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The 15 Worst R-Rated Movies Ever Made

The 15 Worst R-Rated Movies Ever Made

Under the Motion Picture Association rating system, R stands for Restricted. That means anybody under 17 has to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian because the movie contains adult material. That translates into harsh language, intense violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse, etc.

Of course, some people want to see movies that feature violence — what war movie doesn’t? — and lots of outstanding urban dramas feature bad language and drug abuse. But having these certainly doesn’t make a movie good and some R-rated movies are so bad people under 17 should be thankful they can’t see them alone.

24/7 Tempo’s list of the worst R-rated movies ever made contains several movies you probably haven’t heard of — movies that were so bad they were released and quickly disappeared without ever entering the public’s consciousness. Some of them have actors you’ve heard of, but none of them have A-list directors like Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese. Sometimes bad movies become cult favorites, but these movies are just plain bad. Enjoy!

And if these aren’t bad enough, try the 25 worst movies of all time.

To determine the 15 worst R-rated movies of all time, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and Rotten Tomatoes. We created an index based on the average critic rating from Rotten Tomatoes, the average audience rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and the average user rating from IMDb. We only considered feature films with at least 5,000 Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews, 10 Rotten Tomatoes critic reviews, and 10,000 IMDb user reviews. All data is for the most recent period available. Data was collected February 2021.

Source: Courtesy of Lionsgate

15. Skinwalkers (2006)
> Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror
> Director(s): James Isaac
> Starring: Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Natassia Malthe
> Box office gross: $1.0 million

Skinwalkers are werewolves and this movie has something to do with a half-werewolf boy and his mother and two warring factions, but the plot seems incomprehensible and that’s one reason it’s on our list. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus is that this is an atrociously acted movie with ineptly staged action sequences.

Source: Courtesy of IFC Midnight

14. ATM (2012)
> Genre: Horror, Thriller
> Director(s): David Brooks
> Starring: Alice Eve, Josh Peck, Brian Geraghty, Mike O’Brian
> Box office gross: Not available

This is the story of three people who get trapped in an ATM booth by a hooded man. Rotten Tomatoes critics describe this as a miserable, silly story full of holes.

Source: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

13. The Pyramid (2014)
> Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
> Director(s): Grégory Levasseur
> Starring: Ashley Hinshaw, James Buckley, Denis O’Hare, Christa Nicola
> Box office gross: $2.8 million

A team of archaeologists get lost in an Egyptian pyramid and discover they’re being hunted by an evil creature. “Avoid at all costs, unless you need a good nap, or a bad history lesson on ancient Egypt,” says one review. And that’s one of the better ones.

Source: Courtesy of Senator Distribution

12. The Informers (2008)
> Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
> Director(s): Gregor Jordan
> Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Jon Foster
> Box office gross: $300,000

“The Informers” consists of loosely connected stories set in Los Angeles and featuring several stars you’ve heard of and sex, drugs, and violence. That might sound promising — but the movie isn’t, according to the critics, who describe it as miserable and insipid.

Source: Courtesy of CBS Films

11. Get a Job (2016)
> Genre: Comedy
> Director(s): Dylan Kidd
> Starring: Miles Teller, Anna Kendrick, Bryan Cranston, Nicholas Braun
> Box office gross: Not available million

This movie is about a couple of college grads who have trouble getting the right job. It is described as “painfully unfunny” and critics note that it wasn’t released until several years after it was made — and even then it disappeared. That’s too bad as it does have some highly regarded actors.

Source: Courtesy of After Dark Films

10. Captivity (2007)
> Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
> Director(s): Roland Joffé
> Starring: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael Harney
> Box office gross: $2.6 million

A young fashion model is kidnapped and thrown in a cell, where she and another prisoner are tortured by a sadistic assailant. According to Rotten Tomatoes critics, this movie is “a distasteful entry in the ‘torture porn’ subgenre.”

Source: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

9. Devil’s Due (2014)
> Genre: Horror, Mystery
> Director(s): Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
> Starring: Allison Miller, Zach Gilford, Sam Anderson, Roger Payano
> Box office gross: $15.8 million

A couple on their honeymoon discover they are pregnant, but there is something sinister about the unexpected pregnancy. Newsday called it “a disjointed and unconvincing movie that is also embarrassingly derivative of ‘Paranormal Activity.'”

Source: Courtesy of Warner Bros.

8. The Gallows (2015)
> Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
> Director(s): Travis Cluff, Chris Lofing
> Starring: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos, Cassidy Gifford
> Box office gross: $22.8 million

A Nebraska teenager dies in a freak accident during a school play. Years later, students from his high school decide to reenact the play in his honor. Not a good idea.

Source: Courtesy of Relativity Media

7. Movie 43 (2013)
> Genre: Comedy
> Director(s): Elizabeth Banks, Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Peter Farrelly, Patrik Forsberg, Will Graham, James Gunn, Brett Ratner, Jonathan van Tulleken, Bob Odenkirk
> Starring: Emma Stone, Stephen Merchant, Richard Gere, Liev Schreiber
> Box office gross: $8.8 million

This “anthology comedy” features fourteen different storylines and an incredible lineup of actors from Emma Stone and Seth Macfarlane to Richard Gere and Uma Thurman.

But movie critic Roger Ebert warned, “Please: Stay away.” And Entertainment Weekly called the movie “utterly disgusting throughout.”

Source: Courtesy of Dimension Films

6. Piranha 3DD (2012)
> Genre: Comedy, Horror
> Director(s): John Gulager
> Starring: Danielle Panabaker, Ving Rhames, David Hasselhoff, Matt Bush
> Box office gross: $380,000

In the first installment of the Piranha movie franchise, the flesh-eating fish are accidentally released into a river near a summer camp. In this one, made more than thirty years after the first movie, the fish are headed to a local water park. The New York Daily News said, “If you’re looking for signs of intelligent life — well, did you really expect to find them in a remake of a Seventies B-movie anyway?”

Source: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

5. The Devil Inside (2012)
> Genre: Horror
> Director(s): William Brent Bell
> Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Ionut Grama
> Box office gross: $53.3 million

A young woman travels to an Italian hospital to discover what really happened to her mother during an exorcism. Rotten Tomatoes critics called the movie “a cheap, choppy unscary mess, featuring one of the worst endings in recent memory.”

Source: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing

4. I Know Who Killed Me (2007)
> Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
> Director(s): Chris Sivertson
> Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Bonnie Aarons
> Box office gross: $7.5 million

A missing woman (played by Lindsay Lohan) reappears, but says she is someone else. The Chicago Tribune called it “incoherent and semi-vile.”

Source: Courtesy of Anchor Bay Films

3. Stan Helsing (2009)
> Genre: Comedy, Family, Fantasy
> Director(s): Bo Zenga
> Starring: Steve Howey, Diora Baird, Kenan Thompson, Desi Lydic
> Box office gross: Not available

Stan, who works at a video rental store, heads to a party after work with some friends on Halloween. Along the way they encounter a slew of monsters from horror movie history. One critic said, “This might be the cheapest-looking production of the year.”

Source: Courtesy of Open Road Films

2. Fifty Shades of Black (2016)
> Genre: Comedy
> Director(s): Michael Tiddes
> Starring: Marlon Wayans, Kali Hawk, Fred Willard, Mike Epps
> Box office gross: $11.7 million

In a spoof of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” a young college student gets involved with a man she interviews for her school paper. Rotten Tomatoes critics called it “wildly erratic even for a spoof movie.”

Source: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

1. Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star (2011)
> Genre: Comedy
> Director(s): Tom Brady
> Starring: Nick Swardson, Don Johnson, Christina Ricci, Stephen Dorff
> Box office gross: $2.3 million

Fired from his job at a local grocery store, young Bucky leaves Iowa and heads to California to become an actor in adult films. TimeOut described the movie as “dire, soul-crushing stuff.”

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