy movie is based on the novel of the same name written by Christopher Monger. It follows two English cartographers Reginald Anson (Hugh Grant) and George Garrad (Ian McNeice) who travel to a small village in Wales and discover the “mountain” is not tall enough to be classified as a mountain and is instead a hill.

The movie тιтle makes sense in terms of the plot, but at first glance, the тιтle is confusing, lengthy, and nonsensical. Bizarrely, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain is a тιтle that gives away the movie’s entire plot, but still doesn’t make any sense.