CGI has been around for decades at this point, but it's only really in the last few years that it's become truly powerful enough to be consistently believable. Even then, it still needs to be used judiciously to be effective—the perfect example of this approach is the Lord of the Rings movies, which mostly used computer-generated graphics to augment the practical effects rather than replace them. However, plenty of movies take the opposite approach, substituting CGI for in-camera effects completely, often resulting in visual doggerel. This approach is particularly bad when it comes to movie monsters. With this in mind, this list delves into the fathomless depths of bad CGI in creature features. These monsters, intended to evoke fear or wonder, instead left audiences scratching their heads or even stifling laughter. From awkwardly animated beings to designs that defy logic, the following creations serve as reminders of the fine line between groundbreaking and cringe-worthy visual effects. 10 He Who Walks Among the Rows 'Children of the Corn' (1984) Image via New World Pictures "No, blue man. He Who Walks Behind the Rows will decide your fate!" The first Children of the Corn movie, based on a Stephen King story, is mostly decent, certainly a lot better than many of its sequels. It takes place in a rural Nebraska town where children have overthrown their parents under the influence of a mysterious entity known as He Who Walks Behind the Rows. This premise is creepy enough, but the movie is totally undermined in the finale by the shoddy CGI used for the monster. The beast shows off its dark powers in a key scene where Isaac, one of the children, is sacrificed in a cornfield. Its malevolence manifests as an atrociously fake glow that consumes the boy, looking like something out of an arcade game. It immediately nukes the tension and suspense, making the movie more laughable than frightening. This trend would continue with some of the subsequent installments, which also failed to portray the antagonist creepily enough. Release Date March 9, 1984 Cast Peter Horton , Linda Hamilton , R.G. Armstrong , John Franklin , Courtney Gains , Anne Marie McEvoy , Robby Kiger , Julie Maddalena , Jonas Marlowe , John Philbin , Dan Snook , David Cowen , Suzy Southam , D.G. Johnson , Teresa Toigo Runtime 92 minutes Expand 9 The Thing 'The Thing' (2011) Image via Universal Pictures "It’s not dead yet. Burn it!" The original Thing is a marvel of practical effects, showing off Rob Bottin and Stan Winston's twisted creativity at its peak. The same cannot be said for the 2011 prequel, which swapped out puppetry and mechanics for bland, flimsy graphics. The CGI creatures, while ambitious in their design, lack the tactile realism and weight of the practical effects, making them feel more like video game assets than genuine threats. While director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. does well to replicate the bleak and claustrophobic tone of the 1982 version, the overuse of digital effects detracts from the immersion. As a result, where John Carpenter's film is a classic, the 2011 update is disposable. The decision to opt for digital effects instead of practical ones naturally did not go over well with the fan base, many of whom saw it as a rejection of the Carpenter film's spirit. Rent on Amazon 8 The Boogeyman 'Boogeyman' (2005) Image via Sony Pictures Releasing "You can't fight the Boogeyman. He's everywhere." In Boogeyman, Tim Jensen (Barry Watson) is haunted by childhood trauma stemming from the mysterious disappearance of his father, whom he believes was taken by the Boogeyman. The movie builds its tension around the unseen terror, but when the monster is finally revealed in full CGI form, it’s a laughable disappointment. The director should rather have kept it hidden throughout, only hinting at it. For a beast meant to embody primal childhood fears, this Boogeyman is thoroughly underwhelming. The budget was clearly not big enough to afford the kind of digital artistry that would have made the creature genuinely unsettling. The Bogeyman morphs between several forms, but none is particularly scary. The creature just looks awkward and unrealistic, more Goosebumps than The Shining. For a beast meant to embody primal childhood fears, it's thoroughly underwhelming. The CGI is just one of many issues in this under-cooked, cliché-ridden horror: indeed, bad graphics, cheap jump scares, and wooden dialogue are the order of the day. Watch on Tubi 7 Hallucinations 'One Missed Call' (2008) Image via Warner Bros. Pictures "They all hear the same thing before they die. A voicemail from their future death." One Missed Call gave cellphones the Ring treatment, with characters receiving eerie voicemails from their future selves, predicting their deaths. The source of this malevolent curse is eventually revealed to be the spirit of a girl named Ellie. Unlike its Japanese predecessor, which relied on subtle, atmospheric scares, the American remake opts for over-the-top CGI, which looks painfully dated now. Most of the effects consist of characters seeing horrifying features on the faces of strangers caused by ghostly hallucinations. None of them looks good, however; more like something from the '90s than the late 2000s. The worst is the cursed doll that appears in a hospital. It takes the form of a glowering baby holding a cell phone, which looks plain ridiculous. It's a far cry from the Japanese original directed by Takashi Miike, which itself was just okay. Not for nothing, One Missed Call holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One Missed Call Release Date January 4, 2008 Cast Edward Burns , Shannyn Sossamon , Ana Claudia Talancón , Ray Wise , Azura Skye , Johnny Lewis , Jason Beghe , Margaret Cho , Meagan Good , Rhoda Griffis , Dawn Dininger , Ariel Winter , Sarah Jean Kubik , Raegan Lamb , Karen Beyer , Alana Locke , Dave Spector , Mary Lynn Owen , Roy McCrerey , Lauren Peyton , Greg Corbett , Donna Biscoe , Edith Ivey , Wilbur Fitzgerald , Bart Hansard Runtime 87 minutes Writers Andrew Klavan Expand 6 Mama 'Mama' (2013) Image via Universal Pictures "Victoria, you know who I am. I’m your Mama." Mama tells the story of two young girls, Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lily (Isabelle Nélisse), who are raised in isolation by a vengeful spirit they call Mama after their parents’ tragic deaths. When the girls are adopted, Mama follows them to their new home. The film starts strong, building an eerie vibe and using shadows to great effect. However, the climactic reveal of Mama as a fully CGI entity undoes much of the carefully constructed tension. Again, this is a case where the monster simply looks like something out of a cheap game. Kids are bound to be frightened by it, but veteran horror fans will be unmoved. It's a pity since the rest of the movie is pretty solid (Jessica Chastain and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau turn in strong performances). In short, the antagonist in a 2013 horror has no excuse to look this fake. Release Date February 21, 2013 Runtime 100 Minutes 5 Shark 'Deep Blue Sea' (1999) Image via Warner Bros. "You ate my bird!" In this otherwise enjoyable riff on the overdone Jaws formula, a team of scientists experiments on sharks to develop a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, only to inadvertently create hyper-intelligent predators. The movie delivers on its promise of campy thrills in some areas, but its CGI sharks fail to live up to the suspense. While some practical effects are used effectively, the digital sharks are unconvincing, with stiff, awkward movements and a texture that screams "computer-generated." This mediocrity is especially jarring in scenes where the sharks interact with real environments or actors. For example, there's a particularly egregious moment where a shark jumps out of nowhere and attacks Samuel L. Jackson's character. It looks jarringly unreal; Sharknado levels of trashy, to the point of being unintentionally funny. These effects probably didn't look too bad in 1999 but are very lame by today's standards. Still, as a whole, Deep Blue Sea is one of the better shark movies out there. Deep Blue Sea Release Date July 28, 1999 Runtime 105 minutes Writers Duncan Kennedy , Donna Powers , Wayne Powers 4 The Scorpion King 'The Mummy Returns' (2001) Image via Universal Pictures "Not even the Scorpion King can defeat me!" The introduction of the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns is one of the most infamous moments in CGI history. Played by Dwayne Johnson in human form, the character transforms into a grotesque half-scorpion, half-man creature during the climactic battle. The CGI used to create the Scorpion King is dated even by early 2000s standards, with cartoony eyes, plastic-like textures, and robotic movements. It creates an uncomfortable, uncanny valley effect in the viewer. Much of the problem reportedly stems from the fact that the Rock was busy at the time with WWE commitments, meaning he couldn't sit for extensive facial scans for the VFX artists to use. They had to mostly wing it, in other words. The monster looks heinous in hindsight, especially compared to the pioneering CGI in some other movies released that year, like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Fellowship of the Ring. The Mummy Returns Release Date May 4, 2001 Runtime 130 minutes 3 Werewolf 'An American Werewolf in Paris' (1997) Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution "Let me show you what a real Parisian nightmare looks like." As a follow-up to John Landis's groundbreaking An American Werewolf in London, this sequel had big shoes to fill. Unfortunately, it trades in the original's masterful practical effects for unconvincing CGI werewolves that lack the physicality of their predecessors. Indeed, while the original movie boasts one of the most iconic transformation sequences in werewolf cinema, here, the transformations look generic, unnatural, and cheap. The werewolves then go on a rampage, but they look truly terrible; an incongruous and unbelievable blend of dog and ape, blatantly superimposed onto the scene. It's not just that the effects are shoddy; it's that their design is also lame and utterly un-frightening. It's hard to understand what the filmmakers were even going for; they seem to have no grasp of the great cinematic werewolves of the past or what made them work. Landis understandably despised the movie, saying, "I was really disappointed when I saw that film; I thought it was lousy." An American Werewolf in Paris Release Date May 29, 1997 Cast Julie Delpy , Tom Everett Scott , Vince Vieluf , Phil Buckman , Julie Bowen , Pierre Cosso , Thierry Lhermitte , Maria Machado , Tom Novembre , Serge Basso , Charles Maquignon , Ben Salem Bouabdallah , Alan McKenna , Hervé Sogne , Jean-Claude Deret , Isabelle Constantini , David F. Friedman , Christian Magnani , Chris Bearne , Pierre Bodry , Pieter Riemens , Anthony Waller Runtime 98 minutes Writers Anthony Waller , Tim Burns Expand 2 Freddy-pillar 'Freddy vs. Jason' (2003) Image via New Line Cinema "I can’t come back if nobody remembers me!" Freddy vs. Jason pits two of horror’s most iconic villains against each other in a battle for dominance. As Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) attempts to regain his power by manipulating Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger), he takes on a variety of surreal forms in the dream world. Among them is the infamous Freddy-pillar, a bizarre caterpillar-like version of Krueger that crawls around taunting his victims. While the idea is inherently strange, the execution is shockingly and hilariously bad. It's a mystery how this scene made it to the theatrical release since it should have been left on the cutting room floor (and perhaps deleted forever). The creature is meant to be a play on the hookah-smoking caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, but even if it's intended as a joke, it doesn't work. Consequently, the scene is a striking example of a movie shattering the suspension of disbelief in seconds flat. Freddy vs. Jason Release Date August 15, 2003 Runtime 98 Minutes Writers Mark Swift , Damian Shannon 1 Malebolgia 'Spawn' (1997) Image via New Line Cinema "Your soul is mine now!" Claiming the top spot on this list is Malebolgia, the demon lord of Hell in Spawn. The villain pulls the strings from the underworld, seeking to use Spawn (Michael Jai White) as a pawn in his war against Heaven. While the character is central to the story, his CGI depiction is notoriously bad, making One Missed Call look like Avatar. Adding to the strangeness is the fact that Malebolgia was voiced by Frank Welkner, who also did the voice of Fred in the original Scooby-Doo. Where to begin with the visuals? First of all, the hellscape in which Malebolgia lives is a disaster, all 8-bit lava and cheesy lightning (honestly, Hell looks scarier in the PC game Diablo II). Then there's the creature himself, who appears to be a cross between the Balrog and Peanut, the 2014 winner of the World's Ugliest Dog. Malebolgia might've been okay for a Crash Bandicoot villain, but for a feature antagonist, he just doesn't cut it. For this reason, the character has become ironically iconic and is something of a cult favorite. He's the true nadir of monster CGI. Spawn Release Date August 1, 1997 Runtime 98 Mins Writers Mark A.Z. Dippé , Alan B. McElroy NEXT: 10 Essential Movies About Alcoholism and Drug Addiction
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