While the decade is only a bit over halfway finished, the 2020s have, for the most part, been a great decade when it comes to compelling and highly entertaining filmmaking. From massive blockbusters like Barbie and Oppenheimer to beloved independent films like Poor Things and Anora, there is no shortage of exceptional films that have made the decade a great one for filmmaking. However, just as is the case for every decade, not every film release is going to be a crowning achievement of the medium, as there have also been some notable cinematic disasters released during the 2020s.
From mismanaged blockbusters that completely failed to attract the notoriety of audiences to the wide array of low-effort content being made to fill streaming service catalogs, there have been many different painfully bad films released during the decade so far. Many of these films have been completely ripped apart by the savvy, social media audiences of the modern era, making them the topics of consistent mockery and vitriol to where they can’t escape their infamous nature. Even with these films being so recent, several of them have been brought up in the conversation as some of the worst movies of all time.
10
‘Madame Web’ (2024)
Directed by S.J. Clarkson
Attempting and failing to follow in the footsteps of the MCU and other popular superhero cinematic universes, Sony’s confusing and aimless universe of Spider-Man villains released many notable failures during the 2020s. While the likes of Morbius and Kraven the Hunter were certainly terrible in their own right, it’s the bafflingly strange and chaotic execution of Madame Web that easily makes it the worst of the bunch. The film sees Dakota Johnson as the titular Madame Web, whose life is completely upended when she begins seeing visions of the future, using these visions to try and protect a trio of young girls who will grow to be superheroes in the future.
Madame Web is much more interested in setting up the pieces for later entries in a cinematic universe than actually being a compelling movie that stands on its own. Its biggest problems come from its chaotic and unfocused production, as it feels as if the film itself is unsure of what it wants to be or how to tell its story. The editing and frequent dialogue replacement are among some of the most distracting and aggravating imaginable, while its actual characters couldn’t be more blank and uninteresting if they tried. It immediately shot up the ranks as one of the worst Marvel movies of all time.
9
‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ (2025)
Directed by Trey Edward Shults
A strange and confusing vanity product as well as a companion piece to The Weeknd‘s album of the same name, Hurry Up Tomorrow proves that no matter how many talented people are involved in a film, all it takes is a terrible screenplay and execution to make a film near-unwatchable. The film sees The Weeknd playing a fictionalized version of himself, dealing with a painful breakup before finding unexpected levity through a dedicated fan (Jenna Ortega) who appears at one of his concerts.
Hurry Up Tomorrow has all the pieces to make for a compelling psychological thriller on paper, with a great director in Trey Edward Shults and a compelling cast including the likes of Ortega, Barry Keoghan, and Riley Keough. In practice, however, the film has zero redeeming qualities for those who aren’t already massive fans of The Weeknd’s music and overarching storyline. The Weekend’s performance is laughably bad, as the entire film around him feels as if it only exists to stroke his ego and explore his relatively basic feelings about the difficulties of fame.
8
‘Borderlands’ (2024)
Directed by Eli Roth
While the 2020s have largely been a great decade when it comes to video game adaptations finally living up to the legacy and strengths of their original films, Borderlands harkens back to the old era of video game films being excruciatingly terrible. While the film attempts to adhere to the same wacky style of raunchy humor that made the films compelling in the 2010s, this style of writing proves to be highly obnoxious both in film form and in the 2020s.
Even outside its terrible attempts at comedy, the film features a myriad of other issues that stop it from being enjoyable, from terrible visual effects, a basic, cliche-filled story, and some of the most phoned-in performances by a cast full of miscast A-list actors. The film feels as if it’s talking down to fans with its surface-level exploration of the world of Pandora and treating basic information as a pivotal twist. Ironically, in its attempts to appeal to the widest audience imaginable, the Borderlands film wound up appealing to absolutely nobody.
7
‘Dear Evan Hansen’ (2021)
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
The original Broadway musical of Dear Evan Hansen was already massively divisive among audiences, yet the long-awaited film adaptation managed to amplify the worst aspects of the musical while removing its inherent positives. A lot of the flaws inherent to the film stem from its baffling recasting of Ben Platt in the titular role of Evan Hansen. While Platt was a good choice on Broadway, his portrayal of the teenage boy character, despite now being a man in his 20s, makes the entire film feel unnerving and disorienting.
Even outside the disorienting visuals of the lead character, the entire film centers around positing Platt as an awards contender, and, as such, removes all the songs that are negative towards Evan Hansen’s character and actions. Without these pivotal components of the original story, it comes across that Hansen goes unpunished for his array of despicable actions during the film, with them simply being forgiven due to the character having depression. It makes for a highly aggravating watch, both for fans of the original musical and those experiencing the story for the first time.
6
‘Artemis Fowl’ (2020)
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
The original Artemis Fowl novels were a fan favorite among YA fantasy novels, with a sprawling world that had a wide array of compelling characters and dynamic, layered storytelling. It seemed all but inevitable that the series would receive a film adaptation, yet Kenneth Branagh’s bastardized film adaptation of the first book in the series is among the worst adaptations ever put to film. The film spits in the face of everything that made the original books compelling, with terrible visual effects, lackluster action, and highly unlikable characters devoid of soul or charm.
The film faced a wide variety of behind-the-scenes issues that resulted in such a disastrous final product, including an array of rewrites and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time it was finally released on Disney+, it felt less like a complete finished film and instead a hastily mashed-together array of scenes and concepts to try and make something out of the mess of a production. Whatever hopes there were of the film being the next YA fantasy franchise were completely destroyed by this botched first entry.
5
‘The Turning’ (2020)
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
One of the most important dynamics for slow-paced and tactful supernatural films is to actually have a compelling payoff to all the buildup occurring during a film. However, if a film fails to deliver a compelling ending to all the building tension, it can end up souring the entire experience and making audiences feel that their time is wasted, a failure that perfectly describes The Turning. The film follows a young tutor (Mackenzie Davis) who encounters an array of mysterious, supernatural occurrences when tutoring a duo of wealthy young children (Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince).
The Turning spends the vast majority of its runtime building up to the tension and mystery of its premise, with most of this tension-building coming in the form of cheap scares and shoddy visuals. Many of these scenes only loosely connect to one another, simply not caring about any sort of overarching story and completely giving up when it comes to providing a resolution. The film is the perfect personification of the lazy, uneventful horror film that is simply dropped off in the January months before being immediately forgotten about for the rest of time.
4
‘Music’ (2021)
Directed by Sia
While the film attempts to provide a voice and cinematic perspective on the often overlooked and persecuted neurodivergent community, Music‘s shocking and stereotype-driven exploration of autism comes across as more offensive than uplifting. The character of Music (Maddie Ziegler) has little to no actual personality or character outside of her autism, creating a painful and out-of-touch experience that is more focused on Sia’s music videos than actually telling a faithful autism story.
Its clashing tones and abundance of cheap shocks have made it considered one of the worst movie musicals of recent memory, balancing too many plot points and not having the focus or respect for its delicate subject matter. Few other films are so painfully out-of-touch and ill-conceived at every possible moment, as the entire film reeks of the feeling and self-entitlement of doing a great thing, completely unaware of its disgusting and problematic execution. While Sia herself has made some compelling movies over the years, Music proves that this musical talent does not translate to filmmaking or screenwriting.
3
‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’ (2023)
Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield
One of the defining trends of low-budget horror during the 2020s has been the massive rise of lazy, uninteresting slashers that utilize beloved public domain characters as killers. While many of these films are terrible in their own right, the worst of the bunch is, ironically, the one that popularized the trend, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. The film follows vicious, bloodthirsty versions of beloved children’s icons Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet going on a deadly rampage of revenge after having been abandoned by Christopher Robin for years.
There’s a lot of inherent goofy potential for transforming Winnie-the-Pooh into a slasher villain, but Blood and Honey does the absolute bare minimum in terms of utilizing the character for a horror setting. It’s about as basic and formulaic as a slasher movie can get, with its killer feeling less like an evil version of Winnie-the-Pooh but instead just a generic killer wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh mask. Combined with some lazy kills, cheap nudity, and some of the worst lighting imaginable, Blood and Honey is a case of massive missing potential that is easily among the worst horror films of the 2020s.
2
‘2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus’ (2021)
Directed by Joshua and Simon Wesely
A hilariously ineffective political thriller based entirely upon right-wing conspiracies, 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus is the type of obviously terrible film whose lack of qualities speak for itself. The film takes place in the far-off year of 2025, where, after years of a post-apocalyptic state brought on by the Coronavirus, Christianity has been made illegal as communism runs rampant across the U.S. However, a group of renegade revolutionaries are working to reunite Christians and regain freedom from their oppressors.
Even putting aside the film’s laughably bad story and politics, the production and amateur execution alone were enough to make the film one of the worst films of the past 25 years. It feels less like a true feature film and more of a strange student film that was touted as the next step in faith-based filmmaking. It’s exactly these types of blatantly propaganda thrillers that give faith-based films such a terrible reputation in the modern era.
1
‘365 Days’ (2020)
Directed by Barbara Bialowas and Tomasz Mandes
In a modern, internet-driven world that has grown more and more desensitized to hypersexual content, it seems preposterous that a film would include such overtly sexual content that it would still be controversial in the modern era. However, the inherent eroticism and near-pornographic execution of 365 Days is only a part of what makes the film such a notoriously terrible experience, as it’s the story and messaging surrounding its smut that makes it such a trainwreck.
The film’s premise sees a powerful man (Michele Morrone) kidnapping a woman (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) and forcing her to live with him for a full year before she can decide if she wants to leave or become his partner. It’s the type of gross, clearly problematic power fantasy story that makes the entire film feel gross and uncomfortable instead of arousing and sexy, tainting the entire experience with its gross, non-consenting messaging. It doesn’t help that the film’s erotic sequences are about as close as a film can get without actually delving into the territory of pornographic material.
