Most Disappointing CGI Monsters in Horror Movies
A look at the CGI monsters that failed to impress in otherwise solid horror movies.
Pennywise's Final Form
Isaac's Death | Children of the Corn (1984)
The sequel to Stephen Kings IT revealed a comically awkward spider-clown.
Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise Holding a Bloody Man By the Riverside in It Chapter Two
Pennywises final form was a comically goofy giant spider with a clowns head.
Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise reaches out in It Chapter 2
2019s IT: Chapter 2 was a little tonally uneven, with the sequel bouncing between knockabout comedy scenes and dark, gruesome horror without much warning.
Bill Skarsgard' Pennywise peeling his face paint and skin in IT Chapter 2
However, for the most part, this second chapter of 2017s blockbuster was a success. The adult version of The Losers Club was well cast, Pennywise was still terrifying, and Bill Hader stole the show as Richie Tozers older self.
James McAvoy's adult Bill runs from Pennywise's spider form in a cave in It Chapter Two
What a shame that IT: Chapter 2s ending revealed Penywise's final form was a comically goofy giant spider with a clowns head.
Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise Breaking Glass And Smiling In It Chapter Two
The Boogeyman
2005s titular villain ruined the preceding movies unsettling atmosphere.
Isaac is eaten by He Who Walks Among the Rows in Children of the Corn 1984
The Boogeyman was a slack-jawed CGI monstrosity.
The Boogeyman sneaks up behind Barry Watson in Boogeyman 2005
Few horror movies depict the Boogeyman onscreen, perhaps because no monster could match the imagined horrors of the audiences childhood.
However, 2005s Boogeyman attempted this with the story of a disturbed young man returning to his childhood home and confronting the unseen force that killed his father years earlier.
A slack-jawed CGI monstrosity, Boogeymans monster was bad enough to undo the considerable promise of the movies creepy early scenes.
Uxia
2001s almost-perfect Lovecraft adaptation was let down by bad CGI.
A woman with tentacles for legs sits on a bed in Dagon 2001
Dagon combined two of the legendary horror author HP Lovecrafts best-known stories into an unsettling tale of a town with a dark secret.
Some mean-spirited twists, truly shocking gore, and spirited, campy direction ensured that this was, alongside 1991s The Resurrected, one of the best Lovecraft screen adaptations.
That is until the revelation of one jarringly inept piece of special effects work as the villainous Uxias laughably bad CGI tentacles undid all the movies patient tension building.
The Devil
The Omens remake shouldnt have revealed its goofy devil onscreen.
The devil appears in Julia Stiles' bathroom mirror in The Omen 2006
A remake of The Omen was always guaranteed to be a hard sell since the original is famously a rare horror movie where the heroes lose.
However, 2006s re-do proved surprisingly competent, with Liev Schreiber offering a more jittery, paranoid take on Robert Thorn, the diplomat who slowly realizes his son is the Antichrist.
David Thewlis and the late, great Pete Postletwaithe provided fun, campy support and Julia Stiles was typically strong as Damians conflicted mother, but all this good work was undone by a dodgy CGI devil that looked like a goofily grinning horse skull.
Mama
2013s Mama proved that a bad monster design could undo a solid movie.
A creepy ghost reaches its blackened, gnarled hand and makes a contorted face in Mama
Mama followed a couple who adopted their orphaned nieces, who had spent the past five years eking out a feral existence in a remote woodland.
The pair struggled to integrate the girls into society, but this issue was worsened by the gradual realization that a supernatural force had seemingly followed them out of the forest.
The eponymous force, the largely unseen Mama, was effectively creepy until the disappointing ending revealed her to be a poorly realized CGI ghost.
Mary Elnor
This religious horror seemed to be promising until its big villain reveal.
Mary Elnor screams while staring in The Unholy 2021
2021s The Unholy saw a cynical journalist investigate what seemed to be a string of real-life miracles performed by a young girl.
When the girl claimed she was channeling the spirit of Mary, everyone assumed she meant the Virgin Mary until The Unholys hero had disquieting nightmares about a demon.
This demon turned out to be the satanist Mary Elnor, a twist that might have worked better if Mary herself wasnt a bland, by-the-numbers CGI monster with no memorable features.
Calvin
This otherwise great sci-fi chillers alien couldn't compare to the Xenomorph or the Predator.
Calvin's final form from Life
2017s Life had tons going for it. A cast that included Jake Gyllenhall, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ryan Reynolds, a genuinely shocking early death, and a story of a rampaging killer alien that felt more like 1979s original Alien than Ridley Scotts convoluted Alien prequels.
However, all of these promising elements became less than the sum of their parts thanks to Calvin, the villain at the movies center. Lifes CGI alien was a weightless, bland blob whose limitless power couldn't hide its uninspired design.
The Darkseekers
Will Smiths action-horror epic was ruined by PlayStation-style monsters.
A Darkseeker roars in I Am Legend
2007s I Am Legend was incredibly patient for a blockbuster, with the movie taking a good hour to reveal the monsters that Will Smiths troubled loner Robert Neville evaded in post-apocalyptic New York.
However, the wait was not worth it when I Am Legend finally unveiled its Darkseekers and they were hilariously unconvincing monsters that wouldnt have passed muster in a PlayStation game five years earlier.
