Long live practical effects.

When I think back on the 1980s, the first thing that comes to the forefront of my mind is the incredible practical effects that were positively exploding across the landscape of the genre throughout the entire decade.

Kicking off with Friday the 13th, the ’80s were a time of incredible excess for the horror genre, giving us some of the coolest monsters and insanely over the top kills in the history of cinema. One of the standout highlights?

Chuck Russell’s The Blob, released in 1988.

Like The Thing and The Fly before it, Russell’s version of The Blob took a horror classic and upgraded it for the ’80s, pushing the limits of practical makeup techniques by bringing some truly outstanding effects to the table. Those effects were handled by Alterian Studios, founded in 1991 by artists Tony Gardner, Chet Zar, and Bill Sturgeon.

Over on their Facebook page, Alterian shared some incredible behind the scenes photos from the set of The Blob, providing some insight into how they pulled it all off.