There is no good without bad. It’s a cliché, but it’s true. How can you fully appreciate an exceptional work of art without comparing it to one that didn’t work? A truly awful movie puts a truly great masterpiece into perspective.

So consider this piece a study in perspectives. No one who made any of the 20 movies below, our picks for the 20 worst movies of the last 20 years, set out to produce a bad movie. But it happened anyway, despite all their hard work and good intentions. Writing is hard. Casting is hard. Directing is hard. Movies are hard.

(Okay, strike that. At least one filmmaker on the list reportedly exploited a tax loophole that meant investors only had to pay taxes on investments in films that turned a profit, leaving a financial incentive for a movie to flop. So maybe someone occasionally does set out to make a bad movie. Or at least, the movie’s quality is of far lesser concern than, say, sales to foreign distributors. But it’s rare.)

If you’re thinking about using this list to help program your friends’ next Bad Movie Night, just keep in mind: Some of the films below are not so-bad-they’re-good. They’re just plain awful. (The tax loophole guy’s film, for example, that’s a real tough sit.) Proceed with caution and remember: There is no good without bad ... but sometimes it’s better to just watch a good movie instead of forcing the comparison.

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