14 Decidedly Analog Movie Special Effects

You'd think that with massive budgets behind them, movies would spare no expense to achieve top notch, realistic effects. It turns out, though, some of the most memorable scenes in cinema history were achieved pretty much by spending a few bucks at the Dollar Store. The big complaint about, say, the Star Wars prequels or the Angelina Jolie Beowulf was that they were too uncanny valley. Sometimes all it takes is a bunch of well-paced floor fans and a wire to make Superman fly, or…wait a second are we serious? Okay. Sometimes all it takes is finding a location that looks vaguely similar to another location, and oigno-boingo, Montreal is now Chicago. The producers saved a boatland of cash! Movie magic, amirite? Sure seems like they can do anything these days. 

We asked our readers to show you some of these scenes, and we tossed some cashola for the best ...

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Entry by davlee1991

Caoabtanca 4PT Because the Finale in 1942 classic CASABLANCA scene Filmed Full-sized was on soundstage, real plane couldn't a a be Fit into the backgr

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Entry by Kyledilax

EUROTRIP The movie is about Scotty and his friends, who travel across Europe in search of Scotty's pen pal. The story starts in Hudson, Ohio and follo

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Entry by Scott Laffey

CRACKED PREDATOR BooD was made of lube KY mixed with some glow stick juice.

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Entry by dritjon

14 Decidedly Analog Movie Special Effects

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Entry by Chan Teik Onn

DURING ONE OF CITIZEN KANE'S PICNIC SCENES. YOU CAN SEE SOME SCARY-LOOKING BIRDS FLYING IN THE BACKGROUND. THOSE ARE IN FACT, PTERODACTYLS, AND ORSON

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THE SMOKE COMING OFF ARNOLD'S JACKET IN THIS SCENE FROM T12 CONCEALED SMOKE PELLET? OFFSCREEN SMOKE MACHINE? CRACKED.COM NOPE! THEY JUST POURED ACID O

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Entry by Tim Babb

14 Decidedly Analog Movie Special Effects

14 Decidedly Analog Movie Special Effects

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Entry by davlee1991

CRACKEDcO COM Because of the low-budget (around A quarter the budget of its predecessors) of infamously terrible film Superman IV: The Quest For Peace

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Entry by Ted E.

This CRAGKEDCOM beautiful Japanese bridge appears in numerous cinematic cmasterpieces such of as Memoirs. a Geisha G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and, uhh, B

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Entry by Giovenna

The spider from Spider-Man movie wore make-up When Sam Raimi decided he wanted a real spider for his movie, he chose a Steatoda Grossa to fill the r

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Entry by Tim Babb

14 Decidedly Analog Movie Special Effects

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This is the famous scene of Frodo getting stabbed by Shelob in Return of the King, a movie with a $94 million budget The foam in his mouth is dissolvi

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Entry by Moedred

Indiana Jones says seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library ...preferably one with real books. CRACKED.COM