Worst make-up, special effects, props, or sets

[The Burgomaster]

We all know that some movies are really cheap and therefore must use bottom-of-the-barrel make-up, special effects, props, or sets.  What are your favorite examples? Here are just a few of mine:

* PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE - This one is obvious. From the cheesy flying saucers on strings to the ridiculous graveyard set, this movie may be the king of cheapo production methods.

* MARS NEEDS WOMEN - How did the actors ever keep straight faces while they were wearing those silly space suits with the big antenna ears?

* SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS - The scenes at the North Pole remind me of the Brady Bunch episode where Peter and Bobby shook pieces of torn paper out of a box to simulate "snow."

* JUDGE DREDD - I KNOW it was based on a comic book, but Stallone looked really stupid in his cop uniform. REALLY stupid.

* THE CORE - The special effects were state-of-the-art . . . for 1977, that is.

Keep the list growing . . .

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[Fearless Freep]

The sock puppet snakes from "Robot Holocaust"
The muffin tin adorned space suit and beach ball alien from "Dark Star"

[Creepozoid]

the spaceship in STAR CRYSTAL

[peter johnson]

Oh, man, what a category --
Too many to mention, really . . . I love obvious rubber snakes & monsters & spiders, etc., but for makeup/props/sets, here are some killers:
The Wasp Woman mask in Roger Corman's Wasp Woman -- No attempt was made to hide the very very obvious zipper up the back of it.  In fact, there is a long scene shot from behind her as she's killing some guy, and the camera practically lingers on how fake it all is.  I love this movie.  Love it, love it, love it!!
The burlap cave wall in EEGAH!.  This is such a great bad picture anyway, but really, not only is the stone wall in EEGAH's cave made of painted burlap, there is a looong scene where it is very obviously peeling off the plywood wall, and you can clearly see the wood underneath.  Now that's special!!
peter johnson

[Funk, E.]

Jeez... That is a hard one. Darkstar is REALLY cheesy FX wise.
The mirror monster in Conan the Destroyer was pretty sad.
Err... Flesh Gordon... or Flash Gordon for that matter.
In fact just about any de laurentice film has stellar FX

[Cullen]

The Dinosaur in It's Alive is a man in a mime's costume with ping pong ball eyes.  It's hard to top that.
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[Damien01]

Return of the Jedi... The Rancor Pit... (I'm talking about the 1983 movie not the digial paint job either) How bad was that!!!

[Brother Ragnarok]

To be fair to Dark Star, it was supposed to be goofy.
How about the silly grinning marionette spider from Horrors of Spider Island?
The dinosaur puppets from Attack of the Supermonsters?
*shudder* Gaborah from Godzilla's Revenge?
The zombies with what looks like **** on their faces from City of the Walking Dead?

Brother R

[Andrew]

I have to put in a vote for both "Starcrash" and "Robot Holocaust."  In one you have the Lite-Brite cosmos and all the spikey weapons.  In the other what appears to be sock puppets covered with glitter are killer (cybernetic?) snakes.  Memory fails a little, but was glitter an often-used effect in "Robot Holocaust."

And bad CGI looks really awful.  Apply as needed, but give me a silly monster suit or puppet any day over bad CGI.

[Scott0]

Robot Monster.............. nuff said :p

[Fearless Freep]

Return of the Jedi... The Rancor Pit... (I'm talking about the 1983 movie not the digial paint job either) How bad was that!!!

Sheer master work  compared to "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn" or "Megaforce" for bad blue screen work

[Creepozoid]

Andrew wrote:
>
> And bad CGI looks really awful.  Apply as needed, but give me
> a silly monster suit or puppet any day over bad CGI.

A-F*CKING-MEN

[Squishy]

"Robot Monster" and "Plan Nine" place television parts and antennas on top of rickety wooden tables and DARE to suggest that it's futuristic technology. Ballsy, if nothing else...

"Space Mutiny." It's one thing to have crap effects and sets. It's a whole new level to swipe someone else's effects AND shoot an undisguised old beat-up factory or water-treatment facility as if it were a spaceship interior AND suggest that duffed-up weak electric carts are some sort of "landspeeder." Methane? ("Oh no! How are they going to fill their cows?")

Sorry, I've seen good CGI and I've seen bad CGI. And then, I've seen "Reptilicus." That puppet is totally effing useless, and the American-version "animated effects" make me burst into tears every time. Sifl and Olly convinced me that they were alive; Reptilicus just dangled and wobbled.

"The Beginning of the End." Recipe: Take pictures of skyline, add live bugs. Burn in furnace. In fact, Bert I. Gordon's cut-up photo "mattes," superimposed crickets and diaper-men, and make-up jobs (ever seen "The Cyclops?") constitute some of the worst stuff, ever. "King Dinosaur" is just...just...oy. (angrily) OY!!!

[Damien01]

Fearless Freep... Sure... but with all that money dumped into Return of the Jedi, you would think they would be able to merge Luke and the Rancor better and if you think it couldnt be dont then you havent seen Flesh Gorden 1972 "Flesh vs the Beetle Man" the fight looks 10 times better...

[jmc]

THE KILLER SHREWS..."Eh, let's just put masks on these dogs, no one will ever know!"