This article can contain some disturbing images of body horror (though it's all effect work).
While many believe practical effects is a dying tradition, there have been a lot of great examples over the last year of movies and TV shows opting for practical effect over CGI. This includes much of the work in Army of the Dead using practical effects over computer graphics.
In the current days of CGI overload, finding movies that still use practical effects well really shows a love for movie making and often feels more realistic than something made on a computer. When new movies and TV shows use these effects, the men and women in charge have a lot of past masters in the genre they look up to.
Lon Chaney Sr.
When someone wants to find where practical effects and makeup work originated, go back to the silent era and look at the work of Lon Chaney Sr. The father of the first Wolf-Man in movies, Chaney earned the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces" because he could change himself into anything, some unrecognizable, with his talent as an effects artist.
Anyone who wants to see makeup work done right should watch Chaney movies like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. His legacy is undeniable as a practical effects artist, with Kenneth Branagh narrating a documentary about him in 2000 that explored his amazing work.
Robert Hall
Robert Hall isn't a name that a lot of movie fans might recognize, but he has done some of the most familiar practical effects work of the past 30 years. That is because Hall worked mostly on television, and he was the man responsible for the effects in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Hall, who died in 2021, also worked on The X-Files, Firefly, the television versions of Teen Wolf and Fear Clinic, and three of the Paranormal Activity sequels. Hall is notable not only for his work as a practical effects artist, but for his creativity in the financially limited realm of television, where he created some of the most memorable monsters in TV history.
Chris Walas
Chris Walas won an Oscar for his special effects work on The Fly, and while that was his only major win, his legacy as a practical effects artist goes much further than that. He created some of the most memorable effects in two of the 80s most popular movies.
Walas created the Gremlins in that seminal horror comedy. He also created the practical effects of the melting faces in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Ark of the Covenant opened. Sadly, his movie career ended in 1991 outside one indie movie in 2002, but his status as one of the best practical effects artists remains intact thanks to his early work.
Dick Smith
Dick Smith solidified his place in practical effects history with one huge moment. He created the practical effects in the 1973 horror movie, possession and exorcism in the movie, he created nightmare fuel for years.
Smith is different from many practical effects artists, as he took his talents to movies that were outside the realm of horror and sci-fi. He created effects to age Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man and used non-makeup methods to transform Marlon Brando in The Godfather. To understand his effects on the world of effects in movies, he mentored Rick Baker, who later won several Oscars using techniques learned under Smith.
Rob Bottin
Rob Bottin is a cult-favorite practical effects' artist, as he worked on the creature effects on one of horror cinema's most beloved films. He created the shape-shifting monster in John Carpenter's The Thing, a creature that has stood the test of time as one of horror's most disturbing creations.
His work wasn't just in the Paul Verhoeven science fiction movies Total Recall and RoboCop. With his wide array of special effects work, he remains known as a genius in the field, and his techniques are taught in university-level filmmaking classes.
Tom Savini
Before Tom Savini, the zombies in movies were mostly normal people walking disoriented with their arms held out in front of them. However, when George Romero began working on his second zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead, Savini came in and revolutionized zombie effects.
Savini also worked on special effects for the Friday the 13th franchise, including coming up with the various look of the kills. Savini's work as a creature creator is unparalleled in the world of practical effects, and he has even worked outside the movie industry on masks for the musicians in Slipknot and WWE wrestlers such as Bray Wyatt.
Phil Tippett
When talking about practical effects, most talk centers on creature creation and horror movie effects. However, there is a lot more that goes into the job than just creating horrific scenes. Phil Tippett is an example of a practical effects artist that could create entire worlds.
Tippett was the head of the team that created many of the practical effects from the first three Star Wars movies. He headed the ILM animation department, and he was responsible for the AT-AT Imperial Walkers and the alien tauntauns. He eventually moved on to the new world of CGI but used his knowledge in practical effects to help design the CGI dinosaurs in the first Jurassic Park movie.
Stan Winston
While Stan Winston moved into the world of CGI later in his career, he made his name as one of the most groundbreaking practical effects artists in the industry. He helped create some of the most inspired creatures in movies when he worked on The Thing alongside Rob Bottin and then eclipsed Bottin over the next few years.
Winston helped create the practical effects for James Cameron's movie, Aliens. Many effects artists today reference Winston as an influence, and he worked on movies up until his death in 2008.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is the man who created the stop-motion animation that used models he created to great effect. It was Harryhausen that influenced almost every practical effects' artist that followed, with Phil Tippett starting his career thanks to watching Harryhausen's work on The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, James Cameroon, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and John Landis all said that their work wouldn't have been possible without Harryhausen leading the way. In the realm of stop-motion animation, there was no one better.
Rick Baker
Rick Baker holds the prestige of becoming the first man to ever win an Oscar for Best Makeup Effects, taking the prize for An American Werewolf in London in the first year the Academy presented this award. He then went on to have one of the greatest careers of any practical effects' artist in history.
No practical effects' artist has won more Best Makeup awards than Baker, with seven wins out of a record 11 nominations. Baker retired in 2015, pointing out that CGI has limited what he can do, but left a legacy in the occupation that will be hard to replicate.
