Halloween guilty pleasures

“Badi” (aka “Turkish E.T.”) (1983)

Turkey’s dirt-cheap “re-imaginings” of beloved American movies are infamous for unabashedly swiping plot, characters, score and occasionally even videotaped portions from the original film. But none surpass the splendiferous crap-fest “Badi,” which transforms Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” into a nightmarish work of pure evil, complete with a trippy gas grenade attack and a boy who communicates with birds. Badi looks and moves not unlike a boozed-up Danny DeVito (our favorite kind!), complete with an oversized oblong head, dangling arms and smoke inexplicably emanating from his body.

It’s not easy to find a copy, and the video quality will probably match the film still pictured here, but clips are freely available on YouTube. If you dare…

—Amir Kenan, National Entertainment Producer, TV