Modern movie CGI is spotty at best. Since so many studios rely on computer graphics for their coolest shots, the fine art of using practical visual effects has slowly faded away. Thankfully, these ten movies show what is possible when creative people solve problems without going to convenient answer of CGI.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The first Indiana Jones movie is a visual triumph. Every ancient tomb, rolling bolder, and melting face in the movie was created practically. The film’s exceptional visual language is a testament to Lucasfilm’s dedication and creative genius.
Eraserhead
David Lynch’s first directorial outing is the eerie, spellbinding Eraserhead. This surreal and though-provoking movie looks like a nightmare made real, which is made all the more impressive when you realize it was created using only practical visual effects captured in-camera.
The Terminator
Breaking news: James Cameron is a genius, and his movies look amazing. The Terminator is a triumph of sci-fi cinema, featuring a terrifying third-act chase scene in which a stop-motion exoskeleton threatens our heroes. That Cameron and his visual effects team managed to pull that one off is a triumph of filmmaking.
Aliens
Oh, what’s that, James Cameron is still a legendary filmmaker? Yeah, Aliens is one of the best sequels ever made and it’s also visually stunning. It’s as much an action movie as it is horror this time around, and the new creature designs are delightfully spooky.
The Thing
John Carpenter’s masterpiece, The Thing, is one of the coolest horror movies of the 80s. It uses its Antarctic setting masterfully and has some of the best practical creature effects ever put to film. The monster is so convincing that you would swear you’re not seeing rubber and animatronics.
Batman (1989)
Tim Burton broke the superhero movie mold when he made 1989’s Batman. Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson are spellbinding in their roles, and Burton’s vision of Gotham City is a neo-Gothic wonder. Between matte paintings, painstaking set designs, and some genuinely awesome costuming, this film gave us our modern Batman visual language.
Blade Runner
It’s not easy to invent an entire genre of storytelling wholesale in a single movie, but Ridley Scott and company pulled it off with the inimitable sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner. No one had heard of “cyberpunk” until Scott basically invented it. Do you know how hard it is to create an entire futuristic world using only practical effects? By how good this movie looks you’d swear the answer is “not that hard”!
Evil Dead II
Sam Raimi proved himself as a master of the horror genre back in the 80s with a phenomenal series of Evil Dead films. The second entry is iconic, featuring Bruce Campbell as a zombie-slaying survivor who ends up with a chainsaw for a hand. Nearly every shot in the movie includes some kind of visual effect, and, through some form of dark magic, every single one of them lands perfectly.
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The Lord of the Rings
You might be sick of hearing about it, but The Lord of the Rings trilogy isn’t overhyped. Peter Jackson and the team at Weta Workshop put in the blood, sweat, and tears to make the trilogy look visually stunning. Of course, there are tons of CGI shots in the films, especially when it comes to creatures like Gollum. However, don’t underestimate the sheer volume of practical effects, from rubber orc masks to visual trickery that made Hobbits look smaller than humans.
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Star Wars
Could anything else be number one? The first Star Wars movie was a revelation back in 1977. George Lucas and his team did something other filmmakers had only dreamt of to that point: they created an entire fictional universe for the characters to inhabit using only sets, costumes, and some fancy visual effects. It’s no exaggeration to say that literally every single shot in Episode IV features some kind of visual effect.
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