“There is a spider crawling along the matted floor of the room where I sit…” So begins William Hazlitt’s “On the Pleasure of Hating.” This weekend, I too found myself in a different kind of room, populated not with spiders (at least not that I saw) but with friends and colleagues. We had gathered on a Friday night, outside of the classroom, to embark on a new educational foray: watch Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room, dubbed “The Citizen Kane of bad movies” (Entertainment Weekly).

Wiseau—a Keyser Söze-esque myth whose origins, wealth, and accent remain unknown—wrote, funded, produced, directed, and starred in The Room…so, yes, it’s definitely one of those movies. A pet project gone awry. A could-have-been launching pad to stardom beleaguered by an uncommonly and unprecedented misunderstanding of movie-making. With a budget between five and six million, it grossed $1,900 in its original box office run (!). Crews and actors were fired and replaced throughout its production, Johnny (Wiseau’s character) had his lines re-dubbed because Wiseau’s delivery and accent were incomprehensible, and entire characters and sub-plots pop up out of nowhere and evaporate almost immediately without any resolution or even acknowledgement in the rest of the film.

It’s so bad that it’s a classic. The film has amassed a cult following so dedicated to its faults that it now enjoys the same kind of fame as Rocky Horror Picture Show. I won’t give away The Room’s plot (what little there is of one), or, better yet, its dialogue and inadvertent catch phrases, or, best of all, its weird fascination with American football. Instead, I want to champion the film as an exemplar of side-splittingly cringe-worthy, schadenfreude-propelled group viewing. We transformed into a gleefully snarky, critical collective, howling at The Room’s faults while enjoying craft beer, cheap wine, and fine cheese. There was a pleasure in hating it, ridiculing its absurdity, gasping at its misogynist drivel, and wincing at the most uncomfortable bedroom scenes ever to be displayed on screen.

I’m not sure why people gather together to watch terrible movies for the fun of it. I know it happens, and I bet some of you can share similar experiences. The TV show Community explores the phenomenon in one episode, where Troy, Abed, Shirley, Chang, and Pierce sit down to watch the RoboCop-spoofing Kickpuncher, and while it teases out some of the situation’s pressure to “be funny,” what this call to “be funny” ultimately suggests is the importance of contributing, and bearing witness, to the group itself. I can’t fully imagine watching a movie of The Room’s caliber in isolation—certainly not upon first viewing when I would guess that most of us would be scrambling for the remote to change the channel (or even to turn it off and walk away entirely). But in a group—well, in a group something else happens entirely: our focus shifts to the people around us even as we revel in our communal bad taste.

In the end, The Room overturns Sartre’s adage, “Hell is other people.” Hell is The Room, but people make it so, so much better. See for yourself (and invite your friends).

4 Comments

  1. Paul

    Have you read “The Disaster Artist” by Greg Sestero (oh hai, Mark!)? It is a a snapshot of all of the behind the scene insanity. And a darkly personal inner look at Wiseau.

    Also, in the last scene, Denny shouts, “TOMMY, WHY?!?!?” The character’s name was Johnny.

    I could talk for a million years about this movie.

    Reply
    • Jake

      Haven’t read it yet, but it’s on my list (and supposedly there’s a James Franco adaptation in the works!?) And, oh, poor Denny–he too is quite a character…in the creepiest ways…

      Reply
      • Paul

        Apparently, Denny was supposed to be mentally handicapped…which sort of explains why he acts the way he does, but then it just sort of opens up a whole new host of questions.

        Reply
  2. Paul

    “I did not hit her its bullshit i did naaaaaht – oh hai Mark!”

    Reply

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