Best Ridiculous Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of ridiculous cinema — measured across 1,846 indexed frames from 21 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Ridiculous films over-index on mask, cape and boy — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
Meet the Spartans (2008)
Jason Friedberg, Aaron SeltzerDP Shawn MaurerIMDb 2.8TMDB 4.1See in full on FrameThrower →
The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing but leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of thirteen Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers, and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton). No one is safe when the Spartans take on the biggest icons in pop culture!
- 2
Tommy Lee WallaceDP Dean CundeyIMDb 5.2TMDB 5.2See in full on FrameThrower →
After the death of her father under very suspicious circumstances, Ellie Grimbridge and Dr Daniel Challis decide to investigate the shady activities of Conal Cochran, the owner of the Silver Shamrock Novelties company. Before long, they discover Cochran's diabolical plot to brainwash the children of America into doing his bidding through a mixture of ancient rituals, technology, and witchcraft. This Halloween, wearing the mask of a skeleton, a witch, or a pumpkin can be deadly. Can Ellie and Daniel thwart the plans of the evil toy-maker?
- 3
In A Violent Nature (2024)
Chris NashDP Pierce DerksIMDb 5.6TMDB 5.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Ry Barrettas Johnny
Andrea Pavlovicas Kris
Cameron Loveas Colt
When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 70-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it.
- 4
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Taika WaititiDP Mihai Malaimare Jr.IMDb 7.9TMDB 8.0See in full on FrameThrower →
A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.
- 5
Scream VI (2023)
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler GillettDP Brett JutkiewiczIMDb 6.4TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
After surviving the latest Woodsboro murders, a group of teens move to New York City, hoping for a fresh start, only to find a new killer picking up where the last Ghostface killer left off.
- 6
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Sam WoodDP Merritt B. GerstadIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
The Marx Brothers take on high society. Two lovers who are both in opera are prevented from being together by the man's lack of acceptance as an operatic tenor. Pulling several typical Marx Brothers' stunts, they arrange for the normal tenor to be absent so that the young lover can get his chance.
- 7
Ready or Not (2019)
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler GillettDP Brett JutkiewiczIMDb 6.9TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
All of us have made certain efforts so our in-laws will like us, but Grace is going to have to give it her all if she wants to fit in with her brand new husband's wealthy dynasty, who require her to follow a brutal tradition: for the bride to try to survive her wedding night while the rest of them hunt her down. The class struggle stuff hits the proverbial fan in this extremely black satire starring a brilliant Samara Weaving and including an uncommonly perverse Andie MacDowell.
- 8
6 Underground (2019)
Michael BayDP Bojan BazelliIMDb 6.1TMDB 6.3See in full on FrameThrower →
What's the best part of being dead? It's the freedom to fight the evil which lurks in our world. "6 Underground"'s group of unnamed individuals have chosen to change the future. The team is brought together by an enigmatic leader code-named 'One', whose sole mission is to the ensure that he and his teammates will have their actions remembered.
- 9
Videodrome (1983)
David CronenbergDP Mark IrwinIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Max Renn is the President of Channel 83 Civic-TV, a small television station on the UHF dial. He defends his programming of largely X-rated shows - which depict graphic sex and extreme violence - as a pure matter of economic survival as a small station. Behind closed doors in specific company, he would admit that he enjoys such programming, but as President will stay away from associated activities that may be dangerous for him in its purchase. His current girlfriend, radio personality Nicki Brand, who he met on a television talk show, is sexually aroused by light mutilation on her person, that despite or because her radio show is like an open air crisis hotline. On that same talk show, the other guest via video feed was Professor Brian O'Blivion - solely his stage name - who believes that television and video broadcasts will one day overtake the world as reality, which may make Max's programming in combination more dangerous. In Max's search for the next big thing in like programming already on Channel 83, Harlan, his pirater who scans satellite signals, illegally obtains a satellite feed of something called Videodrome, which depicts continual sexualized torture and murder with no storyline of which to speak. The background behind Videodrome is unknown, but believing it is that big thing for which he is looking, Max is determined to find the producers so that he can purchase it for his station. He is concerned for Nicki if she goes ahead against his warnings in wanting to appear on Videodrome, however it does not lessen his desire to purchase it. If Max in turn does not heed the warning of Masha, one of his long time show suppliers, based on what little she discovers about it, Max may discover that Videodrome is just the next but destructive step in O'Blivion's prognostication.
- 10
Fahrenheit 451 (2018) (2018)
Ramin BahraniDP Kramer MorgenthauIMDb 5.0TMDB 5.4See in full on FrameThrower →
In a terrifying care-free future, a young man, Guy Montag, whose job as a fireman is to burn all books, questions his actions after meeting a young woman - and begins to rebel against society.
What ridiculous films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a ridiculous frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — mask is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- mask6.8×
- cape5.9×
- boy2.7×
- clouds2.1×
- beard2.0×
- plaid shirt1.9×
- blood1.9×
How ridiculous films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate ridiculous from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 83%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Jurassic World (2015) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,846 frames from 21 films carrying the ridiculous label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/ridiculous
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