Badmovies.org Forum

What's your favorite crappy special effects?

I am partial to the candle flame rocket exhaust plumes you see in older space movies, strings visible or not on the rocket.

I also enjoy gunshot effects where:

--the person is clearly making a non-fired weapon recoil on purpose (like in "Angel")

--the bullet of a high powered rifle hits a person and all you see is a little blood AT THE ENTRY POINT (no fine mist BEHIND, no fist sized hole in the back, etc)

--people standing behind objects (such as other people) that are clearly inadequate cover and suffer no subsequent penentration trauma

I like when someone is surrounded by a colored aura like in "Xanadu" and "Howard the Duck".

It's an animated line around their bodies such as in this picture:  

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/howardduck/howardduck4.jpg

or this one:

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/xanadu/xanadu2.jpg

I always laugh when I see that ridiculous looking effect.



Post Edited (12-15-03 15:09)

Tough choice.....hmmm

when things fly on strings :)

Scratches on film to show death rays.  gotta be the cheapest f/x.

Being a Doctor Who fan, I'm with ASH on the CSO (chromakey separation overlay if you were wondering, ASH).
The scene in Split Second where the monster's hand is clawing through the roof of the subway car to get at Kim Kattrall is pretty silly.
And my all-time favorite is the mannequin they use in Zombie Holocaust to represent a guy falling out a top-floor hospital window.  When it hits the ground, the arm flies off and they do nothing to mask the fact.
Also, rear-projected lizards with fins glued on pretending to be dinosaurs rock.

Brother R



Post Edited (12-15-03 16:26)

I just saw a clip from the Mighty Gorga, in which there was a dinosaur that was VERY OBVIOUSLY a hand puppet. I don't even mean "obviously" like you can see the strings; the thing looked like Cecil the Seasick Sea serpent, and it was being held really close to the camera to make it look big while the actors ran around in the background. I've seen a lot of cheesy effects, but that one made my jaw drop.

Regards ol' time rockets....the smoke trail that, insted of going strate back from the rocket nozzel, goes up, perpindicular to the body of said rocket!
Hey, guys...point the rocket down, in relation to the camera, and when the smoke goes up, it'll look right on the film!

Angry Red Planet, when it's night on Mars blue light comes through the window, daytime it's scarlet red.  

They used  a photographic effect called solarization to make everything red,  hoping  you wouldn't notice that their space helmets didn't have  face plates and that the backgrounds weren't drawings.  Don't  get me started on the  Bat-rat-spider- crab thingy or the giant amoeba with the  rotating eyeball.

I guess it's more of a bad stunt, but I like when they have scenes where a cat is supposed to jump on people and scare or attack them, and it's always obvious that someone just throws the cat onto them.  

The spider attack in THE BEYOND was pretty bad too.



Post Edited (12-16-03 15:20)

Flangepart wrote:

> Regards ol' time rockets....the smoke trail that, insted of
> going strate back from the rocket nozzel, goes up,
> perpindicular to the body of said rocket!
> Hey, guys...point the rocket down, in relation to the camera,
> and when the smoke goes up, it'll look right on the film!
>

Of course, that doesn't help when you also have a bunch of huge sparks falling down :)

hehe, yeah, that's right up there with buckets of water being thrown acting like waves or heavy rain.  "Wind" is a pretty good movie, overall, but in the final race sequences, Matthew Modine has obvious buckets thrown on him that are supposed to be spray from the boat working to windward.  My wife points this out every single time we watch it!!

Hey, jmc, thanks for reminding me by mentioning spiders, how could anyone forget the VW Bug covered with naugahyde in The Giant Spider Invasion.  And while we're on the goofy spiders bit, how about that spraypainted melon with pipecleaners glued to it in Nude For Satan (on a side note, no movie has ever had a cooler title than that).

Brother R

I like when two people are standing face to face and one of them gets shot in the back. The other person sees blood appear on their friend's chest, or they even get sprayed with blood. Gee, what happened to the bullet that obviously exited the other person's chest heading straight for them?

There's a plane crash in the movie, and as the toy plane angles down towards the (ahem) ground on a wire, it hits a snag, pauses, *rears back* a bit, then continues to "Earth."

It's...it's...perfect.

Damn! I would have bet you would mention the "flying motorbikes" from "Megaforce", Ken.

About me, I have developed a certain fondness for Matte Paintings used as backgrounds. And the Fantastic Factory (makers of "Arachnid", "Dagon" or "Beyond Re-animator") make-up effects are lots of fun.

welllllllllllll,since u asked i was watching chopper chicks in zombie town and when the leader lady (can't remember her name) was riding away on her motorbike, she kicked a zombie without any arms.
The thing is, the actor, clearly had his arms stuffed into his shirt, since they bulged out. Secodly, the dude fell on the floor b4 she even kicked him! As they say timing is evrythin!

Almost any special effect from the old "Land of the Lost" TV show.  

All hail the Krofts!

Kirk

So many bad effects, so little time....

In relation to those old 1950s rocket shots, I love when they show the rocket landing -- by REVERSING THE FILM OF THE ROCKET TAKING OFF!  

How about the two-headed effect in "The Thing With Two Heads" -- a bad plastic mold of Ray Milland's head held in place with a scarf/bandage thingy -- oh yeah, very believable!

I don't know if the dinosaur in Mighty Gorga was a puppet or just a toy -- I think it was a toy -- so cheap it didn't even have those doll-eyelids that go up and down!

And I'm sure all the MST fans will remember the "great" flying effects in The Pumaman -- some of the worst ever and worth every belly laugh.

In Black Roses, when the long-armed monster puppet is attacking the English teacher in the kitchen, for a moment you can clearly see the wire controlling one of its arms! Heh.

Killer Klowns - The creature in the toilet raises up too far and you see the puppeteer's arm.

Dance of the Dwarves - The creature arm on the helicopter reaches out too far and you see the actor's arm.

Remo Williams - When Fred Ward crashes through the glass near the end, it breaks before he hits it.

JohnL wrote:

> Killer Klowns - The creature in the toilet raises up too far
> and you see the puppeteer's arm.


Most likely because you weren't watching it in widescreen....the movie was shot in a matted ratio, and theatrically you'd never see the arm because the top and bottom of the image would have been masked off for the 1.85:1 widescreen ratio.

This is a common thing that doesn't make sense when people talk about microphones and stuff like that showing up at the top or bottom of a movie....because they're not watching the correct matted-widescreen version.

Hardly qualifies it as something "bad".

Giant Claw : Oh, the missuse of stock footage...or is that redundant?
All fighter squadrons use the same type of plane. Pick a type, and stick with it! We "Wing nuts" know when you cut from one type to another!
And lets not establish the hero being in one type of transport (C-54), and show them crashing in a B-29!
Right, Ken?

Oh! When they blow up an "Assblaster" in Tremors 3, piece of the beast come flying at the heros from the totaly wrong angle!

"--people standing behind objects (such as other people) that are clearly inadequate cover and suffer no subsequent penentration trauma"

I took a military counter-terrorism course where the instructor wanted to make a point on what constitutes "cover."  He set up a bunch of targets on the other side of a car, and then shot the car with an AK-47 from 50 feet away.  After, we went around to the other side.  All the targets were swiss cheese.  The bullets went straight through both doors, or the entire trunk section.  The only target that was protected at all - and even it was hit - was the one behind the car's engine.  I'm pretty anti-gun control, but to be honest that demonstration actually changed my mind when it comes to assault weapons.

Very few movies show how guns really penetrate.  I think Saving Private Ryan is one of the few.  Well, there was also that scene in Tremors.  Usually, a movie hero hiding behind a wooden door is gonna be just fine.  Anyway, if you ever are hiding behind a car from gun fire, get behind the engine.

The flying zombie head in the refridgerator from Zombi 3, hands down- first that comes to mind.

The 'monster' in The Creeping Terror.  Moldy carpet wearing tennis shoes...and the way the 'victims' reached up and helped it      'engulf' them...tehe!

jmc wrote:> The spider attack in THE BEYOND was pretty bad too.

Hey I like that scene, true the spiders were kinda (are) cheap looking but the scene is downright creepy and distrubing (and gory!)

Oh holy jeezus, how could I forget Zombi 3?  

The makeup effects in NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, of course....

My favorite Ed Wood effect was probably BRIDE OF THE MONSTER where they put Bela Lugosi in platform shoes and have him fight Tor Johnson.  Also the scene with the nonmotorized octopus.

Whenever the Camera Operator just shakes the camera around to simulate a crash/explosion/earthquake etc...

Revolvers that hold endless amounts of ammunition...

Shotguns that can take out a car in one shot...

Bad Guys that are impervious to small arms fire, yet can be defeated by a spear/big rock/rubbish compactor...

Colt M1991A1 wrote:

>
> Bad Guys that are impervious to small arms fire, yet can be
> defeated by a spear/big rock/rubbish compactor...

That reminds me of "Billy the Kid Versus Dracula"  (1965) where Billy shoots and shoots and shoots at Dracula (John Carradine), all to no effect.  Dracula just stands there, no flinching, nothing.  Then Billy throws his gun at Dracula, AND HE DUCKS!!!!