The discussion in film and media studies on the subject of special effects has to date been dominated by questions of production methods and technical feasibility. In the framework of an approach to the phenomenon so centred on its technical and production aspects, the understanding of the cultural significance of special effects in film, television and the digital entertainment media remains reduced to the level of the industrially possible conditions for aesthetic experience. In this context it is seldom asked what “effects” the use of special effects produce in individual perception and what it is that makes them seem so “special” in the view of the public. This anthology takes on the neglect of these questions by collecting fundamental theoretical texts on the aesthetic effects of special effects and links them with concrete case studies on cultural perception and empirical audience reception in different media genres from cinema films to Internet videos and computer games.