10 Strangest Movie Changes Made After Filming
9. Painting Over Practical Monster Effects With CGI - The Thing (2011)
2011's prequel to John Carpenter's sci-fi horror masterpiece The Thing - confusingly also called The Thing - wasn't a great movie by any means, but the film shot by director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was at least considerably more interesting than the chopped-up one we ended up with.
Beyond being cut to ribbons during editing, the film's extensive practical effects - produced by legendary company Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI) - were largely thrown out and effectively painted over with CGI.
This was apparently due to test audiences feeling that the animatronics looked dated, prompting an anxious Universal to have them all replaced digitally, while retaining ADI's original designs.
Ever since this became apparent, fans have passionately campaigned for Universal to release the original cut complete with all the practical effects restored, yet given that The Thing was a catastrophic bomb at the box office, they likely don't see much financial interest in doing so.
In response to their work being ripped out of the film, ADI decided to crowd-fund their own horror film, Harbinger Down, driven by extensive practical effects. In another unfortunate turn, though, it didn't make a dent with critics.