In his post on 3 Things You Didn’t Know About “20th Century Ghost”, Joe Hill mentions getting the idea for the short story while watching American Pie 2. Which, is not to say that the movie inspired the story, I think, so much as being there in his small town theater did. Had the movie been more engrossing, I guess it’s altogether possible the story never would have been written.

Which leads me to wonder, what other better works have been inspired by crap?^* I’m sure there are other, more famous examples — good movies or books that were made in response to bad — but I can’t think of any off-hand.

* There are worse movies than American Pie 2, certainly, but let’s not kid ourselves.