Bad Romance: Valentine's Day Movies with a Twist

Sometimes, Valentine’s Day can seem a little saccharine. It’s flowers and candy and syrupy cards that are just a little over the top. It’s all just a bit much, right?

, we’re putting together a list of romantic movies for Valentine’s Day.

But these aren’t romantic movies by a normal standard, these are the overlooked, sometimes underappreciated, sometimes twisted romantic movies that you probably wouldn’t think to watch with your sweetheart.

Punch Drunk Love

Yes, I know, Adam Sandler has made some real crap in his day. But this 2002 film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson is arguably his best performance ever. He plays the owner of a small business whose rage issues have prevented him from ever holding down a real relationship.

Shaun of the Dead

This British comedy is not for the faint of heart, because literally, there are zombies in it that actually rip out people’s hearts. It’s the story of a London slacker who uses the apocalypse as an excuse to win back his ex-girlfriend. The film’s tagline says it best: it’s a romantic comedy. With zombies.

Sabrina

If zombies aren’t really your cup of tea, we’ve got something a little more tame with the Billy Wilder classic Sabrina. There are two things you need to know about this film. 1) It stars Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. 2) It makes its main location — Long Island — seem as romantic as its secondary location — Paris. That’s a feat! Holden and Bogey play two Gold Coast brothers who vie for the affections of their chauffer’s daughter.

The Apartment

Writer-Director Billy Wilder gets two movies on this list.

I’ll admit it, this one is not exactly overlooked (it won a Best Picture Oscar in 1960), but it’s just too good to ignore. And it's definitely pretty twisted. Jack Lemon plays a nebbishy insurance claims adjuster trying to move up the ranks in his large, faceless corporation. He does so in a less-than-savory manner: by lending his superiors his tiny apartment for their extra-marital liaisons. Once the company’s biggest wig seduces the elevator operator who’s the apple of Lemon’s eye, things get weird, and pretty dark.

Lolita

I couldn’t leave this off the list, right? It doesn’t get much more twisted than Stanley Kubrick and Vladimir Nabokov. James Mason, in a legendary performance, plays a British professor who marries an American woman as an excuse to get close to her very young daughter.