Practical effects appreciation thread

Let's post some interesting, groundbreaking, jaw-dropping, or just cool looking practical special effects in this thread.

I just watched Eraserhead for the first time last night, so I'll start with the mutant baby in it.



It's pretty convincing, especially considering the low budget. And the mystery and speculation surrounding it's creation makes it even more effective. For all we know, Lynch found a real alien or mutant somewhere, and just put it in the film

Also I have to include this:



It's just fucking amazing. Although it might not be 100% practical. I read somewhere they probably used a chroma key to make the hole, but I couldn't find any accurate information about it.

perkele wrote:

For all we know, Lynch found a real alien or mutant somewhere, and just put it in the film

Legend has it that Lynch used a rabbit corpse, but I digress.

I recently saw Re-Animator, and that had great practical effects. Same with Bad Taste, even though Bad Taste has a low budget.

Evil Dead I-III, and of course The Thing.

Eventhough Brad absolutely HATES "Lords of Salem", according to IMDb, all of the effects in the film are all practical.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1731697/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv

Some of the very first special effects of all time.



It's weird to think that this movie is 111 years old. It was almost 60 years old back when Ed Wood was making movies. It's just so mind blowing in a certain way

Better matte paintings than Twilight.

Seconded on THE THING.
The effects for ALIEN were pretty fantastic too, especially the Xenomorph.

I did a marathon of all the Alien movies not long ago, and it surprised me a little how visually the first one has aged so much better than the three sequels.

They're not the most realistic effects in the world, but I also love Harryhausen's work on JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and CLASH OF THE TITANS.

Dark Crystal and Labyrinth are both pretty cool.

Okay I just saw it today, and it may be cheating because the film is not really live-action, but Team America World Police, it is just puppetry, and it is impressive (especially because the effects seemed to be practical).

The sets & effects in MOON (2009)

I adore practical effects, everything from Harryhausen to Stan Winston.

Here's a couple of trailers for two forgotten 80's classics that both feature lots of cool and old school effects:

The Gate (1987):



Spookies (1986)



Both of these movies feature incredibly cool and inventive special effects but while The Gate is a lot of fun (in a Goonies sort of way) Spookies is an absolute mess of a movie (in a Godfrey Ho sort of way), I'd recommend giving both a watch though.

And here's another of my favourites, a scene from the 1933 stop motion movie The Mascot by Ladislas Starevich:



Unfortunately it's not the best quality video, but the effects and music are just beautiful.

80'sDavid wrote:

And here's another of my favourites, a scene from the 1933 stop motion movie The Mascot by Ladislas Starevich:



Unfortunately it's not the best quality video, but the effects and music are just beautiful.

I'd never seen that before. That is very cool.

ChaosTheory wrote:

80'sDavid wrote:

And here's another of my favourites, a scene from the 1933 stop motion movie The Mascot by Ladislas Starevich:



Unfortunately it's not the best quality video, but the effects and music are just beautiful.

I'd never seen that before. That is very cool.

I'd recommend trying to track down the whole movie online if you can, it's only short. I'm always baffled by how little exposure Ladislas Starevich has gotten because he really worked some magic.