Skip to main content
Games Radar Newsarama Total Film Edge Retro Gamer SFX
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The smarter take on movies
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
Subscribe now
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows
Don't miss these
The Long Walk
Horror Movies Upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshot showing Link, a male character with elf-like ears, blond hair, and bright blue eyes
Movies The Legend of Zelda movie is exciting, but I'm still begging for 5 specific video game movies to get adapted next
James Cameron
Fantasy Movies James Cameron is set to adapt a fantasy novel described as "Suicide Squad meets Hammer Horror" as he finishes work on Avatar: Fire and Ash: "It will be a joyful new challenge for me"
Bring Her Back
Horror Movies After looking through Bring Her Back's viral black market website, I need Danny and Michael Philippou to make a V/H/S-style found footage movie about its creepy, cursed objects
Ice Cube stares intensely at a computer monitor in War of the Worlds
Movies After Amazon's War of the Worlds, I watched all the 0% rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes and here are the five brilliantly awful ones I'd recommend you stream next
Eddie Murphy as Russell and Pete Davidson as Travis in The Pickup.
Amazon Prime Video The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
The hook handed killer strikes in I Know What You Did Last Summer
Horror Movies The most exciting upcoming horror movies coming in 2025 and beyond
A still from the Netflix animated film Nimona
Fantasy Movies The 10 best fantasy movies on Netflix to watch right now
Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Best in The Thursday Murder Club.
Movies The 25 best movies on Netflix to watch this week
Elle Fanning in Predator: Badlands
Movies Upcoming movies: The most exciting new movies coming in 2025
talk to me
Horror Movies The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now
Zach Cregger directing Julia Garner
DC Movies Weapons director Zach Cregger has a DC Universe script finished starring Batman and Joker as background characters
David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown in Terrifier.
Amazon Prime Video The 10 best Amazon Prime horror movies to watch right now
James Franco in Oz the Great and Powerful
Movies The 32 box office hits you've probably forgotten about
An array of glasses, goblets, mixers, and a figurine on a wooden table
Tabletop Gaming I've just discovered that there is a D&D cocktail book, and it's given me a terrible idea
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies

20 Bad Book Covers That Should Be Movies

Features
By George Wales published 6 May 2010

We want these made. Immediately!

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Breed To Come

Breed To Come

The Cover: That cat looks decidedly shifty…what does it know that we don’t?

The Movie: After a nuclear event in rural Vietnam, the local moggies start acting strangely. Eventually all becomes clear…they’re trying to usurp us humans! That’s not a rice-paddy worker at all…it’s a mutant cat! With ‘Nam in chaos once again, the US army are back to put things straight…and this time, it’s personal.

Awesome Scene: Flaming cats fill the streets of Hanoi, as Uncle Sam arrives with a job-lot of napalm. Miaow!

Page 1 of 20
Page 1 of 20
Spawn

Spawn

The Cover: Yikes! That baby is terrifying. Is it a giant baby? Or is that a miniature man? Either way, we don’t like his chances…

The Movie: Body-shock horror starring Nic Cage as a childless scientist who engages in some genetic tinkering with an aborted foetus. One reanimation later, and he’s got the baby he always wanted…except that it’s evil. And out to find the parents who didn’t want it…

Awesome Scene: Cage cradles his newborn “son”, not noticing the knife it’s managed to grab behind his back…

Page 2 of 20
Page 2 of 20
Slave Ship

Slave Ship

The Cover: Priceless. The navy bloke looks more gormless than the ape he’s trying to instruct. This’ll never work…

The Movie: High-seas caper, re-named Noah’s Ark for the family crowd. Steve Guttenberg is Noah Chance, a hapless crewman charged with teaching a crew of animals to operate a navy vessel. Cue a series of hilarious scrapes as the goat Steve puts in charge of navigation gets them all hopelessly lost.

Awesome Scene: All hell breaks loose when the first mate starts sniffing the engineer’s backside.

Page 3 of 20
Page 3 of 20
The Listening House

The Listening House

The Cover: What’s that attached to that house? Is it a conservatory? Hang on, it’s a giant bloody ear! You’re right to run mate!

The Movie: A riff on the classic haunted-house genre, in which the eponymous mansion earwigs on the young couple who move in, before airing their dirty laundry at the least convenient moments. Pesky house. Mind your own!

Awesome Scene: The house waits until the vicar comes to tea, before blurting out that the husband is wearing his wife’s knickers. It’s a laugh riot!

Page 4 of 20
Page 4 of 20
The Little People

The Little People

The Cover: A fairytale castle, some midgets and….a swastika? Not exactly what we’d call “carefully laid-on horror”.

The Movie: A family holidaying in the German countryside soon find themselves besieged by a tribe of angry dwarves, hell-bent on creating a master-race of bearded, pointy-eared shorties. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to ethnically cleanse they go.

Awesome Scene: Salvation is provided by the family pooch, who swallows the chief dwarf whole. Take that small-fry!

Page 5 of 20
Page 5 of 20
The Private Life Of Julius Caesar

The Private Life Of Julius Caesar

The Cover: Archetypal pulp guff, complete with heaving cleavages and a fanciful grasp of history.

The Movie: British sex-farce re-casting Caesar (Robin Askwith) as a leering lothario. A series of smutty escapades with his Centurions’ wives ensue, as Caesar desperately tries to keep one step ahead of Her Indoors, the foul-tempered Cleopatra (Patsy Palmer).

Awesome Scene:
A budget-sapping set-piece in which the Barbarians lay Rome to waste, whilst Julius is laid low with a dose of the clap.

Page 6 of 20
Page 6 of 20
Sos The Rope

Sos The Rope

The Cover: A distinctly homoerotic scene featuring a mulleted muscle-man. God knows who or what he’s got tied to that rope…

The Movie: Adventure saga, starring Matthew McConaughey as sexually-questionable beefcake Sos, a fabled warrior with a taste for the flamboyant. Assisted by his magic rope, Sos must brinbg down the evil tyrant Homophobos and his prohibitively conservative regime.

Awesome Scene: Sos manages to entangle an entire posse of henchmen in his rope. “I can see you’re all tied up,” he quips as the audience cheers!

Page 7 of 20
Page 7 of 20
The Penetrator

The Penetrator

The Cover: KAPOW! This ain’t no ordinary book, heard? It’s got guns and strippers and moustaches! WHOOSH!

The Movie: Michael Madsen is Max Thrust, a washed-up PI with nothing to live for and even less to lose. When the only woman who ever cared for him is gunned down at the local whorehouse, it’s time for Max to sober up and get some payback.

Awesome Scene: “Wh-who are you?” quivers a suspect, as Max towers over him. “I’m the Penetrator,” growls Max, drawing his gun...

Page 8 of 20
Page 8 of 20
West Of January

West Of January

The Cover: A naked man rides a killer whale, cheering as he does so. And why not?

The Movie: Robin Williams plays an alcoholic dad who loses his kids after a drunken, nude misadventure at Sea World. Desperately penitent, Rob takes on a job at the park, forming a powerful bond with a killer whale. From that whale, he learns a clutch of life lessons, returning to his kids a new man.

Awesome Scene: Initially wary, the killer whale takes a hearty bite out of Robin’s trousers. Everybody laughs.

Page 9 of 20
Page 9 of 20
Slimer

Slimer

The Cover: We don’t know what’s more repellent, Slimer’s saliva-coated fangs or unsightly double-chin. Gross.

The Movie: An old-school creature feature, with a sub-Anaconda swamp thing, wreaking havoc in a Mississippi bayou. Burt Reynolds stars as the cigar-chomping ex-marine looking to send the Slimer “back to the Stone Age”. The film’s success prompts the return of the moustache to popular culture.

Awesome Scene: Burt lights a stick of dynamite with his cigar, before tossing it down the Slimer’s gullet. That’s how we spell Kaboom!

Page 10 of 20
Page 10 of 20
Music To My Sorrow

Music To My Sorrow

The Cover: A prancing flutist seems to be winding up a heavy metal band as a fire erupts between them. Nothing weird there.

The Movie: In a world where music is power, two tribes battle it out for supremacy. The heavy-metallers reign supreme, but resistance comes from a band of elfin tree-huggers and their whimsical, folksy noodling. Think Underworld with more singing.

Awesome Scene: A cameo from Pan’s People, which sees them burned at the stake to the accompaniment of Enter Sandman .

Page 11 of 20
Page 11 of 20
Last Come The Children

Last Come The Children

The Cover: That hooded fellow looks like he’s about to separate a pair of conjoined twins with a meat cleaver! Should’ve gone private girls.

The Movie: Generic slasher fare starring comeback kids The Olsen Twins. Marvel as TOT run around in their pants, whilst the local psychotic attempts to slit their throats. The killer is eventually revealed to be jealous crooner Mandy Moore. Remember her? Nope, us neither. That’s why she’s pissed.

Awesome Scene: A flesh-filled scene in which the twins inexplicably share a shower.

Page 12 of 20
Page 12 of 20
Door Into Fire

Door Into Fire

The Cover: Pneumatic babe, skulls on spikes, big-ass sword… this will be aimed at the chaps then, yes?

The Movie: Science-fiction caper following the adventures of Sly Stallone’s grizzled warlord. Having defeated every earthly opponent going, Sly is challenged by Dolph Lungren’s God of War for an otherworldly scrap, with immortality up for grabs. Conan, eat your heart out!

Awesome Scene: A CGI Marlon Brando pops up as a celestial referee. He signed up to all sorts of guff before he pegged it…

Page 13 of 20
Page 13 of 20
Undying World

Undying World

The Cover: Put some clothes on man, there’s a strangely hairy lizard to fight! So camp, it’s untrue…

The Movie: Sometimes, the world needs a hero who can’t be bothered with clothes. That hero is Blade! Armed only with a steely glare and his trusty harpoon, Gerard Butler grimaces his way through this action-packed fantasy, pausing only to size up the busty maidens placed strategically along the way.

Awesome Scene: Blade whips off his loincloth to reveal…nothing. Just a smooth surface. So that’s why he’s so angry!

Page 14 of 20
Page 14 of 20
Rubber Dolly

Rubber Dolly

The Cover : Not sure what’s more disturbing here, the wires coming out of Mrs. Dolly’s tummy, or the startled look on her face. Mr. Dolly doesn’t seem too fussed…

The Movie: This Weird Science re-boot sees a crackpot professor (John Turturro) invent himself a girlfriend out of bits and bobs from the recycling. Initially ridiculed, the caring relationship between man and machine soon wins the hearts of the town.

Awesome Scene: The surprisingly bleak ending, in which the consummation of the relationship gives the Prof a fatal electric shock. Ouch.

Page 15 of 20
Page 15 of 20
Sister Time

Sister Time

The Cover: Oversized breasts meet massive, phallic gun? Go on, we’re listening…

The Movie: Angelina Jolie pours herself into a latex catsuit to star as a time-hopping “cleaner”, charged with keeping the universe on the path of fate. She’s after Billy-Bob Thornton’s rival time traveller, who’s determined to cause chaos by playing silly-buggers with history. We can almost hear Michael Bay’s ears pricking up…

Awesome Scene: A shoot-out in the Cabinet War Rooms, as Billy-Bob tries to put one in Churchill’s head.

Page 16 of 20
Page 16 of 20
The Rifleman

The Rifleman

The Cover: What in the blue hell is happening here? We’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but the parallels with The Woodsman are unfortunate.

The Movie:
Western drama, starring Russell Crowe as a drifter who takes a newly orphaned boy under his wing, and helps him track down the villainous sheriff (Willem Dafoe) who killed his family.

Awesome Scene: When Junior helps himself to Russ’s gun, and aims it squarely at Willem’s crotch. Ain’t payback a bitch?

Page 17 of 20
Page 17 of 20
The Texas-Israeli War

The Texas-Israeli War

The Cover: Rednecks vs Israelis. This is what it look like inside Bush’s head.

The Movie: Yee-ha! Sick and tired of Obama’s “pussyfooting”, some Good Ol’ Boys from Texas tool-up and take the USA by force. The lily-livered Democrats have no option but to call for their old buddies in Israel, who are only too happy to kick some cowboy ass.

Awesome Scene: Obama (Jamie Foxx) goes rogue when the Texans hit the White House, snapping Garth Brooks’ neck with his bare hands.

Page 18 of 20
Page 18 of 20
The Magick Of Camelot

The Magick Of Camelot

The Cover: The spacecraft is bad enough, but is that dragon shitting fire?

The Movie: Fantasy spectacular as King Arthur (Daniel Craig) and friends are faced by a bunch of marauding aliens. Its laser-guns versus broadswords, as the little green men get more than they bargained for from the Knights of the Round Table.

Awesome Scene: A swarm of aliens are incinerated by a single puff from the court’s resident dragon. Dragons versus aliens? Come on…you’d watch it!

Page 19 of 20
Page 19 of 20
The Yngling In Yamato

The Yngling In Yamato

The Cover: Rippling muscles, incomprehensible title, East meets West dynamic…the stage is set for a truly atrocious tale.

The Movie:
In dire need of some new weaponry, the US military pitches up in Japan to conscript a chapter of Samurais into their service. However, they haven’t reckoned with one man, an American ex-pat who won’t let his adopted people go quietly. That man…is Charles Bronson!

Awesome Scene:
Charlie B takes down an entire squad of marines using a tree branch and a dustbin lid. Owned.

Page 20 of 20
Page 20 of 20
George Wales
George Wales
Social Links Navigation

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.

See more Movies Features
Read more
The Long Walk
Upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshot showing Link, a male character with elf-like ears, blond hair, and bright blue eyes
The Legend of Zelda movie is exciting, but I'm still begging for 5 specific video game movies to get adapted next
James Cameron
James Cameron is set to adapt a fantasy novel described as "Suicide Squad meets Hammer Horror" as he finishes work on Avatar: Fire and Ash: "It will be a joyful new challenge for me"
Bring Her Back
After looking through Bring Her Back's viral black market website, I need Danny and Michael Philippou to make a V/H/S-style found footage movie about its creepy, cursed objects
Ice Cube stares intensely at a computer monitor in War of the Worlds
After Amazon's War of the Worlds, I watched all the 0% rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes and here are the five brilliantly awful ones I'd recommend you stream next
Eddie Murphy as Russell and Pete Davidson as Travis in The Pickup.
The 25 best movies on Amazon Prime to watch right now
Latest in Movies
image of Joaquin Torres in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Marvel and The Last of Us star will lead a new Scarface movie based on the original 1930 novel: "I think in 2025, it's more relevant now than ever"
Samara Weaving in Ready or Not
Elijah Wood says sequel to underrated horror movie picks up almost immediately after the first and "enriches everything you love about the original film": "It really deepens the mythology"
Ice Cube stares intensely at a computer monitor in War of the Worlds
War of the Worlds producer defends the Ice Cube-led movie despite being one of the worst reviewed films of all time: "We made a really good movie for the money we had"
Alan Ritchson in the Reacher season 3 teaser trailer
Reacher star Alan Ritchson says "I strongly don't think that Batman is in my future," but admits "words have been exchanged" about the DCU role
Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux in Peacemaker season 2
Peacemaker season 2 newcomer reveals she auditioned for key Superman role – but lost out to a long-time friend: "I couldn't be happier"
Dogtooth
The new Yorgos Lanthimos movie is getting rave first reactions out of Venice Film Festival, but I think it's worth revisiting his breakout feature Dogtooth before Bugonia hits theaters this fall
Latest in Features
D&D Player's Handbook laid out on a wooden surface
Will romantasy be the next great crossover for Dungeons & Dragons? Fourth Wing could be the perfect D&D setting, if you ask me
Jurassic Park: Survival
Jurassic Park: Survival has quietly been 35 years in the making, and it's taking us back to where it all began
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era artwork showing a beautiful fantasy city
Playing Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has turned me into a Dungeon devotee, and I can't help but feel like I'm already seeing a strategy classic in the making
Out and About screenshot of the player character forager who has purple hair and wears dungarees
Out and About is a very cozy foraging adventure that's taking me back to my fish obsession in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
KPop Demon Hunters still of Rumi and the blue demon tiger
I can't wait for a KPop Demon Hunters sequel, but I'm still not convinced Netflix is actually going to learn anything from the original's success
Peacemaker holding the bloody corpse of his own alt-reality doppelganger
15 years ago James Gunn made the darkest superhero movie I've ever seen, but one scene from Peacemaker season 2 might have just topped it
  1. Rei Shimobe points aggressively in Shuten Order
    1
    Shuten Order review: "The Danganronpa creator's new multi-genre mystery feels like a forgotten DS cult classic I would have been obsessed with"
  2. 2
    The Rogue Prince of Persia review: "I roguelike but don't roguelove this freerunner – there's just not enough to stand out"
  3. 3
    Shinobi: Art of Vengeance review: "So close to being to a pitch-perfect revival of a classic series, but just can't quite line up the killing blow"
  4. 4
    Fate of the Fellowship is the most anticipated board game of the year, and it's a thing of absolute genius
  5. 5
    This is the perfect cozy board game for Fall with its compelling mix of Redwall and city-building
  1. Julia Garner in Weapons
    1
    Weapons review: "A twisted fairytale that bests Barbarian"
  2. 2
    The Fantastic Four: First Steps review: "An occasionally thrilling heroic adventure that sits safely within a B-tier MCU range"
  3. 3
    Superman review: "A triumphant reinvention and a promising start for the DCU"
  4. 4
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  5. 5
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  1. John Cena as Peacemaker holds a gun to the head of a different John Cena as Peacemaker in Peacemaker season 2.
    1
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."
  2. 2
    Wednesday season 2 part 1 review: "Complex and exciting but weighed down by too many subplots"
  3. 3
    Alien: Earth review: "Arguably the franchise's strongest outing since James Cameron's Aliens"
  4. 4
    King of the Hill season 14 review: "Hank Hill himself has evolved into a much more open and accepting person"
  5. 5
    Eyes of Wakanda review: "A creative premise shortchanged by the runtime and Marvel bloat"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...