22 Movies With the Best Practical Effects of All Time

CGI this, CGI that. How about we see “gee, I don’t think a computer could have accomplished this” kind of effects in more movies? It’s amazing what digital effects can do these days, but you always know in the back of your mind that it’s not really there. On the other hand, when a screaming puppet attacks an actor who surely had higher aspirations when they dropped out of med school to move to L.A., it’s excruciatingly there. It might just be a guy’s arm, but it also might really be a monster. Who’s to say?

It was a difference keenly observed by user barbariantrey when they were watching Ghostbusters and “the opening scene made me miss the magic of practical effects,” they told r/Movies. “As the older librarian walled through the aisles, books started flying from shelf to shelf, the cards fluttered out of the drawers, and more. I don’t believe it would have captured my wonder the same way if it was CGI. It’s almost as if I had a sense of the time and effort it took to make it happen. I know creating realistic graphics isn’t easy, but having it in the moment felt more real to me.”

They then asked, “Which films have incredible practical effects?” and their fellow Redditors got very practical with their answers.