Rachel Zegler in a red cloak in 'Snow White'
Rage bait consists of online content deliberately produced to provoke anger, outrage, and scandal in order to generate high levels of engagement. It has become a massive pillar of Internet culture, and sadly, not even the movies have been able to steer clear of rage bait.
Indeed, particularly in recent times , it has become increasingly common for studios to make and promote movies in such a way that it's clear they're trying to stir a passionate reaction in audiences. Whether it's a biopic humiliating a beloved actress, one of Disney's many live-action recreations of their animated classics, or a sequel that destroys everything that its beloved predecessor stood for, there have been many ways in which filmmakers have engaged in clear rage bait over the years.
These aren't just movies that happened to be bad and happened to anger audiences as a result: They were movies clearly designed from the get-go to incite rage in order to be in the conversation. 8 'Blonde' Marilyn Monroe was one of the biggest and brightest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, an immensely talented actress who still remains one of the era's most beloved performers. She was also, however, a deeply tragic figure.
Childhood trauma, mental health struggles, failed relationships, and notorious exploitation from the Hollywood studio systems all characterized her life. As a result, she's become one of the most enigmatic and often-explored figures of the era across documentaries, books, movies, and the like. This leads us to Andrew Dominik's Blonde, based on Joyce Carol Oates' 2000 novel of the same name, a fictionalized account of the life and career of the actress.
In no way is Blonde celebratory or respectful of Monroe. Instead, it feels like a film that shamelessly humiliates her and manipulates her image, resulting in one of the worst rage-bait movies ever made. It's posthumous tabloid trash in cinematic form, a drama clearly intended to stir up controversy in the way it distorts Monroe's life with the excuse of being a"fictionalized account.
" It's time to let this beloved actress finally rest. 7 'Snow White' Disney has been making live-action remakes of their beloved animated classics since the '90s, but it was following the success of 2015's Cinderella that the House of Mouse really started to turn this highly-criticized practice into a full-on business model. Disney live-action remakes have been getting lazier and lower-quality as the years have passed, culminating in what many would say is the worst one so far: Marc Webb's Snow White.
There are countless ways in which this remake failed the original, and that generated a storm of online hate that led the film to being one of the biggest box office flops in film history. From the controversial color-blind casting of Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, to the CGI monstrosities that served as the story's Seven Dwarfs, to the controversial marketing campaign that made it very clear this remake's narrative wouldn't stick very close to the original's, everything about Snow White felt specifically engineered to generate controversy. 6 'Mean Girls' 2004's Mean Girls is one of the most beloved comedies of the 2000s, a cult classic that has only gotten better with age.
A stage rock musical adaptation of the movie premiered in 2017 to high critical acclaim, and that musical served as the basis of 2024's Mean Girls. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. from a screenplay by Tina Fey, who wrote the original musical's book, the film was met with a lukewarm reception from critics and a fiery swarm of hate from audiences.
The movie itself, though definitely considerably inferior to its predecessor and its source material alike, would have been fine enough by itself. What made it seem like shallow rage bait, however, was Paramount's marketing strategy.
The studio bafflingly decided to hide the fact that the film was a musical, and seeing as the Broadway version of the story isn't exactly a universally-known sensation quite like the original film is, this meant that many viewers were met with an unpleasant surprise when they went to see 2024's Mean Girls in theaters. 5 'The Emoji Movie' The Emoji Movie is one of the worst animated movies of all time, and that's an almost universally-agreed-upon consensus. It's not just that it's visually ugly, or too dumb for anyone over the age of four to find any enjoyment in, or so unfunny that it almost inflicts physical pain on its viewers.
It's the fact that a movie about emojis, corporate slop clearly made to get kids to beg their parents for a phone so they can play Candy Crush, was an entirely broken concept to begin with. No kind of movie is more deserving of the label of"rage bait" than a cynical, lazy cash-grab with a pandering tone and some of the most shameless product placement of any major-studio film in Hollywood history.
Somehow, The Emoji Movie's controversy-generating strategy worked: It was a significant box office success, though the years have allowed it to age as one of the most universally hated animated films in the medium's history. 4 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Throughout history, many movie franchises have taken a nosedive after the first movie. The Joker duology is one such franchise.
Though definitely divisive, it's an objective fact that the first film was a smash hit and a massive success, garnering 11 Academy Award nominations and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever at the time . Joker: Folie à Deux, on the other hand... much less of a success. That's a nice way of saying that it was a total failure that massacred everything that its predecessor had done right.
If there is any pair of DC Comics characters who might have made sense as the stars of a campy jukebox musical on paper, it's Joker and Harley Quinn. The problems here are that the hyper-pretentious Folie à Deux takes itself far too seriously to be campy, that the version of Gotham that Todd Phillips had built in Joker made zero sense as the setting for any kind of musical, and that the film very clearly made genuine efforts to get people's feelings stirred up.
In the end, this resulted in a major box office bomb. 3 'Terrifier' Nowadays, horror fans fondly think of the horrifying-yet-oddly-amusing Art the Clown as the face of 2020s slasher horror, but that was only after the success of Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3. The character actually originated in a 2008 short film, and went on to serve as the main villain of his own feature in 2016's Terrifier.
Whereas its two sequels have been successful in expanding the story, world-building, and character work of the franchise in tons of interesting ways, the original Terrifier is just plainly atrocious. Misogynistic, boring, awfully acted, visually ugly, full of poorly-executed gore, and with a script that feels like it's barely a couple of pages long, this controversial splatter horror cult classic has nothing to offer beyond juvenile shock value.
It's a movie that seems like it was designed specifically to annoy, offend, and provoke people, and for the most part, it definitely had its desired effect. 2 '365 Days' Trilogy The erotic thriller genre is one that has produced a number of genuinely masterful films over the years. Netflix's 365 Days movies aren't among them.
We're talking about three of the most unwatchable drama movies in history, painfully un-sexy and un-erotic failures that misunderstood everything the genre should be so badly that it's almost laughable—or it would be, if the movies weren't so infuriatingly misogynistic from start to finish. But that's just the thing: 365 Days rage-baiting misogyny in no way feels incidental. Instead, it feels like the whole point of the trilogy.
It's so painfully obvious that these films were created to stir up controversy and invite hate-watching that it's almost—the keyword here is once again"almost"—funny. They're poorly made, amateurish in every sense imaginable, and an all-out affront on the cinematic art form. 1 'A Serbian Film' A Serbian Film is famous for being one of the most disturbing and traumatizing movies ever made. In fact, that's the only thing it's famous for.
Using graphic violence and taboo subjects to criticize censorship in Serbia sounds like a smart and honorable enough concept on paper, but there's definitely such a thing as"too far.
" Director Srđan Spasojević goes light years beyond that blurry line, to the point that watching A Serbian Film doesn't just take a strong stomach: It takes a bit of a masochistic attitude as well. For a wide variety of reasons too grotesque and provocative to even name, A Serbian Film is one of those movies capable of disturbing pretty much anyone.
It's the quintessential rage-bait film par excellence, a movie made entirely and exclusively to generate controversy and provoke strong negative reactions not just in viewers, but in anyone even aware of the movie's mere existence. COLLIDER. Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country Five Oscar Best Picture winners.
Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one. 🪜Parasite 🌀Everything Everywhere ☢️Oppenheimer 🐦Birdman 🪙No Country for Old Men FIND YOUR FILM → QUESTION 1 / 10TONE 01 What kind of film experience do you actually want?
The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind. ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching.
DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 10THEME 02 Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours? AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity.
BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 10STRUCTURE 03 How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means. AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different.
BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 10VILLAIN 04 What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you? AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face.
BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 10ENDING 05 What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like? AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it.
BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 10WORLD 06 Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible. AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person.
CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 10CRAFT 07 What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable. AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience.
CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 10PROTAGONIST 08 What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you. ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure.
BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 9 / 10PACE 09 How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately. AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal.
BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 10 / 10AFTERMATH 10 What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want? AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about.
BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM → The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is… Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works. BEST PICTURE 2020 Parasite You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
BEST PICTURE 2023 Everything Everywhere All at Once You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful.
This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about. BEST PICTURE 2024 Oppenheimer You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens.
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
BEST PICTURE 2015 Birdman You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible.
Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all. BEST PICTURE 2008 No Country for Old Men You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning.
The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest.
No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Like A Serbian Film NC-17 Horror Mystery Thriller Release Date June 11, 2010 Runtime 104 Minutes Director Srđan Spasojević Writers Aleksandar Radivojević, Srđan Spasojević Cast See All Powered by Expand Collapse
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