By Everyone loves a bad movie every now and then. Whether it be a cult favorite like Troll 2, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, or Miami Connection, or the riffs on rubbish courtesy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or RiffTrax, there’s a joy to trash that cannot be denied.
As it turns out, liking cheesy movies may be linked to high intelligence. An academic study in Poetics has found that people into junk movies are pretty smart eggs. As noted in The Independent‘s report:
“To such viewers, trash films appear as an interesting and welcome deviation from the mainstream fare”, says [Keyvan Sarkhosh, postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics]. “We are dealing here with an audience with above-average education, which one could describe as ‘cultural omnivores’. Such viewers are interested in a broad spectrum of art and media across the traditional boundaries of high and popular culture.” He went on to explain that their engagement in film culture is demonstrated by their discussion of these films in blogs and forums.
So, who wants to watch Death Wish 3 with me and then talk Heidegger over a couple domestic tall boys? How about The Apple with a little talk about Sebald’s hybrid memoir/fiction form? Where are you going, smarty pants? Don’t leave me!
[via The Independent]