Movies That Didn't Lie In The Title To Get You To Show Up

What really is in a name? As a great man once posited, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. And it's true for movies, too; would a classic movie be any less great if it'd had a different name? Surely not, but in Hollywood, there's often a lot riding on a name of a major motion picture, unlike Shakespeare's supposition in "Romeo and Juliet." A good name can get audiences interested, but a bad one could confuse or turn off prospective moviegoers.

Some movies can intrigue with a cryptic title that they hope will drive audiences to theaters to learn more or excite with a bombastic name that makes you want to rush out to the theater. But this can be fraught with problems when they don't sound like the movie on offer. Thus, studios will spend millions of dollars on marketing, with everything from posters, trailers, and social media advertising to clue us in on what a movie is all about.

But then there are those movies whose titles alone did all the work, spelling out the meat of the story right there at the outset, like a temporary first-draft title somebody forgot to change. Were they really struck on by accident, or were they a stroke of genius? Well, let's take a look back and find out for ourselves because we've found some movies whose titles alone told the whole story.

If you're making a family film that's meant to appeal to kids and adults, sometimes using a title that describes everything you need to know is the best way to appeal to a large audience. This may have been what was on the minds of the producers and director Joe Johnston when crafting their 1988 classic "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." Originally written by "Reanimator" scribe Stuart Gordon as "Teeny Weenies," the film went through a couple of name changes, including "Grounded" before settling on its final name.

The movie tells the story of Wayne Szalinski, a husband and father played by Rick Moranis, who invents a machine that shrinks his children down to nearly microscopic size by mistake. From there, the kids go on a series of adventures around the house and in their own yard. They nearly drown in a puddle of mud, befriend a forager ant, and battle a deadly scorpion, all within just a few yards of their back door.  

Though perhaps somewhat clunky the first time you hear it, "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" informs the audience of the story much better than its early working titles. The title also puts in mind classic 1950s B-movies like "The Incredible Shrinking Man," and you'll find that B-movie homages are a common theme among films with literal titles.

When you've got a vigilante action movie, a title can make all the difference. A great moniker like or "Death Wish" or "First Blood" can draw in audiences with a thirst for over-the-top, guns-blazing destruction. But don't underestimate a title that gets its point across succinctly, like the 2011 low-budget actioner "Hobo with a Shotgun." Starring aging acting legend Rutger Hauer, the film revolves around an intransigent man who is tired of the rising crime rates and decides to take matters into his own hands with a pump-action shotgun.

A modern-day B-movie of the highest order, Hauer stars as the titular hobo. Wandering into the city of Hope Town, nicknamed "Scum City," he sees a beleaguered community under the thumb of the Drake, a vicious crime boss. With an inept and corrupt police department unwilling to do anything about it, the central character picks up a gun and gets to work on a mission to take him down.

With fun action, loads of violence, and an uncompromisingly brutal protagonist, "Hobo with a Shotgun" is a satisfying exploitation flick for the 21st century. And with the help name that gets right to the point and is unapologetically in-your-face, the movie has achieved cult status with a subset of fans who love action-packed, gun-toting heroes on a rampage.

A title can do more than attract an audience to the theater and get people excited to see it. It can even do more than give viewers an idea of what to expect — describing in near-literal terms the plot of the film. Sometimes, as was the case with the 2008 sex comedy "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," it can be the key ingredient that gets the movie off the drawing board and into production. 

As you'd imagine, the movie is all about a pair of platonic friends — Zack and Miri — who make their own adult film together. They do it because they're strapped for cash and think they can make a little extra money from it. But when they make plans to follow through, it threatens to wreak havoc on their lives and their relationship. Writer and director Kevin Smith told the Seattle Times the studio greenlit the film based on the title alone, proving that a straight-forward name can make the difference between a movie being made or being shelved.

But with a controversial subject matter smack dab in the middle of its name, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" also caused problems with movie theaters. According to Smith, there were some chains and independent movie houses that were reluctant to put such a salacious title up on a marquee.

From "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" to "Back to the Future" to "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," classic time travel movies love finding an unconventional method of traversing the space-time continuum, whether it be a DeLorean, a pay phone, a 23rd-century Klingon starship. But in 2010, the sci-fi comedy "Hot Tub Time Machine" chose something a bit different, and from the title, you can probably figure out what method of travel they used.

The movie centers on a group of childhood friends who grow weary of their unfulfilling adult lives. But after a night of partying while on vacation, they fall asleep in a hot tub only to find themselves in 1986 the next morning, with a chance to change their futures. It's all fairly predictable, though plenty entertaining, and from the name on the poster, movie-goers likely knew exactly what they were in for when they bought a ticket.

A modest success, "Hot Tub Time Machine" even got itself a follow-up. Like the "Back to the Future" sequel, "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" takes the gang into the future for some wild history-changing fun.

Teenagers can be tough to lure to the cinemas. Their famously cynical attitudes and their notoriously mercurial tastes combine to be a studio executive's worst nightmare. So when making a movie for the teenaged crowd, it's often best to keep the title simple and direct, to communicate the story, the tone, and ensure that young audiences know just what to expect. That's where a movie like "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" comes in.

Starring Christina Applegate, who was then starring in "Married... with Children" on TV, the movie is pretty much just what you'd guess from the title: A teenage girl and her siblings are left alone when their babysitter dies, and madcap hijinks result. The title may be cumbersome, but it definitely gets the idea across. This is a tongue-in-cheek dark comedy about a group of kids on their own and trying to hide all the trouble from their mother who is far away from home. It's mostly focused on the older teen Sue Ellen (Applegate), who is suddenly thrust into the role of a reluctant mother figure. But the over-long moniker did a better job than the title initially chosen in its original draft, which was more cryptically named "The Real World."

An iconic B-movie parody, the 1978 film "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" left everything out on the table, and we don't mean the rotting veggies. The name is so ridiculous some audiences may have thought there was more to it than what it sounds like; alas, it is indeed the story of a race of deadly, man-eating tomatoes invading a small town and gobbling up men, women, and children in increasingly more violent and bloody ways.  

Written and directed by indie filmmaker John DeBello, "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" doesn't hold back, going much further than the films it's parodying ever did. But it isn't just disgustingly violent, it is also downright silly, and even features a goofy theme song that sounds like it hails from a 1930s Broadway musical and has to be heard to be believed. If the title doesn't give away just how ludicrous the movie was going to be, the opening musical number definitely does. 

Perhaps owed in part to its catchy title, the movie received three sequels. 1988's "Return of the Killer Tomatoes" even featured early career appearances from George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston, while a children's TV cartoon landed in 1990.

A family-friendly fantasy comedy starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett, "The House with a Clock in its Walls" almost sounds like it could be a horror movie. But even if it doesn't contain the same levels of spooks and scares as "The People Under the Stairs," it does indeed center on a mysterious house with a strange clock within its walls. 

It all focuses on a little orphaned boy named Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), who moves in with his uncle Jonathan (Black) after the death of his parents. Not long after he begins hearing strange tick-tock sounds from the house, and it's quickly revealed that his uncle and his neighbor Florence (Blanchett) are a witch and warlock. According to his warlock uncle, he'd taken ownership of the house from a fellow spell-caster (Kyle MacLachlan) who'd hidden a diabolical clock in its walls that he's never been able to find, or understand why it keeps on ticking.

A bizarre fantasy film that sees little Lewis take up the dark arts himself, "The House with a Clock in its Walls" takes audiences on a mind-bending trip through the unknown. Its title is perfect, too, deftly weaving together elements of intrigue and directness that helped lure audiences to the tune of $131 million dollars.