A closer look
Before a graphic designer could simply pay a subscription for a spooky font, practical ingenuity was required. The iconic, slowly expanding title reveal for John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror masterpiece wasn't the result of early computer graphics. Animation effects artist Peter Kuran literally placed a physical animation cel of the logo over a glowing lightbox, covered it with a black plastic garbage bag, and set the plastic on fire. As the bag melted away from the center, the light bled through the letters, creating the eerie, organic reveal that perfectly mirrored the shape-shifting nature of the alien itself.
