The Spotlight: Put Some Eyeballs On It: A Tribute to Old Horror Movie Effects
Recently after watching John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and then its prequel, The Thing (2011), I realized how much I miss old horror movie special effects. Rob Bottin, special effects creator and designer of the original 1982 monsters (with the exception of the kennel monster by the talented Stan Winston), is my new hero. I feel old when I say this, but there’s something too clean about CGI (computer-generated imagery) that loses the slimy, disturbing gross-out factor of old. A computer and a program cannot live up to the ingenuity of 300lbs of foam, creamed corn, KY Jelly, and heated bubble gum. Rather than adding my usual trailers. I have chosen to highlight scenes that are pretty gruesome so don’t say I didn’t warn you if you click the play button….Go ahead..no judgement zone here.
Here is my shout out to the masters of gore:
If Wilfred Brimely’s diabetes commercials were anything like him conducting alien autopsy scenes in this movie, more people would take diabetes seriously. If you enjoy eating sausages, you might want to skip that part. Besides Kurt Russell’s epic beard, there is much to enjoy about this dark alien tale. A group of men are stranded on a research station in Antarctica after an alien is awakened and begins absorbing humans. Now any of the crew could be infected, and they must not let it escape. The kennel creature that starts it all, a perfect depiction of a vengeful flying spaghetti monster, was a task given to Stan Winston, who later helped with ::ahem:: Jurassic Park and Terminator.
Rob Bottin was just 22 when he worked on The Thing, sleeping on the studio lot and eating junk food until completion night after night. He was later sent to the hospital by Carpenter for extreme exhaustion. It was well worth it, in my opinion. The autopsy scenes, the Blair monster, and the rest is haunting. During the Blair monster transformation scene, I was reminded of the oxygen deprivation scene in Total Recall (1990). Later, I learned that he originally developed the eye popping idea during the filming of The Thing. The sculptor for the effects was Alvarez Wax Productions, who also made Kuato and the three-boobed lady in Total Recall. They’re obviously genius and rarely given credit when compared to the actors’ celebrity status.
Everyone is in love with werewolves these days; Jacob’s (from the teen paranormal romance Twilight) easy and sexy transformation takes this girl into a hormone frenzy, but back before werewolves were glamorous came An American Werewolf in London. This werewolf transforms into a bulbous, slimy, loud bone-cracking mess with an amazing background soundtrack full of moon references. It puts the werewolf effects in The Howling, (along with the acting) released in the same year to shame. The Howling was also done by Rob Bottin (he apparently needed more set sleepovers.)
Two friends David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are backpacking in England when they are attacked by a werewolf. Jack dies a gruesome death while David wakes up in the hospital with little recollection of the event. Jack haunts David in varying stages of decomposition (where his neck reminded me of pulled pork sandwiches) to convince him that he should kill himself before he transforms during the next full moon. David thinks he’s just going crazy and goes home with one of the nurses who took care of him. After watching this transformation by special makeup effects Rick Baker, how can you say they don’t have fun at their jobs? This is called the bladder effect. A synthetically made bladder is put underneath the “skin” and pumped with air to show bulbous inflating and deflating effects. Besides the abrupt scene cuts, this movie belongs in any horror movie canon.
The bladder effect had become blase by 1986. Forget sexy Spider-man kisses, this movie made me want to retch in a dozen places. Scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) discovers the ability to transport matter, and unfortunately for him, a fly accompanies his transportation travel experiment. He begins transforming into a fly/human creature, with many “unsexy results.” There’s something about the peeling off of fingernails that still gives me the willies today. Does anyone else remember the ill-fated trip of the cat-baboon (deleted scene)? Or the projectile acid vomit? (which was just a mixture of eggs, milk, and honey). Special effects artist Chris Walas shines in this film, where he uses a slow filmed blow dryer melting gelatin, originally from Raiders of the Lost Ark for a melting hand. He also made ::ahem:: Gremlins.
One of the most disturbing scenes never made it past the previews. When “Brundle fly” tries to genetically splice a cat and a baboon, he makes a pancaked two-headed fuzzy creature which he beats to death with a pipe welded by the director. Screening audiences who saw the film felt it was too gruesome and lost pity for “Brundle fly.” After his ill-fated attempt, he goes to the rooftop (where he has to be covered in KY Jelly to slide appropriately) and falls onto an awning while a fly leg bursts from his stomach and he bites it off. The fly transforms slowly over weeks with a series of suits showing each stage of the fly process (which meant hours of makeup).
They only had three months to pull off these specials effects rather than the intended six. With a series of pullies, puppeteers and a lot of goo, they were able to create a disturbing creature dubbed “the space bug” that will not soon be forgotten. With an armory of rain jackets from all the blood spewing down on them, to seven or eight puppeteers being crammed into a telepod, to dumping co-stars John Getz’s foot into oatmeal underneath the set during long shoots when he’s not supposed to be moving, this crew seemed like family. Weeks of hard work went into getting just the last fifteen minutes of shooting, which goes by so quickly. Among the special effects, I’m so glad butterfly baby, a stop motion alternate ending was removed. It would have ruined the dark emotional ending that David Cronenberg imagined.
So next time you are eating pulled pork, sausages, or creamed corn, pop in one of these special treats and pay homage to true movie magic.
