If you had told me at the start of 2011 that one of my favorite movies I’d see that year would be called “Hobo with a Shotgun”, I almost certainly would have agreed with you. Low budget, independent genre films are often maligned by critics and ignored by the public as a whole. But in film’s figurative cellar, or literal bargain bin, there are live, off beat masterpieces that put the CGI-heavy Hollywood Summer Blockbusters to shame.

Sure “The Toxic Avenger”, “Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky” and “Evil Dead II” may have lacked funding, big name stars and any semblance of good taste, but these films exist as modern day cult-classics for a reason: they are simply fun to watch. Their humor, over-the-top violence and, frankly, bizarre plots are a breath of fresh air after the seemingly endless amounts of horror remakes and sequels, flat romantic comedies and movies with talking dogs. Sometimes you just need mutant twins or a head-exploding psychic to break the mold.

In addition, the corniness and mediocre acting add a level of charm that is completely absent from the majority of features dumped into theaters each month. Take for example, the aptly named “Bad Taste”. Shot by some guy and his buddies over the course of  a few weekends with homemade props and latex masks, it tells the timeless story of mankind’s last stand against an intergalactic fast-food cartel set on serving humans for dinner. The movie hasn’t particularly aged and probably still looked like crap in 1987, but its ingenuity and creativity in the face of economic adversity make the film stand out. Plus it’s really stupid and funny.

It all boils down to a matter of preference. Sometimes you want “Citizen Kane”. Yet, other times you’d rather watch a zombie fight a tiger shark.