10 Most Incredible Practical Effects In Sci-Fi Movie History
2. Everything - The Thing (1982)
John Carpenter's The Thing revolves around a group of Antarctic explorers who discover there is an alien among them who assimilates organisms and takes on their form.
Despite displaying some of the greatest special effects in cinematic history, The Thing didn't win a single award. And I'm not talking about the Oscars. It didn't an award of any kind!
It was deemed mediocre schlock at the time, but The Thing is now revered as a horror classic, mainly because of its astounding practical effects. Stan Winstone usually gets the credit for the visuals since he crafted the tentacled dog prosthetic.
However, he was merely the assistant for Rob Bottin, who was the brains behind most of the practical effects. Despite being only 22 at the time, Carpenter believed he was the most important person on set and had Bottin actually live at the studio for over a year in case any of the animatronics malfunctioned.
Bottin worked so intensely, he had to be hospitalised one day due to exhaustion. When Bottin was asked what the Thing was based on, he said, “A pissed-off cabbage".