What do you think of ''man made'' special effects in movies?

That is, special effects that have minimal or no computer generated work put into them. For years that was the case with every movie, but computer generated special effects have invaded at a mad speed recently.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with special effects created this way at all, in fact it’s pretty cool.
But recently, I’ve been having this phase where I’m obsessed about old Italian zombie movies from the seventies and early eighties. These are notable for their over the top gore, and I’ve also got Tom Savini (Thomas Vincent Savini ) in mind.
I don’t know much about how man made special effects are created, but often times, even if by today’s standards it seems laughable, I think it adds a bit of realism to the movie, and better matches the atmosphere a movie is going for. sometimes It keeps everything leveled and can act in favor of a movie’s feel, whereas computer generated effects often look too pretty and then it seems that the atmosphere is laid out of whack.
I’m approaching this mostly with horror movies in mind, but man made special effects, obviously, find themselves everywhere. Costumes, makeup, light and camera play, stop motion, mechanical robots like Jaws/Bruce. I’m thinking older science fiction must have a lot of interesting special effects, for example. With my fray in old, low budget zombie movies, I seem to have sparked a bit of an interest in this. I’m mostly all about the gore, but I’d love to explore older special effects further.
What does the community think about man made special effects in movies? man made, for lack of better wording; if there’s an actual term, I’d like to know Like it, why or why not, and do you have any favorite movies with cool effects, or special effects specialists? Opinions, facts, learning, whining, praising, it’s all good.
Discussion about computer effects is also very welcome, so if you have something to say about those, by all means.