10 Worst Practical Effects In Movie History

Prosthetic makeup can be one of the coolest parts of any movie, bringing fantastical creatures to life through clever application of makeup. At least, that's the case if you do it right. If you do it wrong then the illusion is broken by how fake looking or feeling the makeup is. For a perfect point of comparison, look no further than the differences between the 2004 and 2019 versions of Hellboy.

Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy, designed by the great Jake Garber, was a masterpiece of makeup, perfectly matching actor Ron Perlman's face and moving along with him to make one of the most expressive and sympathetic of the filmmaker's many monsters. 2019's Hellboy, designed by the talented but poorly utilized Joel Harlow, meanwhile, was none of those things.

Problems with the script aside, the makeup just doesn't hold a candle. David Harbour was an inspired choice to portray Hellboy on paper, but the makeup is not made to accommodate his face, causing him to come off as stiff and lifeless which, considering that the story of Hellboy literally hinges on the audience's ability to connect to this demon that longs to be human, is kind of a problem.

The hell of it is that the rest of the movie looks pretty good. Not as good as the del Toro movies - it's HARD to follow up a del Toro project and measure up - but creatures like the Baba Yaga prove that talented people worked on this movie, which makes the final product all the sadder.