8 Most Horrifying Practical Film Effects (And How They Were Achieved)

3. The Chestburster - Alien

The Movie: Before the franchise went totally off the rails (sorry Fincher, even the greats have to start somewhere) Ridley Scott took us on board the Nostromo spaceship, changing the way we feel about stomach ache forever.

The Effect: One of the most famous horror/sci-fi moments of all time, this scene sees Officer Kane writhing about in pain, only for a newly-hatched Xenomorph to burst from within his chest.

How They Did It: The key component of the scene was the fake body from which the alien was intended to burst. An artificial chest was fitted to the table, on which John Hurt was lying, creating the illusion that the actor's head was actually connected to the fake body. Famously, unbeknownst to the cast, the chest was rigged with a device that acted as a compressed blood machine. The device was designed to shoot blood and guts from the cavity, causing several looks of genuine disgust and terror from the actors. After that, a wiggling alien animatronic was created and fixed to the fake chest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdBu6VAESeI