There is nothing that can hurt more than watching a film that is obviously half-baked. When studios are shortchanging on timelines, directors are abandoning their sets, or special effects are still in the testing phase—it’s a disaster recipe. And although Hollywood has been doing this for years, James Gunn’s recent decision to cancel a DCU project due to script issues may suggest that studios are finally realizing that “good enough” is not really good enough. In the meantime, let’s indulge a little bit in schadenfreude with the 10 most infamous unfinished films, which in some way managed to reach the silver screen.
10. The Mummy Returns (2001)
The Rock’s entrance as the Scorpion King should have been epic. What did they receive instead? The final battle looked like it was from a PS1 game. Brendan Fraser’s charm bailed out the film, but those effects? Unforgivable. Proof that rushing CGI to release a film ahead of a deadline leaves a scar—digital scars.
9. Nailed (2008) / Accidental Love (2015)
David O. Russell walked out halfway through the shoot, leaving behind a pile of half-finished footage. Years later, the scraps and pieces were pieced together and sent out into theaters under a pseudonym. The result was a rom-com with no real ending and a Frankenstein’s monster look. A lesson in why it may not always pay to take a film to its conclusion.
8. The Amazing Adventures of Zhu (2012)
This lost ZhuZhu Pets sequel never got an official American release. Instead, Universal quietly shipped it overseas in what most assume was either a tax evasion or an effort to avoid lawsuits. It’s barely recalled today—save by lost media fans who view it as an unfinished oddity.
7. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
Even director Lawrence Kasanoff later admitted the effects weren’t complete. Rushed into theaters anyway, this sequel was so bad it turned into a cult masterpiece “so-bad-it s-goodfavorite. Cheesy martial arts moves and cringe-worthy CGI destroyed it, but at least the fans learned to cherish how bad things could become.
6. Wagons East (1994)
John Candy’s untimely passing took the production by surprise. The studio finished the film using rewrites, body doubles, and reused footage. While it gave Candy his final ride, the patchwork final film resonated hollowly. Audiences cried not just for the man, but for this much better comedy that this could have been.
5. Grizzly II: Revenge (1983/2020)
Shot in the early 80s, left in the editing room, revived almost 40 years later, Grizzly II is a curiosity rather than a movie. Young George Clooney, Laura Dern, and Charlie Sheen make brief cameos at the beginning and end of the rest of the movie, which is an uncomfortable, stitched-together catastrophe that arises from production chaos.
4. Sphere (1998)
Michael Crichton adaptations usually manage to get it right—but not this one. Reshoots, runaway budgets, and underwater shooting difficulties rendered Sphere incomplete even on a hefty budget. What might have been a smart sci-fi thriller ended up being a lifeless mess.
3. The Devil Inside (2012)
Few finales have gotten under fans’ skin as much. Tense build-up, and the film ends with a car crash… then tells viewers to go to a website for the explanations. Yeah, that was it. The response was so savage that it became legendary, turning the film into one of horror’s greatest cop-outs.
2. A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Ray Bradbury’s classic novel deserved a sleek, considered adaptation. Instead, studio woes had effects resembling incomplete test prints. The time-travel tale implodes under the weight of its own production missteps, and the film bombed badly. A sad loss of a great concept.
1. Cats (2019)
No contest. Cats is the embodiment of “unfinished cinema.” The creepy CGI, the hasty re-release to fix mistakes, and the unadulterated nightmarish quality of human-cat hybrids shambling about on screen… indelible, for all the wrong reasons. The word “disaster” barely begins to describe.
Hurrying a movie never pays off. Whatever it is, from sabotaged special effects to undercooked scripts to production hell, incomplete movies make an impression on viewers—and not the good kind. That’s why James Gunn’s position—kill a bad project before it opens—is a welcome change. Perhaps the age of Franken-films is finally coming to an end.