Not everything in “The Lord of the Rings” was created with expensive computer imagery. Peter Jackson relied on many old-fashioned, practical effects that he learned to use in his early career. The grotesque creatures of the Orcs and Uruk-hai in “The Lord of the Rings” were actors in prosthetic makeup. 

Jackson created gruesome makeup effects for the gun-wielding aliens and the carnage they wreaked in his first feature film “Bad Taste,” with one scene featuring the back of his skull opening and leaking squishy brain matter. “Dead Alive” (also known as “Braindead”) amplifies the gore to the extreme. Much of the film uses synthetic makeup (as well as models and puppets) to create the zombies that are barbarically slashed to death with a lawnmower in the revolting and hilarious finale, their limbs and internal organs flying everywhere in a grandiose bloodbath. Den of Geek drew the connection between these early lo-fi films and “Lord of the Rings, describing how Jackson shoots this “convoluted set-piece with panache and clarity, deftly moving between genuine horror and hilarious sight gags … [setting] a clear precedent for the large-scale battles of ‘Lord Of The Rings,” such as when Legolas rides down an Oliphant’s trunk in the Pelennor Fields. 

In his more serious drama “Heavenly Creatures,” Jackson and his frequent special effects collaborator Richard Taylor use over 70 full-sized latex costumes to create the life-size plasticine figures that Pauline and Juliet play with in their sumptuous fantasy world. Special makeup was also used for “The Frighteners” where Richard Taylor and famed makeup artist Rick Baker created decaying, hollow-eyed ghosts. The material use of makeup gives “The Lord of the Rings” monsters a tangible authenticity that was sadly lost in “The Hobbit” trilogy with the CGI character of Azog.