For years, Rotten Tomatoes has been a bastion of quality in the film world. Movies will advertise the fact that they’re “Certified Fresh” or have a score that hovers in the 90s, or even the rare 100%. While there has, and always will be, a divide between audience and critic scores, most people can generally agree that the closer a film is to 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, the higher the chance you’ll like it.
But then there’s the other side of the scale. While it’s rare for a movie to achieve a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s even rarer for a movie to earn a 0%. While it’s not uncommon for a movie to escape the dreaded 0% Rotten Tomatoes score after they release onto streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and claw a percentage point or two from a fresh rerelease, there’s no escaping the brand once they’ve been marked. This past week, Psycho Killer (2026) was one such movie that debuted to universally negative reviews, so let’s go through it and several of the most infamous films that either once had, or currently have, a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Psycho Killer (2026)
The horror genre is one of the most eclectic and wildly inconsistent genres in film. Some horror films can be deeply introspective, and some can be violent shlock fests. And then you have horror movies like Psycho Killer, which are just dull.
While it currently has a lofty 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, Psycho Killer debuted with a 0%, and it’s not hard to see why. While the film has aspirations to be Se7en (1995), which the same writer even wrote, it forgot what made that film so striking and dark. The eponymous psycho killer is dull and a hodgepodge of other, more memorable slasher villains, and while Georgina Campbell tries her best to bring some life to her character, the script gives her nothing to work with. It may be 91 minutes long, but it’s a struggle to stay awake as the movie plods from beat to beat. There is some merit in watching a dark horror film that puts a woman in the leading role, but if that’s what you’re looking for, stick to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or Longlegs (2024).
War of the Worlds (2025)
War of the Worlds is one of the most seminal science fiction stories of all time, and it has been adapted to film plenty of times. Calling the new War of the Worlds a ‘disaster of unprecedented proportions’ may sound like a stretch, but you only need to watch it for a few minutes to know it’s hilariously awful.
Taking several cues from screen-life movies like Searching (2018), War of the Worlds tries to depict an alien invasion in a digital age, which is a fine idea in theory. However, when most of the action is shown off-screen, it loses its impact, and when it is shown, it’s with laughably bad CGI. To add icing on the cake, casting Ice Cube as the lead was the best and worst decision the film made, since his cartoonish reactions are so woefully mismatched to what’s taking place that it elevates this film to so-bad-it’s-good territory. People will have a blast laughing at the aggressive Amazon product placement, and because of how ludicrous it is, it’s a great movie to watch with a bunch of friends.
365 Days (2020)
Success doesn’t always indicate quality. A film could go on to make hundreds of millions of dollars or dominate the streaming charts, and yet it can review horribly among critics, and no recent film has been as strong an example of that as 365 Days.
While 365 Days debuted at number one on Netflix and reached as high as number five on the streaming charts, the film itself was the worst kind of romance. It was problematic at best, depicting a toxic romance that fans of 50 Shades of Grey (2015) will instantly find familiar, but without any of the charm. BDSM is one thing, but a film predicated on sexual assault is an entirely different beast. It’s also a deeply unsexy movie, with scenes meant to be scintillating and steamy but that fail to convey that whatsoever. It does reach an almost so-bad-it’s-good level like War of the Worlds, but only from how awkward its characters act opposite one another. There is a market for dark romances, but it’s mystifying how a film that earned a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes spawned a trilogy of films.
The Ridiculous 6 (2015)
Adam Sandler’s unique brand of over-the-top and loud humor has its fans, and at times can even be quite enjoyable, like in Happy Gilmore (1996). However, even fans of Sandler’s routine found it pretty hard to like The Ridiculous 6.
If you’ve seen parodies of Westerns before, like in Blazing Saddles (1974) or A Million Ways To Die In The West (2014), then nothing The Ridiculous 6 does will be original in the slightest. The humor is for the low brow in every definition of the word, with racist and sexist jokes that were in poor taste even back in 2015. What makes The Ridiculous 6 stand out even more from the average Adam Sandler fare is how little he seems to care about it. There’s no energy or excitement to his performance, and it screams of a paycheck role, even though he wrote and produced the film. It’s such an unambitious comedy that its two-hour runtime becomes agony when you realize that the jokes aren’t funny after the first five minutes.
United Passions (2014)
Football is beloved around the world, and with the World Cup set to take place in the United States, many people are eagerly waiting for it. But did you know that FIFA actually made a movie about the history of the World Cup, called United Passions? Well, if you consider yourself a fan of the sport, stay far, far, far away from it.
The film documents the beginnings of the FIFA organization, as well as the origins of the World Cup, in a way that can only be described as blatant propaganda. It’s a rosy and perfect recollection of FIFA’s history told only from the perspectives of the executives who created it and not from the players or the fans. It’s a nearly two-hour slog that’s equal parts vain and self-congratulatory. It’s the worst kind of historical drama, the kind that your history teacher puts on when they don’t want to teach, and you find yourself struggling to stay awake because of how boring it is. People who watched football movies like Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and history fans are better served by watching sports movies like Moneyball (2011) instead of this pompous experience.
Saving Christmas (2014)
Faith-based movies are niche, but they tend to do well within their communities. Faith is a powerful force, and even if you aren’t spiritual, you can at least appreciate a faith-based film that is very authentic and honest with its messaging, which makes Saving Christmas all the more notable for how inauthentic it is.
While it may no longer have a 0%, it only did so thanks to fierce advocacy from its star, Kirk Cameron, about how unfairly his film was being treated. The film is mostly a lecture from Kirk Cameron about what he thinks Christmas is all about, but even if you’re a devout Christian, you’ll probably be left tilting your head at his claims. It’s simultaneously simplistic and conspiratorial, but you have to at least appreciate the commitment to the lengths he’ll go to prove himself right. The low budget is also pretty evident, thanks to terrible ADR and how the film just devolves into a random dance sequence at the end, making Saving Christmas one of the strangest Christmas movies ever made. There’s a market for faith-based Christmas films like The Star (2017), but Saving Christmas isn’t one of them.
Epic Movie (2007)
Comedies, especially parodies, are hard to do right. If handled poorly, they can become dated almost instantly, having no longevity beyond the small window they were released in. Then you have parodies like Epic Movie, which was dated almost immediately upon release.
Primarily aimed at teenagers, Epic Movie trotted out gag and referential humor with abandon, hoping that references would be enough to keep people entertained for its 85-minute runtime. However, the humor was cheap, with little thought put into it other than simply making references because they can. It wasn’t as tightly focused as Scary Movie (2000), which spent all its time lampooning horror movie tropes and only horror movies. Epic Movie parodies superhero movies, fantasy movies, adventure movies, and spy movies in an “everything and the kitchen sink approach.” Audiences hated it, and unless this was the first time you ever saw a parody film before, you probably would too.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
Say what you will about Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, but its title is simultaneously awful and brilliant. Just by that title alone, you shouldn’t be surprised in the slightest that it earned a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and has kept that dishonorable distinction for decades.
It’s not hard to see that Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever tries, and fails, to be an action movie cut from the same cloth as The Matrix (1999). Sci-fi elements are randomly inserted into the film, characters are dressed like edgy teenagers, and the sleek and dark aesthetics all scream ‘try-hard.’ While the film, for the time, was somewhat praised for using practical special effects, the plot surrounding said special effects was borderline nonsensical and made a big deal out of Ecks fighting Sever, even though we, as an audience, don’t care about either of them. ‘Mindless’ would be the best way to describe Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, and while some might find its edgy early 2000s action endearing, most will just find it bafflingly inept.
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)
Highlander (1986) is considered to be a cult-classic, and for good reason. It’s a high-concept fantasy epic spanning centuries full of ‘80s cheese and excess, yet many fans of the film will quickly call its sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, one of the biggest cinematic betrayals of all time.
While you would think Highlander II: The Quickening would continue the first film’s fantasy action, it completely disregards everything the first film did, spits on it, and kicks it down a flight of stairs. The film shifts to a post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic that tries desperately to be Blade Runner (1982) but without any of the interesting theming or commentary on humanity that made that film so iconic. No, instead we have retcons that undercut the emotional struggle of the first film’s protagonist, Connor MacLeod, and bizarre new additions to the lore that are somehow worse than the midichlorians of Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). Not only does it have a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s considered one of the worst films and worst sequels ever made.
Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
Given how Rotten Tomatoes started in 1998, whenever a movie from before then manages to earn a 0%, it has to be especially awful. People tend to only retroactively review good movies instead of cinematic duds, so hearing that Jaws: The Revenge has a 0% should make you very, very afraid.
Anyone could tell you that the premise of Jaws: The Revenge is completely illogical and nonsensical. The shark from Jaws (1975) apparently had a son, and now it’s out for revenge against the Brody family. That’s… moronic in every conceivable way, and audiences agreed. By this point, the franchise no longer had the budget and special effects that made the original a hit, and instead had effects that made the shark from Jaws 3-D (1983) look passable. At points, it borders on B-movie territory and does have the same entertainment value as Sharknado (2013), but it’s a tragedy seeing how one of the most prolific horror movies of all time spawned this cinematic travesty.
