Editorials
Bring on the Gore: Top Ten Practical Effects in Horror!
In 1984, a horror icon was born by the name of Freddy Krueger, in Wes Craven’s landmark horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. Key to the film’s success was the special makeup effects work by David B. Miller, who created the celebrated dream-stalker’s gruesome visage. It is this sort of practical effects work that has largely (and regrettably) been discarded in modern filmmaking, but any true horror fan knows there’s nothing more satisfying than some good, in-camera gruesomeness.
With the invention of CG and its quick takeover of most modern effects work, practical effects have become something of a forgotten art in 21st century cinema. Sadly, something is lost with these programmed creations; there is a resourcefulness, an ingenuity involved in practical effects work that simply doesn’t translate to pounding keys in front of a computer. Nothing can ever replace the joy of watching a hand-made effect, lovingly created, projected on the movie screen in front of you. It is this sort of invention we are celebrating here – the practical effects work in horror films that wowed us without being enhanced through digital wizardry. Following are MY PICKS for the ten best (in alphabetical order by movie title). Note: While each effect has only one or two key special effects artists listed, I am in no way denigrating the contributions of any others involved in their construction and/or implementation.
Alien (1979): Chestburster Scene
Artists: Brian Johnson & Nick Allder
Winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects that year, Alien‘s most memorable effects shot remains the justifiably famous “chestburster” scene, during with John Hurt’s character “gives birth” to a xenomorph through his chest cavity. Shot in one take using four cameras, the “chest-bursting” effect was created using an artificial torso filled with real cow’s blood and intestines, through which the alien puppet was shoved by a guy below the table (a total of three separate puppets were used in different portions of the scene). The effect was so incredibly realistic that star Veronica Cartwright had a well-documented freakout/slip-and-fall when an unexpected amount of blood sprayed directly into her face during filming.
Aliens (1986): Alien Queen
Artist: Stan Winston
Winston won an Academy Award for his work on the film, for his life-size creation of the Alien Queen, standing at fourteen feet tall and requiring 14 to 16 simultaneous operators to bring it to life. Using a combination that included hydraulics, puppeteers, and control rods, the Queen was filmed completely in-camera, and it’s this tangible quality that makes her feel so terrifyingly realistic on screen. The amount of blood, sweat and tears that went into her construction shows in every frame, and puts every modern CG monster to shame.
An American Werewolf in London (1981): Werewolf Transformation
Artist: Rick Baker
Lest you underestimate the impact of Rick Baker’s work on An American Werewolf in London, the “Outstanding Achievement in Makeup” category at the Academy Awards was created specifically as a result of the amazing transformation sequence undergone by David Naughton’s character. The stunningly realistic effects work – created through a combination of prosthetics and fake animatronic body parts – comes across so flawlessly on screen that watching it causes you to viscerally experience the character’s agony. Nearly 30 years later, this remains the greatest werewolf transformation in cinema history.
Braindead (1992): Face-splitting baby
Artists: Richard Taylor & Bob McCarron
It’s tough to peg just a single gore effects shot in a film overloaded with them, but on the other hand it would be wrong not to include Peter Jackson’s “splatterstick” Braindead somewhere on this list. After culling through the gore sequences in the film once again, my vote goes to the shot where Rita (the chick with the groovy `50s-style glasses) has her face split in two by baby zombie Selwyn as he emerges from inside her head cavity. In a movie overloaded with ingenious special effects, this one is quite possibly the most memorable (followed closely by the scene where a man has his ribcage pulled from his chest as he watches).
The Fly (1986): Brundle’s final transformation (“Brundlefly”)
Artist: Chris Walas
In a movie filled with amazing special effects, it was Jeff Goldblum’s final transformation into the “Brundlefly” that stands as the most amazing (and sickest) effects sequence in the entire film. From the shot of Geena Davis ripping off Brundle’s jaw (after which it becomes a pulsating lump of living flesh on the floor) to the shedding of the outer skin on his legs like rotten meat, to the climactic “head splitting” moment that’s enough to make those with weaker constitutions lose their lunch, it’s truly a seamless, breathtaking transformation that’s undoubtedly Chris Walas’ crowning achievement (he won an Academy Award for the film).
Frankenstein (1931): Frankenstein’s Monster
Artist: Jack Pierce
No list of special effects makeup in horror would be complete without the inclusion of Jack Pierce’s now-iconic work creating the Monster in James Whale’s 1931 classic Frankenstein. Taking four hours, the makeup job consisted of “building” the Monster’s square head using gum, cotton and collodion, with green paint to give Karloff a pale appearance on the black-and-white film stock. Impressive too was the fact that Pierce did an enormous amount of research on surgical methods, anatomy, and ancient burial customs to create an “authentic” look. What resulted was not only the most famous makeup job in film history, but one of the most seamless as well – it holds up even by today’s standards.
Friday the 13th (1980): Kevin Bacon Death Scene
Artist: Tom Savini
Savini himself has referred to this “arrow through the neck” effect as being more of a “magic trick” than anything, and like the best magic it’s 100% convincing. I’ve seen every single Friday the 13th movie and they’ve definitely had their share of inventive kills, but none as singularly effective and realistic as this one. You could gripe that this one’s too simplistic to make the list, but I would argue that it’s not as much about the complexity of the effect but the realism of it. Judged that way, this sets the gold standard for gore effects in the modern slasher film.
The Phantom of the Opera (1925): Unmasking
Artist: Lon Chaney, Sr.
Some audience members were said to have fainted during the unmasking scene in The Phantom of the Opera‘s initial run, and while in our desensitized modern culture it doesn’t inspire the same intense response, the makeup job is still strikingly effective. Chaney, a master at applying his own makeup (first in The Hunchback of Notre Dame two years earlier) was a pioneer in the field; while not as elaborate as the others listed here, Chaney’s skull-like appearance as the Phantom is just as impressive, amazing considering the film is now 85 years old. By applying black paint around his eyes, putting a set of ghastly false teeth in his mouth, placing celluloid discs in his cheeks to change the shape of his face, and – ow – inserting wire pins in his nose to enlarge his nostrils (among other things), Chaney managed to create one of the most (painfully) convincing makeup jobs in film history.
Scanners (1981): Exploding Head
Artist: Dick Smith
While it didn’t require the time or lengthy shooting schedule of some of the other effects on this list, Dick Smith’s “exploding head” gag in Scanners is nevertheless one of the greatest, most memorable practical effects shots in horror history. To create the effect, Smith filled a prosthetic head with dog food and rabbit livers, then blew it apart with a shotgun fired from behind. If you freeze-frame it just before the blood-drenched explosion, you can even see that the prosthetic head – created utilizing the Smith-pioneered approach of applying small pieces of foam latex rather than one solid mask – is itself strikingly realistic.
The Thing (1982): Defibrillator Scene
Artist: Rob Bottin
This unforgettable sequence, with masterful effects by Rick Baker protégé Rob Bottin, showcases a skin-crawling chain of events beginning with two severed arms (clear!) and ending with one severed alien head (which, incidentally, goes on to sprout “spider-legs” and crawl across the floor) being blasted with Kurt Russell’s flamethrower. Sadly, the film was a box-office flop on its release, and Bottin wasn’t even nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film. Which movie won? Uh…Quest for Fire. It’s about cavemen or something. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either.
Editors note: this content has been republished from our vault
Editorials
‘Bloodstone: Subspecies II’ Revisited: A Bigger, Bolder Follow-Up to Full Moon’s Vampire Cult Classic
Horror sequels are a peculiar thing. In most cases, follow-ups to scary movies tend to retread the same formula with different victims and more over-the-top scares. This is because audiences tend to be more interested in the antagonists of these pictures than anything else, with even main characters becoming disposable when the time comes to produce a sequel.
That’s why some of the most memorable horror sequels are the ones that actually manage to hold onto interesting survivors from previous films while also pushing the story forward instead of having the same thing happen again to a different group of people. From Scream 2 to Dream Warriors (and arguably even The Exorcist III: Legion), there are quite a few of these innovative sequels to go around.
However, if there’s one franchise that deserves more attention when discussing bigger and better continuations that make the most of episodic filmmaking, it has to be Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies.
The Full Moon classic spawned an indie horror icon, but bizarre sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II is even more beloved than its predecessor.
Building a Bigger Vampire Saga
While the film itself takes place almost immediately after the events of the first movie, Bloodstone only entered production a couple of years after the release of the original as both Charles Band and Nicolaou weighed the pros and cons of returning to Romania to continue the series. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team decided to invest in a trilogy where parts II and III, now fully written by Nicolaou, would be filmed simultaneously over the course of a single grueling shoot.
Much like the first Subspecies, Bloodstone’s low budget meant that the filmmakers once again had to cut corners and re-use as many of their resources as possible. Thankfully, the process was much easier this time around as Nicolaou, with the help of Romanian cinematographer Vlad Paunescu and his wife Oana, became more acquainted with local customs and made new friends. Shooting abroad still came with its own unique set of challenges due to a lack of translators and the occasional safety concerns, but the crew managed to make things work by filming things guerrilla-style and setting up shop in abandoned caves and real medieval ruins.
The director’s newfound contacts, coupled with the relative success of the first movie, meant that he was basically given free rein over an assortment of shooting locations usually considered off-limits for indie horror. That’s why Bloodstone features insanely ambitious lighting and effects work even during scenes shot in the middle of a bustling Bucharest. The filmmakers went so far as to project Radu’s Nosferatu-like shadows over local monuments as if he were a Romanian boogeyman, an idea that was actually encouraged by local cinephiles.
In fact, many of the more elaborate scenes here had originally been planned for the first movie before being discarded due to the lack of available resources. It was only with the support of Romanian fans and filmmakers that Bloodstone was able to give Radu a chance to be even more menacing the second time around.
Michelle’s Transformation Takes Center Stage
However, when it came to the American part of the crew, not everyone was able or willing to return for another round of Romanian adventuring. That’s why Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) is unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the film while the role of Michelle had to be recast. Denice Duff took over for Laura Mae Tate, with the character now being joined by her sister, Rebecca, played by Melanie Shatner (yes, that Shatner).
In the finished film, we follow Michelle as she awakens to her new life as a vampire and discovers that Radu has murdered her lover. Struggling with grief and her newfound bloodlust, Michelle contacts her sister overseas, with Rebecca soon travelling to Romania on an ill-advised rescue mission. Meanwhile, Radu (Anders Hove) reaches out to his undead Mummy (Pamela Gordon, underneath heavy layers of impressive makeup effects) and promises to deliver her the coveted Bloodstone artifact while also making Michelle his eternal consort.
Revisiting the movie, I was impressed with how introspective this story is when compared to the original. The sequel assumes that you’re already familiar with the previously established characters, so the story wastes no time in exploring the immediate aftermath of the previous film’s events. From Michelle’s reluctant transformation into a creature of the night to Radu’s obvious mommy issues, Nicolaou is way more interested in pushing these characters into new and uncharted territory rather than recycling existing plot points.
Practical Effects and Gothic Atmosphere Still Impress
Yet, much like the first film, it’s Romania itself that makes the movie worth watching. The ruins of Castle Vladislav are even more majestic now, and visiting the moody streets of Bucharest with its surprisingly punk-rock nightlife made for a nice change of pace when compared to the original film’s quiet village setting. Once again, the abundance of interesting locations makes the movie feel much more expensive than it really is, with the filmmakers surrounding our characters with a living, breathing environment that would be impossible to recreate in a studio.
The increased freedom also allowed Nicolaou to flex his filmmaking muscles and tackle more ambitious blocking/composition in the sequel. The low budget and tropey script mean that the visuals don’t always work, but it’s consistently clear that this neo-expressionist style could only come from a passionate team attempting to pay homage to the shadowy horror classics of yesteryear. If the retro atmosphere isn’t enough for you, there’s enough practical gore here to satisfy even the most demanding of horror hounds!
Radu himself is also far more interesting now that Hove is more comfortable working alongside an international crew, with the actor having gone on record explaining that, while he spent more time drinking vodka than working while shooting the first movie, the sequel was a much more creatively satisfying experience for everyone involved. The character’s relationship with his abusive Mummy is also a highlight of the expanded mythology, especially since the practical effects that bring her to life are just as freaky now as they were back in ’93.
My only real gripe with the horror elements of the picture comes from the glaring absence of the diminutive stop-motion minions from the first film, though I guess the surprisingly entertaining addition of Professor Popescu (Michael Denish) and his archeological antics mostly make up for that.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II is obviously the middle chapter of a trilogy, with the ending feeling a lot less definitive than its predecessor as several plot threads are left to dangle in the wind, but I appreciate how the flick explores new ground while remaining faithful to nearly all the ideas that made the original such a good time. While I don’t think it’s as big of an improvement over the first movie as some fans make it out to be, Bloodstone is definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of old-fashioned vampire yarns.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion to this initial trilogy, Bloodlust: Subspecies III!
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