The Strange Allure of Terrible Horror: A Look at Beverley Price’s A to Z of The So Bad, They’re Good, The Bad and The Ugly Horror Films

Horror fans have always had two speeds. On one end, you have the people searching for prestige, artistry, and carefully crafted dread. On the other, there’s the crowd that willingly presses play on the worst-looking DVD they can find at 2 a.m. — the kind of film so catastrophically strange that you sit through it with friends just to see what unbelievable moment comes next.

Beverley Price’s A to Z of The So Bad, They’re Good, The Bad and The Ugly Horror Films leans unapologetically into that second world, offering a curated, alphabetical guide to the most infamous misfires, oddities, and earnestly disastrous horror movies ever committed to film.

What makes the concept immediately appealing is its honesty. There’s no attempt to pretend this subgenre is secretly brilliant or misunderstood. Price’s premise is straightforward: some horror movies are bad — truly, spectacularly, head-shakingly bad — and that is exactly why they’re fun. The book positions itself as a humorous, unfiltered tour through the titles fans love to mock, adore, or debate endlessly at horror conventions.

Even without reading the book itself, the title and description reveal what the author is aiming for: a celebration of the messy, the bizarre, and the unintentionally hilarious side of horror cinema. These aren’t the films chosen for academic study or critical praise. They’re the ones with collapsing sets, questionable acting choices, impossible monster costumes, or storylines that veer into such chaotic territory that you can’t tell whether you’re horrified or entertained. Price’s project acknowledges that this “trash cinema” end of the genre has its own devoted fanbase, its own culture, and its own rituals.

What makes “so bad, they’re good” horror films endure is the same thing that makes cult classics endure: sincerity. Even when the movies fail — maybe especially when they fail — they reveal the pure enthusiasm of people who wanted to make something scary, weird, or memorable. You can’t always say that about polished studio productions. Sometimes the charm lives in the cracks, the awkward cuts, the rubbery creature effects, the melodramatic monologues that were never meant to be funny but somehow become legendary quotes among fans.

A book like A to Z of The So Bad, They’re Good, The Bad and The Ugly Horror Films also arrives at a time when horror is being pulled in two different directions. On one side, elevated horror dominates conversations with serious themes and artistic ambition. On the other, fans continue to gather for midnight screenings of movies that look like they were filmed in someone’s garage — because the joy isn’t in perfection, it’s in the shared reaction. Laughter, disbelief, confusion, nostalgia. These films create community in ways that pristine cinema often cannot.

Price’s A-to-Z format is an especially smart choice. It signals that this isn’t just a list — it’s a guided tour. A catalog that likely ranges from cult classics fans already know to obscure horrors they’ve never heard of but absolutely must see once in their lives. A structure like that lets readers dip in anywhere, skim the movies they recognize, and mark down the ones they want to torture their friends with on the next movie night.

The book’s tone — described as “unflinching and hilarious” — is fitting for a subject that thrives on chaos. There’s no polite way to talk about horror’s ugliest mistakes, and Price’s concept embraces that. It promises readers an experience that’s as sharp as it is irreverent, acknowledging the disasters without cynicism and celebrating the entertainment value behind every questionable creative choice.

For horror fans, this isn’t just a book about bad movies. It’s a love letter to the other side of the genre — the part where cult legends are born, where filmmakers swing too hard and miss gloriously, and where audiences bond over absurdity instead of terror. Whether you’re a seasoned fan of trash cinema or someone looking to understand why people adore films that “shouldn’t” work, Price’s A-to-Z guide stands out as a fun, affectionate gateway into a corner of horror that refuses to die.

If horror has taught us anything, it’s that the beautiful and the ugly often coexist. And sometimes, the ugly is exactly what we show up for.