# Exploding heads, mutant aliens and bursting chests: horror’s greatest special effects – ranked!

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/exploding-heads-mutant-aliens-and-bursting-chests-horrors-greatest-special-effects-ranked/
- Published: 2026-10-29T13:00:43+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-29T13:55:19+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/29/exploding-heads-mutant-aliens-and-bursting-chests-horrors-greatest-special-effects-ranked
- Topics: Asia, Business, Culture, Entertainment, Fashion, Film, Horror, Markets, Paranormal, Weird & Viral, World

## Key points

- A ranking celebrates horror’s most memorable practical effects.
- The scenes span early cinema through the pre-CGI era.
- Makeup, puppetry and in-camera tricks made the horrors feel real.

## Summary

The article ranks iconic practical effects from horror films, showing how techniques made before CGI gave some of the genre’s most memorable scenes their impact. It highlights the craft behind effects that could feel uncanny, grotesque or frightening, and the filmmakers and technicians who created them.

Examples include Sadako climbing from a television in *Ring*, the headless “Helicopter Zombie” in *Dawn of the Dead*, and the animatronic head turn in *The Exorcist*. The article also discusses in-camera tricks in *The Phantom Carriage* and *Nosferatu*, makeup and filters in *Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde*, and the birds’ attack on Tippi Hedren in *The Birds*, which took seven days to shoot.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.