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When the Bough Breaks
Film
300 reactions from 4 sources (Bluesky, TMDB reviews, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
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Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 25 | 23 | 243 |
| TMDB reviews * | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
What people are saying
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At a glance
Caligula is a 1979 drama history film, directed by Tinto Brass, starring Malcolm McDowell, Teresa Ann Savoy and Helen Mirren.
- 275 people have posted about this film on Bluesky, TMDB reviews, Mastodon, Lemmy
- posts span Mar 23, 2016 to Nov 5, 2026
Assembled from TMDB, Wikidata and Steam fields and our own counts, nothing written by a model. Method
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
300 public posts have mentioned Caligula so far, but it needs 10 opinionated reactions from checked sources before it gets a score. Seen it? Post your take.
The Experts
36%
avg of 2 sources
The People
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audience score
Reactions
60 of 300 · most liked firstA film about the Epstein files would make Malcolm McDowell’s Caligula look like Mary Poppins.
neutral · AI labelView post →If you love seeing rare movie memorabilia as much as we do, come see our nativity scene that features actual pieces from the set of Caligula
neutral · AI labelView post →This is a perfect movie representation of the obeisance of the Congress to Trump. Sadly, it’s from the film Caligula. substack.com/profile/1974...
neutral · AI labelView post →Has anybody seen a movie called Caligula?
neutral · AI labelView post →It's entirely possible Sippy Cup Caligula was watching 1996 blockbuster "The Rock" and learned Sean Connery wasn't American and both the idiotic Alcatraz and movie tariff ideas are Michael Bay's fault.
neutral · AI labelView post →On this day (19th December) in 1983, the Scala Cinema was showing The Devils and Caligula as a double bill.
neutral · AI labelView post →Porno ages incredibly badly. I mean which 40+ year old pornos hold up? I can only think of a handful: New Wave Hookers. The Opening of Misty Beethoven. Caligula. Behind the Green Door. That’s about it. I like Blue Movie & Flesh Gordon, but I doubt anyone under age 40 could nut to these.
positive · AI labelView post →Malcolm McDowell is 82. On making the notorious Caligula: I asked Gore Vidal ‘Who’s paying for this? Is it a studio movie? No, it can’t be, can it?’ & he said ‘It’s Bob Guccione’ & I went ‘The pornographer?’ & he said ‘Malcolm, just think of him as one of the Warner Brothers.’
neutral · AI labelView post →I was just looking at an old movie listing from Montreal in 1981 and next to the ad for CALIGULA it says “8th Month!” Movies used to play in theatres for MONTHS AND YEARS, even sleaze would hang around forever, we need to go back
neutral · AI labelView post →Ebert on NORTH: “I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated this movie.” On CALIGULA: “sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash”. On WOLF CREEK: “if anyone you know says this is the one they want to see, my advice is: don’t know that person no more.”
neutral · AI labelView post →Caligula is an easter movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Watching that movie about Caligula, it isn't just about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. It's about what happens when your leader has absolute power and is also certifiably nuts.
neutral · AI labelView post →You can make that movie as a slapstick Caligula and I think it would be a delight
neutral · AI labelView post →Caligula is a Christmas movie
neutral · AI labelView post →And next….the most apropos movie of our current climate I can watch since Caligula.
neutral · AI labelView post →Idiocracy mirrors Elon’s obsession with eugenics and birth rates. The movie is premised on the declining birth rates of smart people, but Space Caligula is only concerned about the declining birth rates of white people.
neutral · AI labelView post →Malcolm McDowell, 1979, another fun evening in the film " Caligula".
neutral · AI labelView post →Movie that currently seems available to stream only on Kanopy (but also on VOD): CALIGULA: The Ultimate Cut. Seems like a good Sunday kind of watch? 😜
neutral · AI labelView post →The video store near my home in high school rented me Caligula at age 14 when I went in looking for a historical movie for a class assignment.
neutral · AI labelView post →We’re firmly in “Caligula” territory, and it’s definitely the Bob Guccione film, not the Albert Camus play. It’s certainly pretty damn far from any of Robert Graves’s interpretations.
neutral · AI labelView post →If Fellini made a film about Caligula.😵💫
neutral · AI labelView post →I maintain that the parts of Caligula that aren’t Bob Guccione wanting a porn film are kind of good.
neutral · AI labelView post →Saw a movie on tv where Caligula made his horse a consort. Very strong history. Enjoy!
neutral · AI labelView post →What’s everyone’s WORST movie experience? First date. He took me to see Caligula. After the dogs ate the severed penis I got up & walked out. We did not talk or go out again.
negative · AI labelView post →Roger Ebert in 1979: "Caligula is sickening, utterly worthless, shameful trash. Disgusted and unspeakably depressed, I walked out of the film after two hours. There were no scenes of joy, natural pleasure, or good sensual cheer. There was, instead, a nauseating excursion into base & sad fantasies."
neutral · AI labelView post →By the time I saw "Caligula" I had already successfully #fisted so I was more shocked Guccione put it in the film than that Caligula did it.
neutral · AI labelView post →Caligula is a Christmas movie.
neutral · AI labelView post →Paperback tie-in for the 1979 film CALIGULA. Complete with a colour photo insert spread. Not my copy, more is the pity.
neutral · AI labelView post →Hi im kastel. I saw the entity known as plaitmocha go into the corner out of embarrassment after seeing their fanart be posted on the Caligula discord. It's quite funny. Like oubliette the movie.
neutral · AI labelView post →🤍❤️Valerie Rae Clark🤍❤️🛀💦💦☺️🥰 -from the movie Caligula 1979 🛀 #bathingtime
neutral · AI labelView post →Tried watching the "Ultimate Cut" of Caligula a week or so ago and made it about 45 minutes. It feels very much like what it is: a fan edit some guy made from footage he had access to, scored with the kind of amorphous synth noodling that usually accompanies a fanmade short film about the Sith
negative · AI labelView post →CALIGULA was a big-budget film financed by Penthouse mag's Bob Guccione. Had a stellar cast-- Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, and a screenplay by Gore Vidal. Directed by critical fave Tinto Brass. Post-production, Guccione infamously re-edited & ruined the film, added the XXX porn.
neutral · AI labelView post →Spell your name with movie titles 👀 Caligula On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Runaway Bride Everybody’s All American Yentl
neutral · AI labelView post →I realised that despite being plural nowadays my headmates haven't really taken much of an interest in the movies I've been watching, so I asked them if there's anything they fancy and the horniest guy out of them immediately said Caligula. I think I might go back to not asking them for movie ideas
neutral · AI labelView post →That's exactly what I remember (and I haven't though about this film at all until this article). Just being totally depressed when leaving the theater. I stuck it out to the end, just to see how bad it was. It took another viewing of Rock-n-Roll High School in the same theater to expunge Caligula.
negative · AI labelView post →Started the year by watching Caligula, a film dramatizing the roman imperials who abused power, indulged in carnal injustices, killed on a whim, and ignored democracy in favor of a mad tyrant Seeing these similarities to another country, and not just with the use of columns on government buildings
neutral · AI labelView post →Caligula the Ultimate Cut (2023/1979). Watched this on Kanopy (shoutout to the library). Film has mucho sex & violence, but bare on story. It’s a long movie & he’s arbitrarily crazy the whole time. Like Scarface on Anglo-Roman steroids. Watchable for the sets & McDowell’s acting. Rating: 6/10.
neutral · AI labelView post →Just watched the uncut version of Caligula. Kind of hard to deny it's relevancy at this moment in history, although I agree with critics that the hardcore pornography and one orgy scene bleeding into the next ultimately distracted and detracted from the plot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligul...
neutral · AI labelView post →Tinto Brass: "This is my film about Caligula. It stars such renowned and talented actors as Helen Mirren and Malcolm MacDowell." Also Tinto Brass: "My film about Caligula is also a hardcore porno"
neutral · AI labelView post →For the evening crowd, I take a deep dive into Tinto Brass' artsy exploitation flick Caligula on today's episode of Deep Cuts! Likes, shares, and subs appreciated! youtu.be/epAvLuz9nTY
neutral · AI labelView post →Just added! Aaron Shaps, editor of The Ultimate Cut and author of Caligula: The Official Story of the Film, will join us IN PERSON, schedule permitting, to discuss the film at our Thursday 2/26 screening. Tickets: ticketing.uswest.veezi.com/purchase/445...
neutral · AI labelView post →On the plus side, I got to watch all 3 hours of Caligula: The Ultimate Cut this week, and that's a phenomenal piece of film-making. Huge, shakespearean, throughly grown-up storytelling. Impossible to imagine anything like it being made now.
positive · AI labelView post →Brass, Vidal and the cast all denounced it. Brass & Vidal removed their credits. It became "Bob Guccione's CALIGULA" and was endlessly promoted in his many mags. It got lots of press, horrible reviews, and tanked. It's one of THE great examples of the money men ruining film.
neutral · AI labelView post →Film writing is only part of what I do, and I've rounded up other bits and pieces for my 2025 Easter message. I've been at the theatre reviewing touring produtions & Juliet and Boys from the Blackstuff, and contributed to a new podcast about Caligula. Link below. film-authority.com/2025/04/21/t...
neutral · AI labelView post →I never have this problem with my favorite movie (Caligula)
positive · AI labelView post →Despite being *obsessed* with the Roman emperor Caligula since 8th grade Latin class (normal sentences to say), I never did get to watch the notorious movie. Fixing that today with the new ultimate cut (I will watch the OG version eventually.)
neutral · AI labelView post →Christy @christylemire.bsky.social and Alonso @aduralde.bsky.social kick up sparks (and SPQRs) to review Caligula: The Ultimate Cut #filmsky 📽️
neutral · AI labelView post →Tinto Brass gave us the sleaziest Caligula movie of all time...then Joe D'Amato was like "hold my beer..." Join me as we break down Caligula: the Untold Story! youtu.be/c80c9Y6b1Hs
neutral · AI labelView post →"Sir John Gielgud has been defending his appearance in the film Caligula, and claims there was no mention whatever of sex and brutality when he read the original paycheck."
neutral · AI labelView post →Okay, the first 2 hours of Caligula were more messed up than me. The final hour the fever finally hit and I won out despite the movie getting gnarlier (and arguably better) I actually kinda dig the movie, not as a good movie but as an accidentally accurate vision of our Trumpian present.
neutral · AI labelView post →Ebert’s horny level is matched only by his respecting women juice levels his Caligula review where he says it’s not a good movie or even good porn
neutral · AI labelView post →I got a tattoo of the CALIGULA coin years ago, not because I love the film, but because I adore the sheer audacity of what Tinto Brass and company created with it. The man was a maverick, a lunatic, and a true artist in the field of erotica. RIP, maestro. variety.com/2026/film/gl...
positive · AI labelView post →Caligula strikes me as a movie that SOUNDS good to watch while stoned and is actually a face-clawing nightmare to actually experience while stoned. Also Helen Mirren's commentary on the DVD is priceless. She recorded it right after winning the Oscar and absolutely gave no fucks.
neutral · AI labelView post →Pick a movie, keep one actor. The rest are muppets. Caligula Malcolm McDowell
neutral · AI labelView post →***ANNOUNCEMENT*** Coming on December 7th on #4K and Blu-ray in the UK from #VisionsHomeVideo: #Caligula: The Ultimate Cut (1979)! An all new version of the most controversial film ever made, Caligula: The Ultimate Cut features never-before-seen footage of the shocking cult classic.
neutral · AI labelView post →Tonight's movie prompts one to ponder the unanswerable question: What would have made Caligula blush?
neutral · AI labelView post →Saw Caligula movie yesterday on Kanopy (free from the library). It's like an ancient Roman view of the Orange Pustule in our WH. Watch it if you can. It's so close to what we're experiencing these days it's eerie. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligul...
positive · AI labelView post →I've had Caligula in my movie queue for a week, is watching it tonight going to make me feel better or worse
neutral · AI labelView post →I see the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square is threatened with closure, which would be an enormous shame. I remember going to watch 'Caligula' there back in 1980. God, that was a horrible, sleazy film. I saw it twice.
negative · AI labelView post →I hope Incitatus from the Caligula movie got the horse actor equivalent of the Oscar
neutral · AI labelView post →
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