this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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What older movies made a good use of either side stepping special effects or have effects that somehow still hold up today? Why are they good movies?

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[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

almost anything animated holds up to. rock and rule is still entertaining as is heavy metal and the paint over animation lord of the rings (I am in no way comparing it to the awesome peter jackson version but just that animation holds up better than stadard special effects).

[–] HorikBrun@kbin.earth 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Thing (J Carpenter version) is the best SFX movie ever, imo, and holds up incredibly well. The original Dracula didn't need anything fancy. And for the best practical FX using camera angles and other filming tricks, any film by Buster Keaton is a masterpiece of cinema.

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[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Batman (1989) and Batman Returns

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)
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[–] KokusnussRitter@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Star Trek NGT era.

They did a lot practical, with prostetics and models and it's beautiful.

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[–] Xanthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago
[–] Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This has been a really interesting post. After going through all the amazing films I've become hopeful (probably unrealistically) that with the prevalence of not only CGI but now "AI", we may just get lucky enough to see a practical effect renaissance. There's a charm and soul in practical effects that's lacking in CGI, and completely missing in AI.

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[–] fistac0rpse@fedia.io 4 points 3 days ago

Evil Dead 2

[–] Acamon@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I watched The Thief of Bagdad (1940) recently, and was kinda shocked at how much I enjoyed it. There's a whole world of effects, such as using painted backdrops, that don't look "realistic" but actually do a lot more for creating fantastical vibe than even perfect modern cgi.

It also highlights the main problem with most "effects heavy" movies, in that they often focus on the effects instead of the story. And when that happens, it doesn't really matter how good they are, because fundamentally they're distracting from real core of the film. TToB has genies, monsters and flying robot horses, but they're all used judiciously and reinforce a sense of wonder, even when they look a little janky to modern eyes.

Compared this to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), which was celebrated at the time for it's Harryhausen stop motion effects. Sure, the effects are pretty cool, and at the time must have been very impressive, but it's too obvious that the audience is meant to be wowed by them. At one point two animated monster start fighting each other and I just didn't care. Aside from the novelty of the effect this scene wasn't building the vibes, they're weren't any significant stakes or character growth, it was just "look at what we can do!". Yawn.

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