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Does Hit by Lightning Have The Worst Movie Poster Ever? (Spoiler: Nope)


The poster for Hit By Lightning.
The poster for Hit By Lightning.

They say it’s never right to judge a book by its cover. But does the same logic apply to judging a movie its poster? In the case of ‘Hit by Lightning,’ we’re willing to make an exception.

The upcoming comedy, starring Jon Cryer (‘Two and a Half Men’), Stephanie Szostak (‘Iron Man 3’), and Will Sasso (‘The Three Stooges’), features what might be the worst movie poster of 2014. The poster features what appears to be the three leads together in bed - or, at least, stills of their heads plopped onto awkwardly-posed bodies using photo manipulation software. Whether its Cryer’s troublingly hairless chest, Szostak’s impossibly placed arm, or the fact that Sasso looks like he’s standing up in bed, it’s hard to pinpoint just one thing wrong with the ‘Hit by Lightning’ poster.

A good poster is so important for a movie. On billboards and buses, newspapers, websites, and cinema lobbies, the poster is how a company creates awareness for movies. It doesn’t matter if the film is good or bad, because  a poorly designed or realised poster can cause potential audiences to write the movie off completely.

The ‘Hit by Lightning’ poster isn’t the worst we’ve ever seen, but it’s pretty close. Here are some other truly terrible movie posters that give ‘Hit by Lightning’ a run for its money:

'Left Behind'

Between Nic Cage’s dazed expression and hilarious hair, there’s a lot to like about the awful first poster for ‘Left Behind’.

The second version is a slight improvement (Cage actually looks like he’s standing on a road outside a burning city and not in a photo studio), but both iterations are miles ahead of the poster for the low-budget Kirk Cameron version of ‘Left Behind’.

'The Accidental Husband'

Clearly Colin Firth wasn’t available the same day Uma Thurman and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were photographed for the ‘Accidental Husband’ poster, so they just sort of pasted him (and his bouquet-carrying arm) into the photo after the fact. The 2008 rom-com is already long forgotten, but its poster will live on in infamy.

'Grudge Match'

Sure, the poster for ‘Grudge Match’ says we’re looking at a picture of Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro, but there’s no way those bodies or faces actually belong to the two actors. A clear case of when bad digital photo manipulation happens to older actors.

'X-Men: First Class'

Remember the terrible, Sears portrait-esque teaser posters for ‘X-Men: First Class’? You don’t? Thankfully the final version was a marked improvement.

'Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'

There are no words will describe just how terrible and terrifying the poster for ‘Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2’ is. It’s an abomination and we’re sorry.

Do you have a favourite bad movie poster? Let us know in the comments.