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Scholarship addressing cult films deemed 'so bad they're good' (so-called 'badfilms') has tended to focus on the important issue of reception. This article, however, suggests that such films are also capable of prompting a reconsideration of two very old, but vital, questions for aesthetics. Through an analysis of the contemporary badfilm The Room (2003), the paper argues that one may judge a badfilm 'bad' on more stable grounds than mere taste, and that this badness is dependent in such cases upon the demonstrable nature of (failed) artistic intentions. Finally, it suggests some reasons why, even if possessing little intrinsic aesthetic value, badfilms might still nonetheless offer significant instrumental value.

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