While technology has made everything feasible and left nothing unique, there are a few directors who stay committed to practical effects and believe in their impact. Stan Winston, one of the world’s finest special effects gurus, produced terrifying yet exquisite monsters like the Predator, the Xenomorph Queen, and the T Rex from Jurassic Park back in the day. In terms of monster development, these were nothing short of cinematic epics. Who can forget Rob Bottin’s contribution to The Thing?
CGI was not as prevalent in the entertainment industry back then. We are not implying that CGI is inferior to actual effects in any way, but getting it correctly is not for everyone. Having said that, if we are talking about horror movies, it is a well-known truth that practical effects are the way to go! Can you envision Exorcist or Conjuring without the use of genuine makeup? Thankfully, the emergence of computer-generated effects has not rendered practical effects obsolete. In this video, we will look at ten of the best recent films that used practical effects to not only bring their monsters to life but also to build a spectacular atmosphere.
Superdeep (2021)
In 1984, a Russian epidemiologist named Anna Fedorova is contacted by Colonel Morozov of Military Intelligence, who tells her that sounds of unknown origin were recorded in Kola Superdeep, a borehole that’s 12000 meters deep. After which point, twenty people went missing from the place. To the world, it’s just the deepest borehole in the world, but in reality, it’s a secret research lab.
The Colonel asks Anna to join him on his visit to Kola Superdeep because the government wanted to shut down the facility within the next twenty-four hours. Furthermore, there were reports that the Head of Research was hiding traces and evidence of an unknown disease. Anna’s task was to retrieve the samples from the facility. Colonel Morozov, Anna, and a team of soldiers led by Major Sergei MacKiev reach Kola Superdeep in Murmansk. Later, Anna finds a cellular parasite that doesn’t just take control of the muscular and nervous system to transform people into hideous beasts but also causes several mutations and deformities in humans, including melding and conjoining of the body. The final stage of the monster is the combination of several host bodies joined together.
Despite the fact that Arseny Syuhin’s film drags in more places than one, it manages to build just enough tension for the viewers to get immersed in the surreal and grandiose setting. The most striking feature of Superdeep is the special effects and the film’s underground setting, which successfully builds an atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia. Arseny constantly reminded us through his set that the characters were stuck miles under the surface and had no place to escape, but what’s more effective than that is the body horror of the film.
Once the film’s primary antagonist, the mutagenic body melding cellular parasite, affected a host, a range of mutations would begin. For the final stage, which was a gigantic hybrid creature, the crew used a smaller 3D model but bringing it to life was a difficult task from a technical point of view due to the design and size of the final creature. They decided to use organic shapes for reference, like mushrooms and animal body parts. This sort of design enabled the viewers to see the monster not just as something alien or otherworldly but as a grotesquely malformed combination of commonly found organic objects. After several trials involving skeletal models, carts, etc., the crew managed to bring a modern film monster that’s comparable to the likes of monsters from The Fly, John Carpenter’s The Thing, and Alex Garland’s Annihilation.
Psycho Goreman (2020)
Siblings Mimi and Luke created their own version of a game called a crazy ball, in which Luke lost. The domineering and naturally ferocious little girl Mimi, played by the outrageously talented Nita Josee Hanna, made Luke dig up dirt and extract a glowing gem. The kids had inadvertently awakened and freed an ancient bluish, bad-tempered alien from the planet of Gygax, who described himself as “the archduke of nightmares.” He was banished by an intergalactic organization called the Planetary Alliance and was imprisoned because he had attempted to destroy the galaxy in rage.
The alien goes on to kill a bunch of thieves in a shoe factory, but Mimi and Luke find him the following day and realize that they can control the alien monster through the glowing gem. The eccentric and loveable Mimi names the alien Psycho Goreman. Thrilled and elated by her newfound source of power, Mimi will prove that no force on the face of the universe is as capricious, vicious, and monstrous as a twelve-year-old girl, who has the power to get whatever she wants. Soon, Mimi goes on to make the Psycho Goreman turn her brother’s friend into a giant brain with googly and ogling eyes. But that doesn’t satiate her hunger for the absurd and ridiculous. As a film, Psycho Goreman is criminally hilarious yet dark.
Mimi and Luke try to teach P.G. about love, and he retorts with, “like when you rip out someone’s spleen and give it to their grieving family?”
Psycho Goreman is any day, the love child of E.T and Evil Dead, not just because of the transcending themes of these films but also because of the extremely superior special effects that were used to create the titular monster and the other weird stuff that feature in the film. Directed by Steven Kostanski, the same guy who held the reigns for films like The Void, Psycho Goreman succeeds because of its humor (It was nice meeting you—- It would be nice if you were dead.) but more than that, it was the several sequences with top-notch special effects.
Matthew Ninaber, the man who played Psycho Goreman, had a tonne of prosthetics and makeup, but it all looked genuine. We not only get a good look at Psycho Goreman throughout the film but there’re other great scenes like Psycho Goreman killing two thieves by ripping their heads off. A few minutes later, Luke bumps into a thief who was kept in stasis, and well, let’s just say it didn’t end well for the thief. Apart from the few innovative kill sequences, Psycho Goreman has a brain-shaped squat monster of sorts in the form of Alasdair, Luke’s friend. All of this could be achieved by greats of special effects like Mike Hamilton and the Canadian special effects company MastersFX.
The Void (2016)
The film starts off with a man named James fleeing from a farmhouse into a farm and a wounded woman being burned to death. Deputy Sheriff Daniel Carter finds James crawling on the road and takes him to a local hospital that has scarce staff and patients, but Daniel’s estranged wife works at the hospital. But soon, a woman with her face flayed of skin murders another man. Daniel, however, shoots her down. As soon as he shoots her, he falls into a seizure and sees some cosmic and supernatural images of a dystopian world with a giant black pyramid floating in the sky. As Daniel goes out to report the woman’s death, a robed cultist attacks him.
He returns back to the hospital, but soon, several of the cultists surround the hospital. Soon the people at the hospital discover that the dead woman’s body has transformed into a monster with tentacles. Also, Dr. Powell, who is the senior doctor of the hospital, is killed, but his body goes missing, and so is Allison. So, Carter searches for Allison and finds a secret staircase that leads into a large dark room filled with undead creatures of all kinds. Meanwhile, a pregnant patient starts to have contractions. This is all a part of an elaborate plan to bring someone back to life and bridge the gap between the dead and the living.
Another masterpiece in terms of special effects, The Void, was directed by writer and director duo Jeremy Gillespie and Steven Kostanski. The film broke several barriers in terms of special effects, and some even compare the film’s monster with the likes of The Thing, but that may be a bit further from the truth. The film packs a theme of H. P. Lovecraft-style alien cosmic planet and a Fulci-styled direction and screenplay. With a new and fascinating take on the story, Jeremy and Steven did exceptionally well. But of course, the body horror and special effects are the reasons why this film features in this list.
There’s a scene when Beverly transforms into a tentacled beast that is hideously ugly, and rotting flesh is lumping out of its body, and she has grown tentacles that penetrate the eyes and mouth of another character. In another scene, the stomach of another character explodes outwards with extensively long tentacles while she is lying on a hospital bed. As the film approaches its end, the monsters become nastier and more gruesome. The arteries, veins, and yellowish flesh of the creatures tear the skin away and lay bare. The Void is undoubtedly going to give you a few chills. Interestingly enough, the money for the film’s creature effects was obtained through crowdfunding on the American website Indiegogo.
Evil Dead (2013 – Remake)
In 1980, a girl was immolated in a cabin by her father because she was a demon. Twelve years later, David and his girlfriend Natalie arrive at the same cabin to meet David’s estranged younger sister Mia and a few others. Mia is a heroin addict, and the group decides to stay at the cabin till the time she doesn’t get clean. Mia soon develops withdrawal symptoms and complains of a pungent smell. Meanwhile, David discovers several decaying carcasses, a shotgun, and a book titled the Naturom Demento in the cabin’s cellar.
Despite being warned by the others, a man named Eric reads the incantations from the book and inadvertently awakens a malevolent force of destruction and death. Mia initially begs the group to leave because she saw a girl covered in blood, but no one listens to her, assuming it was her withdrawal symptoms. However, she decides to flee the place on her own, but her car meets an accident and crashes into a tree, the branches of which trap and possess her. Soon, the others start getting possessed, and a series of stabbings, self-mutilation, etc., begin to take place. The final monster of the film was a demonic entity only known as the Abomination that would stop at nothing to possess the people who were present at the cabin in the woods.
Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead is by far a masterpiece in the world of horror films, but the remake did justice to the original in many regards because it not only felt like a fresh take on the original but also relies on practical and special effects. It is a known fact that director Fede Alvarez dislikes CGI, and naturally, the film used absolutely no CGI. There might have been a few enhancements like removing wires, etc., but there was almost no sequence that wasn’t done on camera.
Therefore, everything that we saw in the film was real. It turns out that Alvarez and his crew looked up several magic and illusion tricks to get things right because having no CGI was going to be demanding, for instance, making someone’s arm disappear or vines coming out of the mouth and chopping of arms. Many fans had feared that in the modern age, the film would have to heavily depend on CGI, but Alvarez allayed those fears in the best way possible.
Slither (2006)
This is the debut film of legendary director James Gunn. It begins with a meteorite that breaks upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere and lands in the sleepy town of Wheels. Out of this meteorite emerged a malevolent, sentient parasite that went on to infect Wheelsy’s wealthy resident named Grant. The parasite soon started to take over Grant’s mind and body, and Starla, his wife, felt helpless because of the developments.
Grant initially transformed into this grotesque tentacled monster and impregnated a woman named Brenda with his tentacles, only to abduct her later. Brenda soon transformed into a gigantic sphere with thousands of larvae inside her. She ultimately burst open, and the larvae spread out in all directions looking for more hosts to infect. Meanwhile, because Grant was the primary host, he transformed into a hybrid monstrosity that was made of conjoined and melded people. Amidst all this chaos, the now-mutated Grant failed to forgo his love for his beloved wife.
James Gunn’s mind is a scary place to be in because he ensures that the viewers don’t resist the horror. Gunn seemed to build a connection with his viewer on an outrageously personal yet alien level. The beauty of the film lies in the gracious and efficient use of both special effects and visual effects. The horrific, horrendous, hideous creature is everything a person would want to move their eyes away from, but the effects were done so efficiently that it became impossible for us not to look at the long tentacles, the conjoined bodies, or the globular pregnant lady.
The primary form of the main antagonist of the film or the Long One bears uncanny resemblances to terrestrial snails and slugs. It shoots a needle into the host in the original form, much like the love dart that a few slugs and snails use to inject hormones and reproductive matter into the females. The Long One gets its name from the fact that all the secondary hosts get consumed and assimilated into the primary host and begin to form one monstrous blob of immovable flesh with tentacles growing from just about anywhere. It is evident that Gunn and his team went into great detail to study the hermaphroditic creatures of Earth to imagine and bring to life the aliens of the movie.
Terrifier (2016)
On Halloween, a killer named Art the Clown wreaked havoc and massacred several people. The sole survivor of the mishap witnessed Art the Clown die, but his body disappeared from the morgue, meaning that he could very well be alive. The survivor, a disfigured woman, came on a talk show hosted by Monica Brown, who insulted the lady’s appearance. The enraged lady gouged Monica’s eyes out.
A year later, on the next Halloween, two friends Dawn and Tara, get drunk and leave their Halloween party. When they reach Dawn’s car, they notice a mysterious man in a clown’s costume. The man was none other than Art the Clown, who followed the girls to a cafeteria only to smear the walls with his own feces and get evicted by the owner. While Tara goes to a derelict building to use the washroom, Art the Clown abducts Dawn after killing two men.
After this, Art the Clown attacked Tara in the building and managed to subdue and drug her after a chase. Tara then awakens from her unconscious state, only to find that she is bound to a chair. Art The Clown then makes her watch as he saws Dawn in half. Tara manages to escape but gets shot to death by Art The Clown. Sometime later, Vicky, Tara’s sister, arrives to pick up Dawn and Tara, but she becomes the next target of Art The Clown, who has now killed another woman and was wearing her scalp as breasts. Will Vicky survive?
David Howard Thornton as Art The Clown feels like a mix of famous real and reel characters like Charlie Chaplin, Freddy Krueger, Tim Curry’s Pennywise, etc. However, the primary inspiration has to be Batman’s archenemy, the Joker. Although the story might feel a bit dodgy at times and action sequences a bit unrehearsed, it is essentially the practical effects that help the film shine. Writer and director Damien Leone did the practical effects and had been involved with the same for other films. Naturally, he wanted it to be a practical effect-driven film.
The gore in the film is terrifying, but it never feels forced or over the top. Although it keeps getting bloodier and badder, each of the kills feels sinfully satisfying. As far as Art The Clown’s personality is concerned, he also feels like Micheal Myers with more gravity and depth in his actions, and Freddy without all the chitchatting. Terrifier is a terrific film in terms of the kill sequences and gore, and it becomes worthy of making a cut to this list because of the special effects.
Hatchet (2006)
A father and son duo go out at night to hunt alligators in a swamp, but a monstrous and violent being attacks them. A few days later, on the occasion of Mardi Gras, a few friends decide to take a haunted tour of the swamp that used to be organized by Reverend Zombie, but due to a negligence suit filed against him, Zombie could no more organize such tours, and he asked them to go with an inexperienced tour guide named Shawn. The friends then meet other tourists and a woman named Marybeth, who was the daughter of the person who was initially killed. Marybeth believed that her father and brother were still alive, so she headed out on this illegal tour to find them.
But the in charge of the tour, Shawn, proved to be a novice; and naturally, the tour took a wrong turn. The boat met with an accident and started to sink, following which the tourists evacuated the boat to find themselves near the Crowley residence, a place that was known for the legend of Victor Crowley. Marybeth tried to warn them about the legend of Victor Crowley, but no one paid heed to her. Soon, Victor appeared with his Hatchet and started swinging it on people, killing them one by one. His first target was Jim, whom he bisected in two halves.
Although the film was released in 2006, it bore all the trademarks of the gorefest of the 80s. The kill sequences were crafted with near perfection, with Kane Hodder’s Victor Crowley doing all kinds of gory and visceral things with people, their body parts, and especially their heads. However, the film excels because of its heightened humor coupled with all the horror, decapitations, blood, torn limbs, etc.
So, despite having immense levels of body horror, Hatchet doesn’t feel nauseating because there are plenty of funny moments, a few scenes with topless women, etc. You might be surprised to know that writer and Director Adam Green made sure he didn’t use any CGI in the film apart from using it to remove the on-screen wires, camera setup, etc. Victor mutilated one of the tourists with a custom-made belt sander, severed another’s character’s leg with a shovel before decapitating him. To add insult to injury, he used the body parts of one of his victims as melee weapons. Dark stuff, people! Dark! If you wish to explore the Hatchet franchise, don’t forget to check out our video titled Underrated Brutal Hulking Slasher – Victor Crowley From Hatchet Franchise – Explained In Detail.
Splinter (2008)
An adventure-loving girl named Polly convinced her scientist boyfriend to go camping to celebrate their anniversary. The two begin to set their tent when they are attacked by a prison escapee Dennis and his drug-addict girlfriend, Lacey. The criminal couple carjacks them, and that’s when a strange sequence of events begins. Interestingly enough, both the couples are wholly devoted to love, albeit in their own peculiar ways. Polly drives the car and hits a dog-like animal on the road; Lacey and Seth discover that the animal’s flattened body parts start moving, and they all flee to a nearby gas station. It turns out that it was a fungal parasite that infected humans and animals alike and turned the hosts into zombies that grew splinters from their bodies. The hosts become bloodthirsty zombies that kill anything that comes before them. The four of them must forget their differences and work as a unit to outsmart the thorny virus and its victims.
Writers Kai Barry and Ian Shorr wasted no time beating around the bush about the origin and explanation of the viral parasite. However, they did describe in explicit detail what the parasite could do. It infects its victims and takes control of their body, so much so that even the body parts are mutilated; they ensemble and attack in their own capacity. There’s a scene in which a character’s arms are mutilated with a knife no larger than a paper cutter.
Another character’s upper torso is separated from her body, but it later joins together to become a killing machine. Jill Wagner as Polly Watt, Paulo Costanzo as Seth Belzer, Shea Whigham as Dennis Farell, and Rachel Kerbs as Lacey Belisle did great jobs in their own rights. But the one feature that made Splinter a loveable body horror film is the special effects that looked believable yet terrifying. Having said that, Splinter is one of those films that feels good in parts but doesn’t do as great as a whole.
Feast (2005)
The story of Feast is relatively simple, but a lot happens throughout the film. A man walks into a bar and warns the people inside about deadly monsters that are on a killing spree. To prove his point, he puts on display the severed head of one of the monsters. However, one of the monsters soon pulls him through the window and decapitates him. The group of people who were happily drinking up until now became alert and began to guard the bar and its occupants. The characters soon realize that these monsters are extremely raunchy creatures and tend to do some nasty stuff to anything and anyone that comes their way, even if it’s a deer head hanging on a wall.
Since the beginning of time, hedonism and horror go hand in hand, and Feast plays beautifully with the genre. The monsters of Feast really feast upon the joyous bar patrons and many other things. In one of the scenes, a baby monster tries to do things to a deer that was hanging on a wall, but of course, that was just a trailer to what was coming. Apart from having seriously questionable orientations and habits, the monsters also have an extremely quick reproduction system.
A male and a female monster couple make some raunchy monster love and produce a small monster baby within a span of seconds. However, the film’s only downside is that you’ll have to do a lot of wondering as it doesn’t tell you why the monsters have come to town or why they are feasting in grotesque carnal ways on the humans. Despite the special effects and creature effects being top-notch, the cinematography is a let-down as the camera becomes way too shaky during action sequences, probably, to heighten the horror effect. Nevertheless, this film about zoophilia and interracial intercourse was produced by greats like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Wes Craven, among others. Our final thoughts are that this one is a great movie as a horror-comedy but lacks depth in the story.
Frankenstein’s Army (2013)
During the second world war, a group of Russian soldiers in Germany received a distress call on their radio from another troop of Russians under siege. The Germans had kept the other group under their control, but the Russians managed to send their coordinates to their comrades. The leader of the former Russian soldiers, Sergeant Novikov, decided that he and his men would free their comrades from German clutches.
A soldier named Dmitri was filming the sequence of events as his group made progress. They found strange bodies, nuns slaughtered brutally in a convent and burned to dust, exhumed graves in a burial ground, etc. soon, they arrive at an abandoned church that contained a brutal army of zombies who had weapons and tools implanted with them. Soon, the men learn that the extremely intelligent but crazy grandson of Victor Frankenstein had created an army of undead soldiers in his secret laboratory. Furthermore, they realize that they had been chosen by their government to either assassinate the mad scientist or bring him to Moscow.
Although the film is just another found-footage gimmick, the film is original and funny, something that’s not usual with other found footage films. The film is novel in two respects; first, it gives us zombified monsters who are an amalgamation of organic and industrial parts. Does anyone else smell Tetsuo? And secondly, it combines the infamous Frankenstein’s monster with the setting of the second world war. Like Tetsuo, Frankenstein’s Army uses mind-boggling special effects that make the film an enriched horror experience.
The film’s main villains or the Zombots are featured heavily throughout the running time of the film. Naturally, director Richard Raaphorst didn’t shy away from showing off his monsters like the man with lobster claws for hands or the one with a spinning drill for a nose. Do pay attention to catch the zombot with a steel trap where his head was supposed to be. Interestingly, most of the effects were brought to life by using mime and dance with the obvious and indispensable help of fast motion photography.