5 Ridiculous Movie Genres We Used To Be Obsessed With

Freaky Friday's plot revolves around a harried housewife and her petulant daughter switching bodies, and eventually learning that they both have equally difficult lives and are worthy of respect. It made five times its budget, prompting a mad rush of producers hoping to capitalize on the premise. First came a TV series, Turnabout, wherein a husband and wife swap bodies thanks to a gypsy statue. Then there was 1984's All Of Me, in which a man and a woman cohabitate Steve Martin's body. Four more body-swapping films came out between '87 and '89, providing a stern reminder that Hollywood has always had issues with originality.

Universal PicturesThey started with the standard Steve Martin poster and wrote the movie from there.

In Like Father Like Son, a magical Native American switches the minds of a father and son. 18 Again! was totally different; in that one, a man and his grandson switch bodies due to "an accident." Then Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage switched bodies in Vice Versa, which was our high water mark.

Columbia PicturesIn body-swap movies and Judge Reinhold's career.

But Dream A Little Dream pushed the body-swapping genre too far, like the Manhattan Project of hack screenwriting. In this movie, a yoga mishap results in four characters switching bodies and learning important life lessons. 1992's Prelude To A Kiss spelled the end. Alec Baldwin's fiancee decides to make out with a lecherous old man, which naturally causes their souls to switch. Baldwin then has to learn how to love his previously sexy fiancee for her beautiful soul alone, even if it is now housed inside a pervy senior citizen. And since that was about as existentially terrifying as the genre could get, Hollywood called it a day.

20th Century FoxLater, Tina Fey would teach us to love Alec Baldwin regardless of his looks or his soul.

Moving swiftly to capitalize on Baby Jane's success, Crawford returned with Strait-Jacket in 1964. The film follows a convicted ax-murderer who, after being released from an asylum, immediately picks up her trusty ax and starts decapitating people again. It was nominated for no Academy Awards, because it sucked.

Columbia PicturesDude, spoilers.

1964 also saw the release of Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte -- starring Davis and directed by the same guy who did Baby Jane -- in which four old women go around murdering people for a variety of reasons. That film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and the race was on. What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice? follows an old lady who hires maids for the sole purpose of killing them and keeping their shit. Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? features an evil old lady who tortures orphans. And What's The Matter With Helen? sees two old ladies trying to avenge their sons' murder convictions by -- you guessed it -- murdering a bunch of people. It's not a great plan.

American International PicturesThey really leaned on making the titles questions for free marketing.

Note that while these were the only roles many aging actresses could secure, male stars continued on as normal, seemingly immune to the ravages of time. Thankfully, Hollywood has long since sorted out all of its issues with older women.

The formula was repeated in 1973 with This Is A Hijack:

Fanfare FilmsThough for maximum effectiveness, you generally want the hijackers in the plane.

Once again, a neatly dressed middle-aged white guy hijacks a plane. While many real-life hijackings were motivated by politics, Hollywood was most comfortable portraying midair terrorists as dumpy Caucasian bank managers. How times change. 1976's Mayday At 40,000 Feet! also features a hijacking, SST: Death Flight has an onboard saboteur, and 1977's The Night They Took Miss Beautiful includes both a kidnapped beauty queen and a nerve toxin.

NBCUniversal Productions"I've had it with these motherfuckin' beauty queens on this motherfuckin' plane!"

Then the Airport franchise came soaring back with Airport '77, in which the hijacker is once again a conservative talk radio fan. There were four Airport movies, by the way. The entire decade was pretty much dedicated to airplanes put in peril by the managers of used car lots.

Next came 1993's Prehysteria!, In which a museum curator sneaks into a forbidden South American temple like a second-rate Indiana Jones (or a current-rate Indiana Jones) to steal a bunch of eggs and hatch dinosaurs from them. These dinos can't talk, but they still like partying and rock music, because that was all the '90s had.

Paramount PicturesWell, that and Laserdisc.

A month before Jurassic Park was released, audiences were subjected to Carnosaur. Its killer dinosaurs are revived with chicken DNA, so clearly it was a totally different film.

New Horizon PicturesCould they not afford teeth for their T-rex?

A few months after Jurassic Park, there was We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. Three guesses as to what it's about.

Universal PicturesWhatever you guessed, the reality is dumber.

Two years later, studio executives wanted to see how far they could push this thing before the public revolted and tarred and feathered them in protest. To that end, they produced Theodore Rex, a movie so bad that even Whoopi Goldberg had to be legally forced to participate in it.

New Line CinemaYou don't say ...

Tiago Svn would like to make vampire friends on Twitter. Nathan Kamal lives in Oregon and writes there. He co-founded Asymmetry Fiction for all your fiction needs. Jordan Breeding also writes for Paste Magazine, the Twitter, himself, and with a dirty, dirty spray can in various back alleys.

Dinosaurs are still best experienced in LEGO form -- even the Indominus Rex.

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For more bizarre film trends, check out 5 Extremely Specific Movie Trends That Nobody Remembers and 6 Once-Popular Movie Genres Hollywood Doesn't Make Anymore.

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