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Tom Savini
Served as a combat photographer in Vietnam where the real-life horrors he encountered doubtlessly influenced his subsequent astoundingly graphic depictions of on-screen violence. Savini's gory stomach-churning special makeup effects have been the major draw for many otherwise undistinguished horror films. His great moments in movie mayhem include a unwary camper receiving an arrow in his eye, a stumbling zombie getting the top of his head neatly sliced off by a whirling helicopter rotor, and legions of cockroaches bursting from the chest and mouth of a corpse.