Top 20 WORST Practical Effects in Movies

You don't need computers to create awful special effects! For this list, we’ll be looking at visual effects that were meant to be treated seriously, but look so ridiculous that we can’t help but giggle or groan. Our countdown includes moments from "Samurai Cop", "The Fugitive", "Batman & Robin" and more! Which of these practical effects took you out of the moment? Let us know in the comments.
Check out these other special effects videos:
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Top 10 Movie Scenes You Didn't Realize Were Practical Effects: • Top 10 Movie Scenes Yo...
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#specialeffects #movies #practical #superman #troll2 #batman #tmnt #dc

[@WatchMojo]

Which of these practical effects took you out of the moment? Let us know in the comments. For more content like this, click here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJquoK1uZ7qmsLc

[@javib2978]

Films such as the Hobbit trilogy by Peter Jackson. Some audiences complain about the films having cgi all over. I disagree, the cgi is improved here, unlike the Star Wars prequels. Especially Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace. The Hobbit trilogy on the other hand, used a combination of practical and cgi effects. Much like how the Lord of the Rings trilogy did.

[@javib2978]

In Avengers Infinity War, audiences complain about the scene of Bruce Banner in the Hulkbuster. Such us his head feels like it's floating above the suit. CBR points out that the Iron Man suit up sequences, being entirely cgi. But, I giving the Iron Man scenes a pass up. Since Iron Man is supposed to shot in cgi and practical effects.

[@rogue7723]

The Vinz Clotho or Zuul running across the street.

[@jonathanmcbride9282]

Don't you think thar putting the animitronics from secret of the ooze was a little in bad taste. Considering Jim Hensons passing around the time that the film was made?

[@Valkonnen]

@@javib2978 LOTR was fantastic but the Hobbit films were terrible.

[@davisphillips993]

It’s funny: CGI was made to overcome limitations and costs of practical effects. Now, people want to go back to practical effects because of the limitations of CGI realism

[@thecunninlynguist]

It's more wild how the costs have reversed and practical isn't all that practical

[@ThePrinceofHisOwnKingdom]

The limitation was always on the people working on them. Bad practical effects don't make practical effects bad, likewise bad CGI don't make CGI bad.

[@angelcat2865]

@@ThePrinceofHisOwnKingdom Exactly

[@davisphillips993]

True

[@arinhossain2100]

​@@ThePrinceofHisOwnKingdom people want to go back to practical effects because of the overuse of CGI. It gets less realistic at times

[@56postoffice]

The first *"Jurassic Park"* is the yardstick where CGI and practical blended perfectly. That's why, in its 30th anniverary year, it still holds up now.

[@retromaster2000s]

What about George Melies, Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen or Roger Corman, Edward L. Cahn and Bill Rebane's work?

[@RoboCop-zn8bt]

Blade runner and Terminator 2

[@retromaster2000s]

@@RoboCop-zn8bt Terminator 2: Judgement Day I thought was good.

[@manchesterunitedno7]

That Jaws 3D somehow managed to cast some solid actors, like Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr. and Lea Thompson was an achievement itself.

[@cookscreativecorner]

I think the fact Jaws: The Revenge got Michael Caine (who missed out on getting his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters because he was filming on-location) is an even greater mystery. I find Jaws 3D watchable compared to The Revenge. In fact, I think of Jaws: The Revenge as the worst film I’ve ever seen.

[@TuxKamen]

@@cookscreativecorner I read that Michael Caine was asked if he'd seen Jaws The Revenge. He responded with something along the lines of "No, I heard it's dreadful. I've seen the house it paid for, though, that's quite lovely."

[@cookscreativecorner]

@@TuxKamen Which is probably one of the best answers I've ever heard.

[@trinaq]

Making the "Mac and Me" example even more hilarious is that whenever Paul Rudd goes on Conan O'Brien to promote his latest film, he ends up playing a clip of the obvious wheelchair dummy, and not the actual film he's starring in!

[@jaygooese4242]

I agree and so bloody obvious

[@jenewok]

Also that it was made by McDonald's as a full-length feature advertisement

[@c.d.rstudios4691]

Yoshi looks incredible, regardless of whether or not it looks like the character

[@arroncronce8221]

Practical effects are the way reference The Thing(82)/ American Werewolf in London/ The Fly/ Alien Hellraiser CGI could never have done those movies justice

[@retromaster2000s]

What about movies before those? The Fly from 1958 is good too not just the 1986 Cronenberg Version. Or like I said the Filmmakers George Melies, Willis O'Brien, Pete Peterson, Ray Harryhausen, Jim Danforth, David Allen or Roger Corman, Bert I. Gordon, Edward L. Cahn, Larry Buchanan, and Bill Rebane George A. Romero Lucio, Fulci, what about their work? Or special make-up effects back to Sr. Lon Chaney, Jack Pierce, Paul Blaisdell not just later like Rick Baker, Tom Burman, Rob Bottin or Tom Savini.

[@behindyoujamie]

In defense of Mario and TMNT, the practical effects are super impressive regardless of the quality of the movie. And TMNT 2 rocks!

[@poncho9587]

Not to mention that the designs for Tokka and Razar aren't supposed to be as sophisticated as the Turtles because the scientist points out that they have the mentality of babies.

[@behindyoujamie]

@@poncho9587 Finally, someone who speaks English.

[@jasoncase9481]

I wouldn’t say TMNT 2 rocks even though it’s watchable because the freakin Turtles do not use their weapons. Also it’s pretty damn disappointing when Super Shredder isn’t used much, and is defeated by his own stupidity.

[@behindyoujamie]

@@jasoncase9481 The Turtles beating Shredder with their wits after losing to him rocks pretty hard. No defending the lack of weapons tho

[@dreamguardian8320]

I found TMNT 2 better than both 1 and 3, in my opinion. And Tokka and Rahzar were an interesting substitution for Bebop and Rocksteady.

[@rangerhawk]

Me and some friends in the 80's had a tradition we called B movie night. We took turns picking the worst B movies we could find to watch. Of course, the real point was to get drunk while doing it.

[@kjhellsyea25]

Sounds right up my alley! Me and some friends used to do the same type of movie nights, watching low budget horror and sci-fi flicks. Drinks galore and takeout a plenty. Those nights went by the wayside once we all started having kids hahaha. Great memories of years gone by.

[@gojewla]

You should have watched USA up all night

[@cheddarcheese7928]

Raiders of the Lost Ark may be my favorite movie but the scene at the beginning when the double crossing Sapito gets impaled on spikes always takes me right out of the movie for a minute or two

[@markalexander3659]

I'd still take bad practical effects over CGI ANY DAY

[@michaelholly4866]

Me too!

[@marymungleandmidge4080]

The difference between bad practical effects and bad CGI is that even bad practical effects are fun to watch, but bad CGI is just terrible. Also there is a huge difference in the budgets in these movies, your not going to get Jurassic Park level practical effects in a low budget movie.

[@Fitzpatrick65]

"They're eating her! And then they're going to eat me! Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

[@DokkaChapman]

Woah woah woah! The Goombas in Super Mario looked AMAZING! Just cause they don't look like the source material isn't a reason to put them on the list! The effects in the movie on the whole still holds up. Hell the sets were made by the folks behind the Blade runner locations!

[@ozymandiasultor9480]

They look ridiculous, like toys, those can make 2 facial movements and are products of laziness and stupidity. It makes no difference who made those, the end product is worse than those laughable enemies of power rangers.

[@H24a3wla]

My speech!!😄

[@genkigirl4859]

They suck as bad as your opinion

[@onironius8008]

I was going to say the same. The goombas shouldn't be on this list.

[@jasoncase9481]

No they don’t look amazing. They just look laughable because the tiny heads on big bodies. It looks very weird.

[@818cantfail]

That part in jaws 3-D still shocks me they thought that was good enough for a movie lol

[@geraldmartin7703]

Maybe the shot is better watched in 3D. (I doubt it.)

[@JaceDanielFilms]

@@geraldmartin7703 you're actually not wrong, I have the entire set on blu ray and Jaws 3D came with the 3d glasses and it actually looks better in 3d. I stress BETTER, not good.

[@jenewok]

I didn't think the effects in TMNT 2 and Howard the Duck were that bad. Also, Jaws 3D is a cult classic!

[@dreamguardian8320]

When I first saw Howard the Duck, I did not know he was part of the Marvel universe.

[@jenewok]

@@dreamguardian8320 I don't think a lot of people knew

[@Fade2BlackSS]

I'll take practical effects over CGI honestly. Especially in horror movies. Sometimes they look creepier that way even if they are terrible.

[@Kashif314]

Bro you gotta be kidding me with the Superman climax. It was so well done for it's time. It still holds up.

[@vm6109]

I read somewhere that the superman producer let the miniature specialist derek meddings leave the production early before completing that scene.

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

I agree.

[@Launchpad05]

I could almost forgive the first 'Superman' for having some flaws because it was the first real attempt at making A big budget super hero movie that was to be taken seriously, and Donner pulled it off. It's the later films that had questionable effects. Particularly, 'Superman 4'.

[@geraldmartin7703]

The Giant Claw (1957). At the premiere the actors slunk out of the movie theatre in embarrassment.

[@sheilaholmes8455]

As well they should.

[@carlstawicki1915]

The B-movies are supposed to be bad, so I think the list should have stuck to mainstream movies. Mola Ram falling through the trap door in Temple of Doom is a good example.

[@NikoA3745]

Im glad the gave Mosquito some recognition its a cult classic!

[@retromaster2000s]

Yeah Gary Jones loved the 50's Sci-Fi-Thriller Big Bug & Spider Movies like Gordon Douglas' Them! '54, Jack Arnold's Tarantula '55, and Bert I. Gordon's Beginning Of The End '57 and Earth vs. The Spider '58. a.k.a. The Spider.

[@BlenderStudy]

Thank you for the update, WatchMojo..!! Kudos to all the VFX masters around the world..!! 🤣

[@THANATOS-PRIME]

One of my favorites from a guilty pleasure movie of mine is 2001’s Valentine. Towards the end, there’s a character that gets decapitated in the prop head they use looks so fake.

[@perezdavidangel]

Always thought that too. Lol the detectives head.

[@savvysearch]

Funny how the bad practical effects on this list still put to shame the multimillion dollar effects you see in every computer generated Disney and Warner Bros movie that are out today. And it’s only going to get worse with AI, because ultimately these decisions are how to put the least human effort into things.

[@michaellrakes5521]

Someone actually remembered Spookies?!?! Dear God , I thought this was one forgotten to time. Used to pop up all the time on USA Up All Night but a jaded memory these days

[@Daeduluus]

but without mac and me we wouldnt have all of Pail Rudds clips of his upcoming movies

[@mindbomb2000]

I think that this list should have stuck with big budget films. Many of the examples here are either meant to be bad, or due to lack of budget. There's no excuse for Bane, or the Fugitive, but I'll cut Troll 2 some slack.

[@eclipsehorse8693]

well 'Batman and Robin' was a toy commercial masquerading as a movie- they didn't care as much about the characters because Kenner wanted to sell action figures and playsets at the end of the day

[@BatmanPops]

3:47 Did they have Arnold Schwarzenegger to do the voice for Shredder in that scene? 👂🤭🤣🤣🤣😭😭💀

[@Daniel-nn8mr]

You can never beat practical effects from movies like Poltergeist, Ghostbusters and the evil dead movies just to name a few examples. And Samurai Cop is easily the worst movie on this list.

[@partofthetribe3277]

Still can't believe they made a Howard the duck movie back then. Of all comic book characters they chose Howard the duck.

[@SNixon14]

The jump off the dam in The Fugitive was not that bad in my opinion. Not compared to the rest of these movies anyways.

[@ahlethescout8404]

It wasn’t at all bad.

[@jenewok]

Watching it at the time I never noticed there was anything wrong with it. Now that they point it out, it's obviously a dummy. It doesn't make a huge impact on the film though

[@joshuamohlman]

That slow motion shark in Jaws 3-D was so laughable when I watched it a second time

[@robertmcnally2220]

Howard the duck is one of my favorites

[@jovannithomaswikel538]

Most of Spookies effects are actually good.

[@Casketkrusher_]

Practical effects will always, always be better no matter how bad they are.

[@kelsod1000]

I never had much of an opinion on this until I read this. You’re right, I agree lol.

[@The_Infamous_Boogyman]

The garbage pail kids are so friggin creepy. And I was a juggalo for 20 years lol. Those things are nightmares.

[@MrTimelord77]

I live in the area where The Fugitive was shot. You can still see the trains on display and visit the dam for an amazing view.

[@williamcrowe2576]

Mike Meyers must've watched the scene from Jaws 3D while writing the script for Austin Powers and thought "Let's do something like this except with a steam roller".

[@ChristopherGreen-wf8qc]

Thank you for including that shot of Lea Thompson ❤

[@corvus1970]

I love how you acknowledge that the body-melts in "Street Trash" leaned heavily into comedy, and decided to diss them anyway by saying that not much work was put into them. Nice.

[@tzeffsmainchannel]

Did ya enjoy *this video?* NO! Because there were as many ads as minutes on this video: 17 ads! And 2 more at the END of this video! *Very enjoyable!!!*

[@Steelburgh]

Don't knock Mac n' Me. That was some of Paul Rudd's finest work.

[@MediaLoverChris02]

Oh come on!!!! Tokka and Rahzar were PERFECT for the movie they were in and they TERRIFIED me as a kid! A 2010’s kid!!!!

[@randim.7657]

Way back yonder in 1987 at the tender age of 8, my older brother and I were super excited that my parents were going to rent the Garbage Pail Kids for our weekend movie. (Hey, we didn't know at the time how bad it was! haha) The clerk told them that it wasn't available, but here is this new movie was "just like it." So they rented it, and like good parents, they watched it first just to make sure. Yeah... it was Street Trash. The clerk just assumed that because they had 'garbage' and 'trash' in the title, that it was the same. Now as an adult, I'm not sure which one would be worse to watch....

[@HornyTaurney]

Great to see spookies in there. Was my first horror

[@AlmostEthical]

The ultimate practical effects are in the original series of Star Trek. The fight scene in the episode Arena is special.

[@axels3188]

I think that Slow moving Shark attack from Jaws 3D was the worst practical effect.

[@jayjay53313]

Jaws 3D trying to apply CGI and failed due to limitation. Many been saying the movie could have been better if they stick to practical effects.

[@talitafranco7230]

I remember when I was a kid me and my brother used to make a joke in the end of bad movies, like then the army came and killed everyone! When I watched Carnosaur I was shocked that someone really thought that this would be a good end to a movie! I never get over that! Lol😊

[@OnionNuggetz]

Right off the bat you crazy, those goombas are hilarious

[@joyunicycle]

Forgot these honorable mentions: - the dream baby (Junior) - Falkor and the Rockbiter (Neverending Story 3) - the spider (It miniseries) - Superman flying (Superman 4) - the characters (Blood and Honey) - the ogres (Ella Enchanted) - those dang Oogieloves (The Oogieloves and the Big Balloon Adventure - though that's worth forgetting) Anymore I missed?

[@H24a3wla]

Sorry the gumbas look silly but the practical puppet is quite good bro!

[@carolynallisee2463]

At least 'Carnosaur' didn't fall into the trap that The 1960 movie 'The Lost World' did. OK, given the time it was made in, you can forgive ropey practical effects for the most part. What is unforgiveable is taking living reptiles, sticking back sails, horns and other stuff onto them, then passing them off as representatives of dinosaur species. Even back then , a child would know what they were seeing wasn't a dinosaur. In fact the film maker's made absolutely no effort to make the poor reptiles have even the least resemblance to the creature type they were supposed to be... an insult to the intelligence of their audience , unforgiveable even back then!

[@connie1wilson]

1:45 - The scene in “Total Recall”, with Annie convulsing on the Martian ground if horrendous, nearly as bad as this, even at the time, I though it looked bad!

[@Emma-nuell]

17:14 are you kidding? Thats the best part 😂 I love it

[@wutyousay]

Glad Samurai Cop made it to the list. Great movie!

[@JaceDanielFilms]

What a weird list, it felt more like just "bad" movies, not really bad effects because some of these effects were honestly pretty good. BTW "shaky cam" is not an effects

[@VuULF]

The funniest line in the whole thing: Steven Segal's martial arts training 🤣

[@VuULF]

Great video though 😁

[@harryclarkhulk]

Superman: The Movie. Disagree about the dam flooding. It looked real. What didn't look real however were the miniature houses.

[@Sunprism]

Fun Fact: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 was the Last movie that Jim Henson Himself worked on

[@milliemckenzie3034]

There's something odd when you talk about the "bad" practical effects in Armageddon, but not one mention of the CGI in the movie 2012

[@MrEab2010]

#1 should have been the infamous cgi cartoon of Brosnan''s Bond para-surfing a melted iceberg in Die Another Day.

[@jacksonia7724]

Street tray doesn’t deserve to be on this list. Personally the effects look really good. Just because it looks silly doesn’t mean it looks terrible

[@jamesday9701]

I was a little surprised to not see any of the "Birdemic" films on here, even as an honorable mention.🤣🤣🤣

[@viddork]

Probably because Birdemic was meant to be a parody of these kinds of effects?

[@muhdnazmy6010]

Birdemic is CGI not practical effect bro.

[@stevemack2004]

​@@muhdnazmy6010😂😂😂😂

[@tonysmith4687]

I didn’t think Tokka and Rahzar were that bad. They were supposed to look a little goofy.

[@LoveHandle4890]

Can’t believe they didn’t include Dwayne The Rock Johnsons terrible CGI scorpion from “The Mummy Returns”.🦂

[@KnightRiderowner]

PRACTICAL effects

[@jimbo9208]

that cgi

[@AtheistOrphan]

Because that wasn’t a PRACTICAL effect! Check out the title of the video.

[@bobbytrombley681]

Personally, i LOVE shitty practical effects. To a certain point.

[@steatthefair8236]

Ones that spring to mind for me are: Zombi Holocaust = When the guy jumps out the window and lands on the floor his arm falls off Cannibal Ferox 2 - The airplane crash when it crash lands is an obvious model plane Children of the Corn 3 = When the big monster picks up a woman, you can tell she's a barbie doll Pieces - The water bed scene - when he stabs her with the knife it bends, clearly a cardboard knife

[@MetalHeadReacts]

How is the Dick Jones falling from the window from the end of Robocop not on this list? Those comedically long arms man... just awful... And the "Butthead" from Society... well, okay... most of the effects from Society... A pretty good body horror movie... but man, the effects were just... just awful

[@jsldj]

Don't forget "Flesh Gordon"!😂

[@davisphillips993]

12:02 And that, my friends, is why you never drink from strange bottles

[@marcovisionstudios]

Let’s be clear - there’s a huge difference between “bad” and swinging for the fences with limitations of the time period.

[@TUM_Toons]

Honestly the SMB movie practical effects are pretty good. Unfortunately, they are goombas.

[@jarjthejargj6099]

Ohhh I get it- instead of let’s frick some ice, Arnold said let’s KICK some ice! Hahahaha very clever, Batman and Robin movie!

[@joecrusher487]

every 3 Minutes Commercials! That is sick!

[@ElricSowrd]

12:54- They're eating her and then they're gonna eat me! Oh my God! Also why are these Videos way too long lately? Like more than ten minutes?

[@Iruleyoufail]

Honestly some of these aren't really that bad but then again I enjoy a lot of B movies, however I will always love practical effects over CGI because of the fact that there is always a realism to the effect because it's a physical object unlike CG where 99.9 of the time you can tell that CG was used.

[@KirbyZilla]

I dont like 100 percent practical or chi effects

[@dianamcmahon51510]

Ok, the special effects in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret Of The Ooze might not have been good, but isn't that what we love about it?

[@DOI_ARTS]

Macabd Me has a memorable theme though

[@klydejohnson7520]

I love mac and me and howard the duck idgaf❤❤

[@viddork]

How could you acknowledge the baby in _American Sniper,_ but ignore the ceiling-crawling baby in _Trainspotting?_

[@justaregulardude895]

"Worst" is a subjective term. Not sure WatchMojo understands what "camp" is or why it works. Not sure WatchMojo understands how budgets work or how dumb it is to be revisionist about older films that actually WERE among the best of their time. Do your research and get people who know something about movies. I stopped after two entries. Super Mario Bros. might not be a good movie but the effects were. Mosquito might not be a good movie but the effects were deliberately schlocky on purpose due to a very low budget. It's a stylistic choice, it was never meant to be taken seriously as defined in the opening narration. I don't think any one person at WatchMojo actually even watched these movies. Hackjob all the way. If you want to actually be honest, the entire list should be SOV and DTV no-budget z-grade films nobody has heard of.

[@sheilaholmes8455]

You talked about Samurai Cop but didn’t show the actual effect of the arm coming off.

[@robertmondoux6466]

Dennis Hopper as Max Headroom

[@thomasromano1417]

The Rift needs to be on this list

[@MRBOMB2023]

Good job 👍 , Mr.Bomb 😉

[@josh72456]

From list seen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze, I mean maybe the effects are confusing more than bad but that's just me, seen American Sniper, Armageddon, Batman & Robin, Superman and The Fugitive.

[@mason_mc6987]

For me the worst practical effect is in wrong turn 5 when the fella gets his head run over with that massive vehicle with the grinder on front idk what that vehicle is called

[@bernardromans4971]

OH MY GAAAAWWWWWWD the goblin at 13:13 STRAIGHT UP looks like Rick Sanchez 🤣 (Rick & Morty)

[@carloscanales3183]

Toka and Razzar looked awesome dude I don’t know what you’re talking about.

[@ExtrackterYT]

1:57 Aw chucks, I hoped Gunnar Hansen's reply was in here when he got a hold of that chainsaw.

[@goth9224]

The creation of Bane was horrifying to watch as a kid, still is

[@zoot69uk2001]

How could you 'trash' Street Trash great early work by the talented Jennifer Aspinall. Emmy award winning makeup artist.

[@dylanglaze990]

The teenage mutant ninja turtles movies was ridiculous, the turtles actually didn't look too bad but everything else was God awful. Shredder looked like a kid who dressed up as shredder for Halloween and made his costume by cutting cereal boxes and drawing with magic marker.

[@kennethd4958]

Besides some of the real low budget films on this list... All the other effects hold up... TMNT, Superman, Howard the Duck, Armageddon etc... all still look fine to me.

[@predeterminedmeat5024]

Street trash's effects were fantastic!

[@Lolipop_Cat]

Nooo it is my favorite moment in Jaws-3 the glass break!

[@michaelmyers3709]

Would take the worst practical over the best CGI

[@charlie7313m]

I thought robocop would get a mention . At the very end of the film where robocop shoots the man out of the building, his arms are bigger than his body

[@salkinreslif9830]

Ok, I'm only half through but: Goomba, the TMNT 2 Mutants, the asteroid from Armagedon... What you are criticising here is the design that meather misses the point or don't meet your taste. The effects themselves are flawless.

[@RoboCop-zn8bt]

First two are great, the asteroid is extremely corny and cheap looking and not convincing.

[@2660016A]

I sincerely hope you were referring to The Original Series of Star Trek when you used it as an example of poor effects! Much of the effects in the movies and series after this were standard setting!