Former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Garcelle Beauvais is getting candid about her dramatic exit from the popular Bravo series. In a new interview, the “Coming to America” actress said she made the difficult decision after realizing she was in a position that no longer served her.

Beauvais stopped by “The Today Show” in early May 2026 to promote her new Audible Original memoir, “Protecting My Peace… at All Costs.”

During her interview, the mother of three opened up about leaving the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in March 2025 after five years.

“A line was drawn for me that I no longer wanted to cross. I felt like my spirit could no longer do it. (It was) just drama for the sake of drama,” Beauvais told NBC host Savannah Sellers.

Beauvais announced her exit with a vulnerable video on Instagram, noting that her time on Bravo was a “wild ride,” according to a previous report from The Blast.

The “Jamie Foxx Show” alum added. “Some amazing things have happened, and some hard things have also happened, but it’s been a ride nevertheless.”

Garcelle Beauvais Talks Leaving ‘RHOBH’ In Her New Memoir

While Beavuais’ departure from the series was more than a year ago, she’s keeping things as real as she can in her new memoir.

“I realized something I couldn’t unsee. I didn’t have an ally. Not one. Not a single friend sitting on that stage with me. No one to lock eyes with, no one to lean toward. No one saying, ‘I see you,’” she said in her latest book released on May 7.

She added, “The same way I walked in is how I walked out. Alone. I didn’t wanna fight anymore. I didn’t wanna be a grown a, woman, a grandmother, going after other women.”

Garcelle Beauvais Didn’t ‘Connect’ With Anybody On ‘Real Housewives’ During Her Final Season

Beauvais became even more candid in the publication, admitting that she was no longer connecting with her co-stars as she once had.

“And like I said (in my book), I felt like there wasn’t anybody there anymore that I connected with. And it was just time. I mean, ‘Housewives’ was never my last stop. I’ve done a lot of things prior to that and hope to do more afterward. But it was just time for me. It really was,” she said.

This isn’t the first time Beauvais has revealed that she felt like she was on an island while filming the final season of “RHOBH.” The Blast reported on Beauvais’ dramatic falling-out with her ex-friend, Sutton Stracke, who joined the cast at the same time as the iconic actress.

While speaking with Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live,” Beauvais said she was “hurt” by Stracke’s lack of support during the season 14 reunion.

“Not only did she not have my back when she called, she never took accountability for it, and that hurt my feelings a lot,” Beauvais said.

Beauvais Has One Friend In This Socialite Turned Reality Star

While she’s no longer on the show, Beauvais appears to have formed a lasting bond with one of the show’s recurring cast members, Kathy Hilton.

“I love and adore her. I called her, obviously, right when I walked off the set from the reunion and talked to her,” Hilton said about Beauvais’ departure.

Hilton went on to say that she actually met with Beauvais following the reunion; however, she refused to bring up the show “because I just want her to know that she’s very loved and will be missed.”

How Does Beauvais Feel About Her Exit Today?

Being missed might not be enough for Beauvais to return, though. In December 2025, Beauvais said she’s been enjoying life since leaving the series and doesn’t know if she could see herself being back in the mix.

“You know, it was tough to be in that fishbowl. And I know the fandom is amazing, and everybody loves the show, and I took a lot away with me from it,” she said.

“But I’m also happy that I get to spend more time with my kids before they go off to college, and I get to do all these great creative things that I like to do,” she added.

Kris Jenner is finally addressing two of the biggest rumors surrounding her recent transformation. 

After months of speculation about Ozempic use and backlash over her facelift, the Kardashian matriarch is now speaking openly about both. 

During a candid podcast appearance, Jenner admitted she tried the trendy weight-loss medication before it exploded across Hollywood, but said the experience left her feeling ill. 

At the same time, she fiercely defended the plastic surgeon behind her dramatic new appearance while insisting she has zero regrets about her cosmetic choices.

Kris Jenner has officially confirmed she experimented with Ozempic long before the medication became one of Hollywood’s biggest obsessions.

The reality star first sparked rumors in 2023 after fans noticed her noticeably slimmer appearance during a vacation in Tuscany. Social media users immediately flooded the comments section with speculation about weight-loss injections.

For years, Jenner stayed silent about the rumors. However, during Tuesday’s episode of the “SHE MD” podcast, she finally admitted she had tried the medication.

“We tried it once when no one knew what it was,” Jenner revealed. The 70-year-old said the injections quickly became a problem because they made her feel “really sick” and “nauseous.”

After abandoning Ozempic, Jenner explained that she turned to other wellness methods instead. She said she now uses peptide injections and supplements, which she claims give her “more energy” and help her gain “an extra couple of hours every day.”

Jenner also stressed the importance of monitoring hormone health as women age, noting, “I get my blood drawn every three months just to keep my hormones balanced.”

Jenner Furiously Denies Facelift Regret Rumors

Kris Jenner is also shutting down reports claiming she regrets her facelift. The television personality recently faced rumors suggesting she was unhappy with the results of her expensive cosmetic procedure and believed the facelift had started “slipping.”

According to speculation, Jenner was allegedly considering another surgery despite working with celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Steven M. Levine, often nicknamed the “facelift maestro.”

However, the reality TV star forcefully denied the claims while appearing on daughter Khloé Kardashian’s podcast, “Khloé in Wonderland.”

“Lately, it’s this headline about my facelift, which is really truly driving me crazy,” Jenner admitted, adding, “The headline right now is that I hate my facelift, and I’m really mad at… I’m furious at my doctor, Steven Levine, which couldn’t be further from the truth.”

She continued m, “It’s a flat-out lie. I love my facelift. I adore my doctor. I’m obsessed with him,” explaining that the entire purpose of the surgery was simply to refresh her appearance.

“The goal was to do a beautiful lift and give me a refresh and do a beautiful jawline, which I achieved,” she said. The Kardashian matriarch added that she normally ignores gossip, but felt compelled to defend Levine because the rumors were damaging his reputation.

Jenner Says She Does Not Need Public Approval

Kris Jenner made it clear she has no interest in changing herself to satisfy critics.

During the podcast conversation, the momager insisted she feels completely comfortable with her appearance and no longer worries about public opinion.

“At 70 years old, I don’t really care what someone thinks of me. I don’t need anyone’s approval,” Jenner declared,” further noting, “I love my face. And I’m really okay with the way I look.”

Since undergoing the facelift, Jenner has confidently shown off her refreshed appearance during several major public events.

She attended the lavish wedding celebrations for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, where fans once again commented on her youthful appearance. 

The TV personality also turned heads during the Kardashian family’s annual holiday party alongside longtime boyfriend Corey Gamble.

Kris Jenner Reveals Secret ‘Password’ With Her Plastic Surgeon

In the past, Jenner has shared surprising behind-the-scenes details about her relationship with Dr. Levine.

During an appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast in October, she revealed the surgeon initially wanted to avoid the publicity connected to her facelift.

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“He didn’t want the attention, which I loved,” Jenner explained per the Daily Mail. She said she eventually asked whether she had permission to publicly reveal his identity.

In her words, “And he goes, ‘Listen, I’ll tell you what. As long as we can come up with a password so that if somebody calls and says, I’m Kris Jenner’s best friend, and can I have a consultation? They have to say the secret password.’”

Kris Jenner Explains Why She Openly Discusses Surgery

Jenner has become increasingly open about discussing cosmetic procedures publicly. 

In an interview with Vogue Arabia last August, she explained that she decided it was time for another facelift after more than a decade.

“I had a facelift about 15 years ago, so it was time for a refresh,” she shared, adding that she decided to do the procedure because she wanted a better version for herself.

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The socialite later revealed she intentionally chose to speak publicly about the surgery because she hoped it would encourage others not to feel ashamed.

She explained that being honest about cosmetic procedures could “inspire others not to be afraid of surgeries that you need that are necessary or even something you wanna do because you wanna feel better about yourself.”

Summer House’s West Wilson is setting the record straight after Ciara Miller accused him of sleeping with Jennifer Fessler.

Ciara, 30, made the claim on Friday, May 8, after Real Housewives of New Jersey alum Jennifer, 57,  defended West amid his ongoing relationship dramas.

“[West] is the cutest, sweetest golden retriever puppy dog. He does not mean any harm. He didn’t mean it. He’s just trying to have a good time. He doesn’t wanna hurt anyone. Give him a break,” Jennifer said at Vulture’s The Masterminds of Reality TV event on Thursday. (Wilson, 31, caused controversy by hooking up with his costar Amanda Batula, 34, after previously dating her friend, Ciara.)

When the comments were posted via Threads, Ciara responded to Jennifer’s remarks by commenting, “Lol, because they slept together too.”

Taking to his Instagram Stories on Friday, West denied his ex’s accusations. He wrote “news to me” and tagged Jennifer alongside a popular meme that indicates confusion and facts not adding up.

A source close to West also hosed down the accusation, exclusively telling Us Weekly on Friday the claim was “absolutely not true.” The insider described Ciara’s comment as “such a silly allegation.”

After facing widespread speculation about their relationship, West and Amanda confirmed their romantic connection via a joint statement shared on March 31.

“We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity,” read the statement. “It was never our intention to purposely hide anything. Given the complicated relationship dynamics involved and the scrutiny that comes with being on a reality show, we needed a little space to process things privately before speaking on it.”

The pair added that their platonic relationship evolved into something romantic over time.

“We’ve shown up for each other as friends over the years, through all the highs and lows, and what’s developed recently was the last thing either of us expected,” they continued. “Our connection grew out of a genuine, longstanding friendship, which made it especially important for us to approach this with care.”

The new romance came just two months after Amanda and her Summer House costar Kyle Cooke announced their split after four years of marriage.

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“After much reflection, we have mutually and amicably decided to part ways as a couple,”  Amanda and Kyle wrote via an Instagram statement in January. “We share this with a heavy heart and kindly ask for your grace and support while we focus on our personal growth and healing.”

Meanwhile, Ciara shared her thoughts on West and Amanda’s budding relationship via an interview with Glamour published on April 17, revealing she had “less than 24 hours notice” before West and Amanda’s public statement was shared with the world.

“It’s one thing to experience hurt behind closed doors,” Ciara told the magazine. “To experience it so publicly is like another layer, and then to have to see what you thought was your life still play out in season 10. It’s a major mindf***.

Jennifer Fessler is hitting back after Ciara Miller accused her ex West Wilson of hooking up with the Real Housewives of New Jersey alum.

Speaking to Page Six on Friday, May 8, the F Major cofounder, 57, brushed off Ciara’s claim that she had been intimate with West, 31.

“It’s flattering that anyone would think someone who slept with Ciara Miller would be interested in sleeping with me,” Jennifer, who has been married to Jeff Fessler since 1999, told the outlet.

Jennifer’s comments about West at Vulture’s The Masterminds of Reality TV event on Thursday prompted Ciara, 30, to make the unsubstantiated claim.

The RHONJ alum defended West as he continues to face public backlash for embarking a romance with his Summer House costar Amanda Batula — who is also a former friend of Ciara’s.

“[West] is the cutest, sweetest golden retriever puppy dog. He does not mean any harm. He didn’t mean it,” Jennifer said at the event. “He’s just trying to have a good time. He doesn’t wanna hurt anyone. Give him a break.”

When Jennifer’s comments emerged via Threads, Ciara responded via the platform, “Lol, because they slept together too.”

West took to his Instagram Stories on Friday to hose down the speculation. The Summer House alum sarcastically wrote, “news to me.” He tagged Jennifer in his post.

After briefly dating, West and Ciara confirmed they’d split for good at the Summer House season 8 reunion, which was filmed in May 2024.

For her part, Amanda, 34, and husband Kyle Cooke, 43, confirmed their separation in January after four years of marriage.

When rumors then began to intensify that Amanda and West’s relationship had become more than platonic, the duo confirmed the speculation in March via a joint Instagram statement.

“We’ve seen the growing online speculation, so while this is still very new, we wanted to provide some clarity,” they wrote in March. “It was never our intention to purposely hide anything. Given the complicated relationship dynamics involved and the scrutiny that comes with being on a reality show, we needed a little space to process things privately before speaking on it.”

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Meanwhile, Jennifer has spoken candidly in the past about the ups and downs in her own marriage to husband Jeff, including infidelity that occurred seven years after tying the knot.

“My marriage was definitely not my priority at that time, and it wasn’t for Jeff either,” Jennifer explained on the “I Do Part 2” podcast in February 2025. “We were just not connecting. We were not connecting on an emotional level, and we were not connecting on a physical level.”

While the couple eventually patched things up and continued to work hard on their union, Jennifer admitted on the podcast that she “completely lost my mind” after discovering Jeff was having an affair.

Blake Lively is reportedly optimistic about rekindling her close bond with Taylor Swift. The friendship between the actress and the singer became strained amid Lively’s lawsuit against actor Justin Baldoni.

However, with the lawsuit recently settled, Lively is said to be hopeful that the resolution could pave the way for a reconciliation with the acclaimed pop star.

It remains unclear whether Taylor Swift feels the same way, as sources claim that she still harbors some resentment and has disinvited Blake Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, from her wedding.

In the months since Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and other claims, both sides have endured significant fallout.

For Lively, one of the most painful consequences appears to be the strain on her once-close friendship with Taylor Swift.

Once best of buddies, the two have grown apart after Swift was name-dropped multiple times amid the drama, and have not been spotted together since.

Now that Lively and Baldoni have reached a settlement in their lawsuit, sources suggest the actress is hopeful that she and Swift can repair their friendship and regain the closeness they once shared.

“Blake genuinely believes there’s still a path back,” one insider told Rob Shuter’s “Naughty But Nice” Substack. “Now that the legal mess is over, she thinks the hardest part is behind her, and there’s real hope they can move forward.”

Blake Lively Is Confident Her Friendship With Taylor Swift Can Be Saved

According to the sources, Lively is so hopeful about things improving again that she has already set her mind on attending Swift’s upcoming wedding to her boyfriend,  NFL star Travis Kelce.

“Just like she had her Met Gala dress ready, she already has a dress picked out for Taylor’s wedding,” an insider said. “That’s how convinced she was — and still is — that this friendship can be saved.”

Despite her optimism, Lively is said to be well aware that it may take some time before any true reconciliation can occur. However, she reportedly believes it will eventually happen now that the legal drama with Baldoni has reached some form of resolution.

“She knows not everything snaps back overnight,” another source says. “But Blake believes removing the chaos changes everything. She thinks once the noise is gone, there’s room for real healing.”

How Taylor Swift Got Involved In Blake Lively’s Legal Drama

Swift became indirectly tied to the legal battle between Lively and Baldoni after her name appeared in court documents over alleged text conversations involving Lively that included disparaging remarks about Baldoni.

Lively was also reportedly seen in text messages telling the actor that she “happens to have a few dragons” who would defend her, a statement widely believed to reference Swift and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. The message was allegedly sent following a meeting between Lively and Baldoni regarding a scene from their film, “It Ends with Us.”

During the lawsuit, Baldoni’s legal team argued that the messages suggested Swift may have had some influence over Lively’s decisions related to the project.

Swift’s representatives, however, strongly denied any involvement. They stated that the singer never visited the set and had no role in the film’s creative development or production beyond licensing one of her songs for use in the movie.

Release Of Taylor Swift And Blake Lively’s Text Messages Worsened Things

The legal fight between Baldoni and Lively led to the unsealing of Swift’s alleged private chat with the actress, which was said to have negatively impacted the pop star.

The text messages showed Swift agreeing to hype up Lively’s adjustments to the “It Ends With Us” script, “even without reading it.”

In other messages, Lively praised the singer as “epically heroic” while labeling Baldoni a “clown” and a “doofus,” with Swift also calling him a “b-tch.”

According to People Magazine, the release of the messages left Swift feeling “uncomfortable.”

“Taylor feels like her privacy was impacted,” a source told the publication. “Anyone would be uncomfortable if their private texts were suddenly made public.”

Taylor Swift Reportedly Won’t Invite Blake Lively To Her Wedding

While the lawsuit was still ongoing, Swift did not make any public comments about the matter despite speculation that she could potentially be deposed as part of the legal proceedings.

Even now that the case is over, Swift has continued to remain silent, including on rumors surrounding any possible reconciliation with Lively.

On this, sources close to the situation have hinted that Swift is still holding onto some resentment and has decided not to invite Lively or her husband, Ryan Reynolds, to her wedding.

“They’re not invited. Period,” one source told Rob Shuter’s “Naughty But Nice” Substack, adding, “Taylor wants a drama-free day and no longer trusts Blake or Ryan.”

Another insider alleged that Swift had made the decision a long time ago, suggesting that the singer may have already moved on from her friendship with Lively.

A Sheriff Country star revealed if they were “written off” after a prolonged onscreen absence.

Michele Weaver, who plays Cassidy, took to Instagram on Friday, May 8, to address why she hasn’t been in recent episodes, adding, “People keep asking if I was written off. Nope .. just had to leave to have a baby.”

She continued: “I’m back next week! Don’t miss tonight’s episode! If you think you know what’s going to happen next… trust me.. you don’t.”

During an April episode of the hit CBS series, Cassidy was finally able to solve her missing sister’s case. That involved Cassidy getting kidnapped by a serial killer who got away with murdering women for years.

While Mickey (Morena Baccarin) saved Cassidy just in time, the deputy asked for some time off. The final scene showed Cassidy and her mother driving off in her car while healing from their loss.

The network previously renewed Sheriff Country for season 2 — with Weaver, 36, expected to reprise her role as Cassidy. Sheriff Country also stars Baccarin, Christopher Gorham, Matt Lauria and W. Earl Brown while Amanda Arcuri and Ian Quinlan were promoted to series regulars for the second season.

Concern about Cassidy’s future comes after Sheriff Country‘s predecessor, Fire Country, received backlash when budget cuts led to Billy Burke and Stephanie Arcila‘s exits.

“It’s a fire show. Anyone can go at any time,” showrunner Tia Napolitano told Us Weekly in October 2025. “But in terms of losing people, we’re also adding some really fun guest cast. It’s a revolving door of people from Sharon’s past and new faces that are exciting to bring conflict and secrets and twists and turns.”

Napolitano teased how the show will have to balance “really spicing it up” while still walking a “fine line” of paying tribute to the loss.

Related: How Many ‘Fire Country’ Stars Have Left the CBS Series Over the Years?

Fire Country has faced numerous surprising cast — and crew — changes over the years. The CBS series, which premiered in 2022, introduced Us to the town of Edgewater after inmate Bode (Max Thieriot) returned home and began volunteering for the California Conservation Camp Program. By season 2, a backdoor pilot set up the world […]

“What we’ve done is really thread the needle of honoring — especially Vince — because Gabriella is gone, but she’s gone to a happy and successful life. She’s still out there. But we really walk this line of honoring Vince while also finding hope rather quickly,” she noted. “Looking forward, the theme of the season is rising from the ashes and recovery.”

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Napolitano continued: “How do you recover from something like this? And we’re really going to see everybody rise to the occasion, in celebration of Vince, of his life and in honoring the sacrifice that he made.”

After speaking with Us, news broke that Napolitano was leaving the show as well. It was announced in March that Eric Guggenheim will be taking over for Napolitano. According to Deadline, Guggenheim is coming on board after previously serving as showrunner of Magnum P.I. and coshowrunner of Hawaii Five-0.

Sheriff Country airs on CBS Fridays at 8 p.m. ET and Fire Country follows at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will be streaming the next day on Paramount+.

Rage bait consists of online content deliberately produced to provoke anger, outrage, and scandal in order to generate high levels of engagement. It has become a massive pillar of Internet culture, and sadly, not even the movies have been able to steer clear of rage bait. Indeed, particularly in recent times (when online discourse has become an essential part of a film’s anticipation and reception), it has become increasingly common for studios to make and promote movies in such a way that it’s clear they’re trying to stir a passionate reaction in audiences.

Whether it’s a biopic humiliating a beloved actress, one of Disney’s many live-action recreations of their animated classics, or a sequel that destroys everything that its beloved predecessor stood for, there have been many ways in which filmmakers have engaged in clear rage bait over the years. These aren’t just movies that happened to be bad and happened to anger audiences as a result: They were movies clearly designed from the get-go to incite rage in order to be in the conversation.

8

‘Blonde’ (2022)

Image via Netflix

Marilyn Monroe was one of the biggest and brightest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, an immensely talented actress who still remains one of the era’s most beloved performers. She was also, however, a deeply tragic figure. Childhood trauma, mental health struggles, failed relationships, and notorious exploitation from the Hollywood studio systems all characterized her life. As a result, she’s become one of the most enigmatic and often-explored figures of the era across documentaries, books, movies, and the like. This leads us to Andrew Dominik‘s Blonde, based on Joyce Carol Oates‘ 2000 novel of the same name, a fictionalized account of the life and career of the actress.

In no way is Blonde celebratory or respectful of Monroe. Instead, it feels like a film that shamelessly humiliates her and manipulates her image, resulting in one of the worst rage-bait movies ever made. It’s posthumous tabloid trash in cinematic form, a drama clearly intended to stir up controversy in the way it distorts Monroe’s life with the excuse of being a “fictionalized account.” It’s time to let this beloved actress finally rest.

7

‘Snow White’ (2025)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Disney has been making live-action remakes of their beloved animated classics since the ’90s, but it was following the success of 2015’s Cinderella that the House of Mouse really started to turn this highly-criticized practice into a full-on business model. Disney live-action remakes have been getting lazier and lower-quality as the years have passed, culminating in what many would say is the worst one so far: Marc Webb‘s Snow White.

There are countless ways in which this remake failed the original, and that generated a storm of online hate that led the film to being one of the biggest box office flops in film history. From the controversial color-blind casting of Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot, to the CGI monstrosities that served as the story’s Seven Dwarfs, to the controversial marketing campaign that made it very clear this remake’s narrative wouldn’t stick very close to the original’s, everything about Snow White felt specifically engineered to generate controversy.

6

‘Mean Girls’ (2024)

Image via Paramount Pictures

2004’s Mean Girls is one of the most beloved comedies of the 2000s, a cult classic that has only gotten better with age. A stage rock musical adaptation of the movie premiered in 2017 to high critical acclaim, and that musical served as the basis of 2024’s Mean Girls. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. from a screenplay by Tina Fey, who wrote the original musical’s book, the film was met with a lukewarm reception from critics and a fiery swarm of hate from audiences.

The movie itself, though definitely considerably inferior to its predecessor and its source material alike, would have been fine enough by itself. What made it seem like shallow rage bait, however, was Paramount’s marketing strategy. The studio bafflingly decided to hide the fact that the film was a musical, and seeing as the Broadway version of the story isn’t exactly a universally-known sensation quite like the original film is, this meant that many viewers were met with an unpleasant surprise when they went to see 2024’s Mean Girls in theaters.

5

‘The Emoji Movie’ (2017)

Image via Sony Pictures Releasing

The Emoji Movie is one of the worst animated movies of all time, and that’s an almost universally-agreed-upon consensus. It’s not just that it’s visually ugly, or too dumb for anyone over the age of four to find any enjoyment in, or so unfunny that it almost inflicts physical pain on its viewers. It’s the fact that a movie about emojis, corporate slop clearly made to get kids to beg their parents for a phone so they can play Candy Crush, was an entirely broken concept to begin with.

No kind of movie is more deserving of the label of “rage bait” than a cynical, lazy cash-grab with a pandering tone and some of the most shameless product placement of any major-studio film in Hollywood history. Somehow, The Emoji Movie‘s controversy-generating strategy worked: It was a significant box office success, though the years have allowed it to age as one of the most universally hated animated films in the medium’s history.

4

‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ (2024)

Throughout history, many movie franchises have taken a nosedive after the first movie. The Joker duology is one such franchise. Though definitely divisive, it’s an objective fact that the first film was a smash hit and a massive success, garnering 11 Academy Award nominations and becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever at the time (a record since broken by Deadpool & Wolverine). Joker: Folie à Deux, on the other hand… much less of a success. That’s a nice way of saying that it was a total failure that massacred everything that its predecessor had done right.

If there is any pair of DC Comics characters who might have made sense as the stars of a campy jukebox musical on paper, it’s Joker and Harley Quinn. The problems here are that the hyper-pretentious Folie à Deux takes itself far too seriously to be campy, that the version of Gotham that Todd Phillips had built in Joker made zero sense as the setting for any kind of musical, and that the film very clearly made genuine efforts to get people’s feelings stirred up. In the end, this resulted in a major box office bomb.

3

‘Terrifier’ (2016)

Image Via Cinedigm

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Nowadays, horror fans fondly think of the horrifying-yet-oddly-amusing Art the Clown as the face of 2020s slasher horror, but that was only after the success of Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3. The character actually originated in a 2008 short film, and went on to serve as the main villain of his own feature in 2016’s Terrifier. Whereas its two sequels have been successful in expanding the story, world-building, and character work of the franchise in tons of interesting ways, the original Terrifier is just plainly atrocious.

Misogynistic, boring, awfully acted, visually ugly, full of poorly-executed gore, and with a script that feels like it’s barely a couple of pages long, this controversial splatter horror cult classic has nothing to offer beyond juvenile shock value. It’s a movie that seems like it was designed specifically to annoy, offend, and provoke people, and for the most part, it definitely had its desired effect.

2

‘365 Days’ Trilogy

Image via Netflix

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The erotic thriller genre is one that has produced a number of genuinely masterful films over the years. Netflix’s 365 Days movies aren’t among them. We’re talking about three of the most unwatchable drama movies in history, painfully un-sexy and un-erotic failures that misunderstood everything the genre should be so badly that it’s almost laughable—or it would be, if the movies weren’t so infuriatingly misogynistic from start to finish.

But that’s just the thing: 365 Days rage-baiting misogyny in no way feels incidental. Instead, it feels like the whole point of the trilogy. It’s so painfully obvious that these films were created to stir up controversy and invite hate-watching that it’s almost—the keyword here is once again “almost”—funny. They’re poorly made, amateurish in every sense imaginable, and an all-out affront on the cinematic art form.

1

‘A Serbian Film’ (2010)

Image via Unearthed Films

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A Serbian Film is famous for being one of the most disturbing and traumatizing movies ever made. In fact, that’s the only thing it’s famous for. Using graphic violence and taboo subjects to criticize censorship in Serbia sounds like a smart and honorable enough concept on paper, but there’s definitely such a thing as “too far.” Director Srđan Spasojević goes light years beyond that blurry line, to the point that watching A Serbian Film doesn’t just take a strong stomach: It takes a bit of a masochistic attitude as well.

For a wide variety of reasons too grotesque and provocative to even name, A Serbian Film is one of those movies capable of disturbing pretty much anyone. It’s the quintessential rage-bait film par excellence, a movie made entirely and exclusively to generate controversy and provoke strong negative reactions not just in viewers, but in anyone even aware of the movie’s mere existence.

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A Serbian Film

Release Date

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June 11, 2010

Runtime

104 Minutes

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Director

Srđan Spasojević

Writers

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Aleksandar Radivojević, Srđan Spasojević

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