Keyword trash-movie

? ?

keyword "trash-movie"

Sunday, January 15th, 2023
825 titles
https://www.imdb.com/search/keyword/?keywords=trash-movie

Tuesday, February 14th, 2023
760 titles

- - -

Ask the
@keyword_expert
.

@nick_burfle @ACT_1 

I, too, have noticed the abuse of the derogatory "trash-movie" keyword, usually in combination with the keyword "euro-trash."

If you Google these phrases, plus the more erudite "trash-cinema," you will find various pages on the Internet loosely defining this genre "as poorly produced, low budget films." Nevertheless, the terms are, in a word, "trashy." 

Perhaps more importantly, I regard "trash-movie" as a duplicate/synonym of the keyword "z-movie." 

My solution is to permanently merge "trash-movie" into "z-movie," as I have formally proposed here: Duplicate Keywords - List #68 (subgenre and related keywords) (Proposals for Permanent Merger and Auto-Conversion)

I think that will help solve the confusion over what these keywords are supposed to mean and hopefully help solve the problem of why there are multiple keywords essentially saying the same thing.

Of course, this will not solve the problem of contributors falsely applying "z-movie" to titles where it does not belong. But that is another problem for another day.

I guess the "eurotrash" keyword should be left alone, unless someone has a solution for it as well. But the keyword has been acknowledged by some as a legitimate usage. Example: “Eurotrash” Films, Hollywood, and the Possibilities and Limits of YouTube as a Media Archive for Popular European Film History

A related, and even bigger problem, is the abuse of the keyword "trash" for the same purpose. This presents a bigger problem because the keyword "trash" should be reserved to mean "garbage," and the incorrect usage of this keyword to indicate "trash-movie" cannot be easily remedied, such as through a mass merger.

I have observed at least two categories of trolls who abuse the "trash" keyword. First is the troll who adds "trash" along with "trash-movie."  I have done a lot of cleanup of that particular keyword abuse, to the point that less than two dozen titles remain.

And second is the troll (or trolls) who add "trash" on Russian and Ukrainian independent films, for example there are currently 236 titles that have both the keyword "russian" and "trash" together on the same title.  Some of the films associated with @MykolaYeriomin have fallen victim to this particular keyword abuse.

The only way I can think of to remedy the abuse of the keyword "trash" in these contexts is to painstakingly go through these titles one by one and remove the keyword, since the keyword "trash" is otherwise a legitimate keyword that should not be mass deleted or blocked.

Back to "trash-movie," eventually that keyword will be merged into "z-movie." For now, IMDb staff are unable to make these kinds of mass mergers as they make some changes to the site, but hopefully they will regain that ability soon.

This thread inspired me to delete the keyword "trash" from several dozen more films. 

The keyword "trash" should be removed from these films as well, but that is a pretty big undertaking since it's more than 250 titles. 

Most of the highest-rated titles are foreign films unfamiliar to me, so I can't speak to whether the ratings or keyword are unreliable. I did notice, however, Hells Angels on Wheels, which is an early Jack Nicholson movie with a 5.1 rating; regardless of one's take on the movie, it seems too easy for random contributors to slap a derogatory keyword on a title (the same applies to the frequent addition of derogatory keywords to titles the contributor finds politically objectionable). I've always believed keywords should be avoided if the makers of the title would object to what they imply, and should stick to what's clearly present or to topics with clear objective standards.

Side note: Roger Ebert's 1967 review of Hells Angels on Wheels began with: "This actually isn't such a bad movie."

Thanks to all for the feedback.

I'm dubious about using ratings for such a label, unless perhaps it were set vey low (2.0-?)  One person's trash may be another's treasure.  I note that many of these are neither poorly produced (technically) nor low budget (e.g. Superman IV, which would also not be considered a B-movie, in my opinion); people just didn't like them much.

As there's no practical way to address this en masse, I'll just request deletion case-by-case as I come across instances I feel are egregious.

Here's something interesting: there are currently about 70 titles that have both the keywords "b-movie" and "z-movie" simultaneously on the same title.

Obviously a title should only have one of these keywords or the other, not both. Where exactly the line is between a B-movie and a Z-movie may not be entirely clear, but people shouldn't be adding both keywords to the same movie.

I did another pass-through of the keyword "trash-movie" and found another small handful of titles where contributors added that keyword for trolling/hate purposes, rather than adding it as a synonym for "z-movie." I removed the keyword from these titles. This included anti-LGBTQ trolling on the keywords for Magisterlekarna (2022) and They/Them (2022). 

I'm glad you raised this keyword when you did, because it would have been harder to "audit" this keyword if/when it is merged into "z-movie." 

At this point there is 91% overlap between the keywords "trash-movie" and "z-movie," which I believe reinforces the idea of merging the former into the latter. 

I have finished "auditing" the keyword "trash." I was able to reduce the number of titles from 800 down to 269. Most of the usage of this keyword either involved keyword sabotage or the use of the "trash" keyword as an improper substitute for "trash-movie"/"z-movie." Anyway, the "trash" keyword can now be merged into the keyword "garbage" for some cohesion in the keywords.

BTW, here is a proposal for a poll on "trash movies":

IMDb Pollboard User's Most Beloved Trash Movies