These 19 "Bad Time" Party Movies Make Me Reminisce Of The College Party Days I Never Had
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There's nothing like a good party movie, which serves as a reminder to all of us just how good a good time can be.
Whether it's throwing the viewer back to fun nights on the town or all-night ragers that you won't remember and hangovers you won't forget, a party movie done right can capture the essence of a damn fun time.
But not every party movie is fun and games, and like a party that outstays its welcome, there are some movies out there that explore what happens when a good time goes very bad.
With college seasonƒ here for most, I've put together a number of "bad time" party movies that showcase what happens when partying hard turns into hard times for everyone.
1.Spring Breakers (2012)
Cast: Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson, Selena Gomez, and James FrancoDirector: Harmony KorineRuntime: 94 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
A shocking box office hit and pop culture sensation, Spring Breakers follows four college students whose debaucherous spring break trip goes awry, leading to their arrest and subsequent alliance with a bizarre drug dealer, who ushers them all deeper into a life of crime. Controversial for its mixture of in-your-face art film aesthetic and neon-soaked morality play drama, Spring Breakers is a top-tier example of what happens when you don’t bail once the party’s gone sour.
2.+1 (2013)
Cast: Rhys Wakefield, Logan Miller, Ashley Hinshaw, and Natalie HallDirector: Dennis IliadisRuntime: 96 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
From the director of the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, +1 surrounds a quarter of college students who attend a party that is mysteriously and abruptly set back in time an hour into the past, causing there to be a duplicate of every single person in the party doing exactly what they had been an hour prior. This trippy, well-acted sci-fi flick takes some real dark times, devolving into one of the most disturbing hypothetical party situations in cinema history.
3.Project X (2012)
Cast: Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Kirby Bliss Blanton, and Miles TellerDirector: Nima NourizadehRuntime: 88 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
Made at the height of the found footage boom of the early 2010s, Project X follows three high school seniors who decide to throw an epic party to escape the drudges of anonymity, but soon discover their plans blossom into something more out-of-control than they could have ever imagined. This Todd Phillips-produced comedy goes further and further around every turn, proving that if you let the good times roll, they just might snowball into a complete nightmare.
4.Very Bad Things (1998)
Cast: Jon Favreau, Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, and Daniel SternDirector: Peter BergRuntime: 100 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
A truly demented comedy that was certainly too dark for general audiences when it hit theaters in 1998, Very Bad Things surrounds a group of men at a bachelor party who accidentally kill a stripper and her bodyguard, setting them on a path of guilt, deception and, yes, more murder. Also notable as the feature directorial debut of Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), Very Bad Things gets a ton of mileage out of its fantastic ensemble cast and inspired premise, but its mileage may vary for the cringe-adverse throughout the misanthropic journey toward its pitch black gut-punch of an ending.
5.Murder Party (2007)
Cast: Alex Barnett, Macon Blair, Stacy Rock, and Bill TangradiDirector: Jeremy SaulnierRuntime: 79 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
The directorial debut of Green Room filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier, Murder Party follows a lonely man who receives a random invite to a Halloween party in Brooklyn, only to discover he's been lured into a trap by a homicidal art collective. A mix between horror comedy and a satire of pretentious gatekeeping in the arts, Murder Party is a biting genre gem that'll have you laughing and gasping in equal measure and might make you think twice before crashing the nearest shindig.
6.Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova, Rachel Sennott, and Pete DavidsonDirector: Halina ReijnRuntime: 95 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
Featuring an exceptional cast of up-and-coming performers, Bodies Bodies Bodies surrounds a group of 20-somethings at a "hurricane party" in a remote mansion, but their drug-and-booze-fueled fun comes to a screeching halt when one of them turns up dead during a party game. While the film has some tonal issues that keep it from becoming a full-on classic, Bodies Bodies Bodies is still solid entertainment that helps re-introduce the "party gone bad" subgenre to a new generation.
7.Donkey Punch (2008)
Cast: Robert Boulter, Sian Breckin, Tom Burke, and Nichola BurleyDirector: Oliver BlackburnRuntime: 89 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
In this jaw-dropping psychological thriller, a group of vacationers partying on a yacht are brought crashing down to a cruel reality after a sex act gone wrong leaves someone dead. Donkey Punch is not only an unnerving nightmare of a genre film, but it's worsened by the inscrutable fact that it's a boat party gone bad, and every issue is worse when it happens on a boat.
8.Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009)
Cast: Giuseppe Andrews, Noah Segan, Alexi Wasser, and Marc SenterDirector: Ti WestRuntime: 86 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
He may have redefined his career with the one-two punch of X and Pearl in 2022, but Ti West's debut in the director's chair came with a direct-to-video sequel for Cabin Fever that follows a group of teenagers preparing for their high school prom unknowingly in the midst of a deadly outbreak. Living up to the gruesome gross-out standards of its predecessor, Cabin Fever 2 redefines the concept of "worst prom ever."
9.Rough Night (2017)
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Zoë Kravitz, and Ilana GlazerDirector: Lucia AnielloRuntime: 96 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
A contemporary twist on the Very Bad Things formula through a woman's perspective, Rough Night surrounds a wild bachelorette weekend that goes sideways, as the girls must come together to cover up an accidental death of a male stripper. Though the film has a strong comedic pedigree, Rough Night didn't exactly set the world on fire for either critics or audiences back in 2017, as it was effortlessly overshadowed by the similarly themed Girls Trip.
10.Coherence (2013)
Cast: Hugo Armstrong, Emily Baldoni, Elizabeth Gracen, and Nicholas BrendonDirector: James Ward ByrkitRuntime: 89 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
Coherence follows a dinner party that descends into utter turmoil when a passing comet places them in dueling realities, which places an identical house and identical set of friends of a different reality on the same street. A modern-day cult classic that mines a metric ton of drama and suspense from its engaging sci-fi premise, Coherence reminds you that sometimes the more intimate, small-scale get-togethers can go just as wrong, or even more so, than full-on ragers.
11.Dead Body (2017)
Cast: Spencer Hamp, Jay Myers, Rachel Brun, and Nate PringleDirector: Bobbin RamseyRuntime: 85 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
This underrated whodunit surrounds a group of teenagers gathering for a high school graduation party, during which time a game of "dead body" serves as a cover for one of the participants to go on a murder spree. A festival favorite, Dead Body might inspire you to keep your party games strictly to flip cup, video games, and other pastimes that can't be twisted into fuel for homicidal rages.
12.Trespassers (2018)
Cast: Angela Trimbur, Janel Parrish, Jonathan Howard, and Fairuza BalkDirector: Orson OblowitzRuntime: 88 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
A suspenseful and occasionally brutal offering from rising filmmaker Orson Oblowitz (The Queen of Hollywood Blvd), Trespassers follows a pair of couples who rent a fancy desert home to host a hedonistic weekend to work through their respective issues, only for an unexpected appearance from an alleged neighbor to disrupt the evening in the worst way. Neighbors are always an annoying consideration when it comes to house parties, and this frightening flick might plant a real sordid seed into your brain for the next time you're planning an out-of-town bash.
13.Body (2015)
Cast: Helen Rogers, Alexandra Turshen, Lauren Molina, and Larry FessendenDirector: Dan Berk & Robert OlsenRuntime: 75 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
From the filmmakers behind Significant Other and Villains, Body surrounds a trio of young women who decide to party at a secluded mansion belonging to a nearby babysitting client, but find themselves in a moral quandary when they accidentally paralyze the groundskeeper. This macabre movie is a lean and mean one, which is ultimately bolstered beyond its fairly by-the-numbers narrative framing by outstanding performances and confident direction.
14.Cheap Thrills (2013)
Cast: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton, and David KoechnerDirector: E.L. KatzRuntime: 85 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
A seriously screwed-up film that walks the line between unsettling thriller and sadistic horror, Cheap Thrills follows two old friends who happen to reunite at a bar during a low point in their respective lives, only to find themselves seduced into a series of escalating bets after meeting a wealthy yet unpredictable couple. Sending the audience down a really twisted rabbit hole alongside its "protagonists," Cheap Thrills is a dark ensemble comedy that doubles as the rawest form of a "bad time party" story, holding the desperate and dark tone of a party gone far too long until the shocking final frame.
15.Pledge (2018)
Cast: Zachery Byrd, Phillip Andre Botello, Zack Weiner, and Aaron Dalla VillaDirector: Daniel RobbinsRuntime: 78 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
Hazing has been a hot-button topic in recent years, especially in regard to college fraternities, but the subject is absolute murder in this nerve-wracking 2018 chiller. Pledge surrounds a group of collegiate misfits who are invited to join a hard-partying fraternity, but soon discover that their invitation is anything but altruistic when their pledge process unveils a darker ulterior motive.
16.Who Invited Them (2022)
Cast: Ryan Hansen, Melissa Tang, Timothy Granaderos, and Perry MattfeldDirector: Duncan BirminghamRuntime: 81 MinutesRating: Not RatedRotten Tomatoes
A housewarming party gets really intense in this eerie horror-thriller, as the party's hosts wrestle with their suspicions that their lingering guests may not be who they say they are. Headlined with an against-type performance from Party Down's Ryan Hansen, Who Invited Them will have you on the edge of your seat trying to figure out its central mystery while inspiring viewers to ensure they run a background check on every single guest at their future parties.
17.Climax (2018)
Cast: Sofia Boutella, Souheila Yacoub, Thea Carla Schott, and Kiddy SmileDirector: Gaspar NoéRuntime: 95 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
In one of the ultimate "party gone bad" movies, a provocative dance troupe hosts a party at an empty school, but soon discovers that something has gone terribly wrong, evoking paranoia, hostility, and violence that threatens to consume them all. From one of cinema's most controversial filmmakers, Climax is hypnotic, erotic, and absolutely nightmarish in every sense of the word; approach this one with discretion and a strong stomach, and any photosensitive viewers might want to avoid this film like the plague.
18.Superbad (2007)
Cast: Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, and Christopher Mintz-PlasseDirector: Greg MottolaRuntime: 113 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
A modern-day comedy classic, Superbad follows three nerdy teenagers who hope to make one last impression on their classmates and potential love interests during the final party before high school graduation, and of course, anything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Anchored by star-making performances from the likes of Michael Cera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse (in his feature film debut), and Emma Stone, Superbad will keep you laughing, gagging, and cringing in the best ways possible throughout every minute of its nearly two-hour runtime.
19.The World's End (2013)
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, and Rosamund PikeDirector: Edgar WrightRuntime: 109 MinutesRating: RRotten Tomatoes
The final film in Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy, The World's End surrounds five middle-aged men who attempt to recapture their youth by completing a legendary bar crawl that eluded them during their glory days, only to find that their old hometown has been invaded by body-snatching extraterrestrials. A bittersweet rumination on nostalgia and leaving the past behind, this stellar sci-fi comedy offers up an apocalyptic "worst-case scenario" for any pub crawl that'll hit harder for those whose dangerous nights are largely behind them.
