50 Worst Movie Titles
Movies that are begging not to be seen
Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)
Why So Terrible: The fact that the film’s a travesty obviously wasn’t enough for its makers; they had to hammer the point home with an atrocious Chipmmunk-y spin on the word ‘sequel’.
What It Should Have Been Called: Alvin & The Chipmunks: Mixed Nuts .
Teenage Catgirls In Heat (1994)
Why So Terrible: Not only is it inciting sexual conduct with teenagers, it’s also condoning bestiality. Ick.
What It Should Have Been Called : Bad Kitties .
Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever (2002)
Why So Terrible: When you’ve given your characters ridiculous names, it’s probably best you don’t put them in the film’s title. Oops. Small wonder Ballistic is 0% percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
What It Should Have Been Called: Ballistic would’ve done, y’know.
Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Why So Terrible: Slevin isn’t even a number - he’s a man played by Josh Hartnett. Not very well, we might add.
What It Should Have Been Called: Australia had it right, calling it The Wrong Man . We’d go one step further and call it The Wrong Film , or just The Wrong Un.
Quantum Of Solace (2008)
Why So Terrible: The likes of On Her Majesty’s Service and From Russia With Love are but a distant memory. This odd Bond title rightly received reactions like “Eh?” and “What the-?!” from a very confused public.
What It Should Have Been Called: Glass Houses would fit, considering how much of the stuff gets smashed in the film.
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
Why So Terrible: It stirs up some truly dreadful imagery of Tom Green doing things that we really don’t want to think about Tom Green doing.
What It Should Have Been Called: Freddy Got F*****ed .
Phffft! (1954)
Why So Terrible: Yet more exclamations, though all the more shocking considering this is a film starring the awesome likes of Jack Lemmon and Kim Novak. Who cares that it’s based on the title of a celebrity column?
What It Should Have Been Called: The Break-Up .
Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
Don't Worry, We'll Think Of A Title (1966)
Why So Terrible: Movie titles shouldn’t be conversational. Sure, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? broke that rule, but it was a clever play on a well-known phrase. This is just wilfully indolent.
What It Should Have Been Called: This Film Has No Title.
Eegah (1962)
Why So Terrible: It sounds like something you might exclaim if your shopping bags broke on your walk home, or you stepped on a snail, or a bird pooed on your head. It certainly doesn’t sound like the title of a movie.
What It Should Have Been Called: Cave In .
Sssssss (1973)
Why So Terrible: It’s a fact checker’s nightmare. Just how many s’ should there be in Sssssss ? (It’s seven, dontcha know.) And if we get it wrong, will anybody even notice?
What It Should Have Been Called: Sssssnake (the UK title) is far better.
Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.