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Tag: Practical Effects

Practical effects age better than pixels because the camera photographed something real. This tag collects reviews and essays celebrating practical effects work: puppets, prosthetics, and the craft of physical movie magic.

A rotting zombie corpse in advanced decomposition, covered in dirt and decay, rising from the ground in a cemetery. TITLE1970s

Zombie (1979) / Flesh Eaters Review

September 11, 2026

Zombie (1979) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Lucio Fulci was hired to make an unauthorized sequel to Dawn of the Dead and made something older instead, closer to Caribbean voodoo horror than to Romero. It contains…

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Timothy Balme stands amid gore and dismembered bodies in a basement scene from the 1992 horror comedy Dead Alive.1990s

Dead Alive / Braindead (1992) Review

September 11, 2026

Dead Alive (1992) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Peter Jackson made the bloodiest film ever produced, reportedly using around three hundred litres of fake blood in the last twenty minutes alone, and underneath the lawnmower it…

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A zombie with one eye visible through prosthetics stands in a dimly lit bunker cell, wearing a military uniform.1980s

Day of the Dead (1985) Review

September 11, 2026

Day of the Dead (1985) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Romero's budget was cut in half and he rewrote it into a chamber piece about twelve people in a bunker who hate each other. The zombies…

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Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in a blue refrigeration suit with ice-themed armor and helmet against a neon-lit Gotham1990s

Batman & Robin (1997) Review

September 10, 2026

Batman & Robin (1997) rates 3 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Warner Bros. told Joel Schumacher to make it more toyetic, and he did exactly that. Schumacher later apologized publicly to fans, which is a rarer and more…

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John David Washington as the Protagonist in a tactical suit, standing in front of inverted visual effects showing objects2020s

Tenet (2020) Review

September 10, 2026

Tenet (2020) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Nolan bought a real 747 to crash because it cost less than building a model, and then mixed the film so that a substantial number of people could not…

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A young girl stands in a stone maze facing a pale, horned creature with enormous antlers in a dark forest setting. TITLE1940s

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) Review

September 10, 2026

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) rates 10 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Del Toro built two worlds with identical rules and let a child move between them, and the fascist captain is more frightening than anything in the labyrinth. It…

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Patrick Swayze in a bar setting, wearing casual clothes, with a serious expression while standing near other people. TITLE1980s

Road House (1989) Review

September 10, 2026

Road House (1989) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A philosophy graduate is hired to clean up a Missouri bar and ends up fighting a monster truck. It took five Razzie nominations, underperformed in cinemas, and became…

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Charlie Sheen as radio astronomer Zane Zaminsky examining data on a computer screen in a darkened room.1990s

The Arrival (1996) Review

September 10, 2026

The Arrival (1996) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A radio astronomer finds a signal and works out that the aliens landed decades ago and are quietly heating the planet to suit themselves. It cost twenty-five million…

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A massive wave with a cargo ship on top of it floods a New York City street while people run for their lives.2000s

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Review

September 10, 2026

The Day After Tomorrow (2004) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Roland Emmerich froze the northern hemisphere in about a week, which is roughly ten thousand times faster than any climate model permits, and produced the most…

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