Editorial · 6 films
The practical effects shelf
Latex, foam, air bladders and karo syrup. The argument is not nostalgia, it is that the light falls on it correctly.
The Thing1982 · John Carpenter · USA/Canada · 109m
Rob Bottin was 22, effectively lived at the studio for a year, and was hospitalised before it wrapped.
An American Werewolf in London1981 · John Landis · UK/USA · 97m
Rick Baker won the first Academy Award ever given for makeup.
The Fly1986 · David Cronenberg · USA/Canada · 92m
Chris Walas, and a design that degrades convincingly across five stages.
Dawn of the Dead1978 · George A. Romero · USA/Italy · 126m
Savini, four months of overnight shoots, and blood mixed for a film stock nobody uses now.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man1989 · Shinya Tsukamoto · Japan · 67m
Stop motion, scrap metal and eighteen months. Nothing else looks like it.
The Howling1981 · Joe Dante · USA · 91m
Bottin again, months before American Werewolf, and the two of them finished the subgenre between them.