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Opinion thread, no wrong answers except the wrong ones. Best practical effects of all time?
I will start with the obvious: the transformation in $AAWL. Done with the lights up, nowhere to hide. Every time I watch it I learn something new about how patient that crew must have been.
$THNG. The creature work is ambitious to the point of madness, and it still looks like nothing else. It taught me more about staging a reveal than any class did.
$JAWS. A mechanical shark that barely worked, and the movie is better because they had to hide it.
the movie is better because they had to hide it
The greatest argument for limitations ever filmed.
Sound design is a practical effect and I will stand on this hill. Half the performance in $FLYX is in what you hear.
$PLTG for the house itself misbehaving. The kitchen chairs moment is so simple and so perfect.
$GRML. Puppets with personality. Every gremlin gets a whole character arc in two seconds of screen time.
From the micro budget side: $EVDD is the patron saint. Proof that ingenuity and a borrowed cabin can go a very long way.
$ALNF. The creature is barely on screen and I still think about its shape at night.
Great list. Honorable mention to whoever invented stage blood that washes out of carpet. The real heroes of this industry.
Reading this from a desk that mostly covers budgets, and it is a nice reminder that the thing people remember is usually the handmade thing someone obsessed over.