Not since the era of Ed Wood has a movie been so delightfully bad it was actually good. And Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! was so bad in fact that, upon viewing it, one might actually think that the filmmaker set out to make the worst movie possible…and they would be right. Producer John De Bello was determined to make a spoof of the onslaught of the horrifically bad 1950s genre of horror film, and he succeeded so magnificently that the movie set the benchmark for bad movies for the rest of time.

As the title suggests, there are some carnivorous tomatoes on the prowl, some of which are bigger than a human. While they turn the tables on the human race, devouring any American that gets in their path, CIA agent Mason Dixon (ugh) is put on the case and assembles a crack squad that includes disguise expert, Sam Smith, SCUBA diver, Greg Colburn, Greta, the Russian swimmer and a saber carrying soldier with a screw loose, Lt. Finletter. Tagging along is journalist Lois Fairchild, eager to break the story. And, as one might expect, the mutant tomatoes are the fruit of the US Governments efforts. Now, Mason is not only fighting terrorizing tomatoes but a corrupt administration that would like to see him canned for good.

With a plot that bad, surely the first word that pops to mind is…”sequel!” It would take ten long years (hey, it can take some time to come up with a worse idea for a movie) before De Bello was ready to unleash the frightening fruit for another go around. Return of the Killer Tomatoes proved to be as bad, if not worse than its predecessor (no small feat) and this time cast John Astin (Gomez on TV’s The Addams Family) as mad scientist (are you ready to groan?) Professor Gangrene. His particular green thumb talents allowed him to create tomatoes from humans and humans from tomatoes, all of which had the same killer instincts that movie fans had grown to love. With a cast that featured George Clooney and Rick Rockwell (of Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire fame), audiences got everything they hoped for and more from a sequel that proved it was a worthy contender for worst film ever.

If that weren’t enough to satiate the appetite of those gluttenous fans of tomato punishment, a Saturday morning cartoon seemed to be the perfect follow-up, perfect to start the kiddies young in their fruit-fearing ways. But just to make sure that nobody was left hungry, a couple more sequels were added for good measure – Killer Tomatoes Strike Back and Killer Tomatoes Eat France.  All of which serves to prove that you should never leave a theater thinking that you have just seen the worst movie you have ever seen. There are always worse ideas on the horizon, enough to create a whole franchise if the filmmaker is so inclined. In other words, be careful what you wish for, even in jest - you just might get it.