10 Blatantly Unfinished Movies (That Were Released Anyway)

You knew we had to do it to them, right?

Who could forget the horrified reactions which spread throughout the Internet when the first trailer for the long-awaited film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway smash arrived?

Helmer Tom Hooper’s queasy, green-and-grey tinged aesthetic may have worked well in the squalid confines of Les Miserables, but Cats’ combination of an uncanny valley CGI cast, unfunny comedy, and terrifying visual effects resulted in a singularly upsetting piece of work which was roundly reviled by critics and audiences alike.

Cats was an unparalleled disaster well before its December 2019 release, but the widespread disgust at its trailer and star Taylor Swift’s decision to distance herself from the project didn’t stop producers from attempting to salvage the turkey through any means possible.

The most desperate move attempted was sending a corrected version of the film to cinemas a week after its initial release, with uneven visual effects a little more polished and—theoretically—less uncanny in this version.

Twitter had a field day working out whether viewers were seeing the “finished” or original cut of the film (keep an eye on Dame Judi’s hand, apparently), but curiosity wasn’t enough to draw in droves at the multiplex, and Cats died a death at the box office.