Pool explosion and flaming head broken

Is dying funny?

Well, the short answer is no. But the long answer is it could Be. Just ask the visual effect -supervisor Edward J. Douglas. While he was working on Osgood Perkin’s recent horror act “The Affe”, he was often told that he should build the humor for the incredibly violent kills of the film.

“We have constantly repeated different versions of these moments,” says Douglas. “And sometimes we get notes back when we like: ‘It works. But how can we make this visual effect more fun? ‘I’ve never got that before. “

“The monkey,” adapted from Stephen King’s short story, is a blood -soaked meditation about the funky nature of life and death. The film follows Hal (Theo James), a withdrawn stress case that desperately tries to connect with his youthful son again, while he is haunted by an emerging monkey who stimulates a random (and ridiculous) death when the key is turned in the back.

If you have seen “The Monkey”, you can be surprised that every death in the film begins “practical” and is pulled over the finish line with special effects. According to Douglas, Perkins’ practical approach from love for the 80s amblin is based on the 80s Amblin titles such as “Gremlins” and a dedication for a personal aesthetics, which he calls “Robert Zemeckis with a small drop of acidity”.

For example, take the opening scene of the film. Neck alienated father, played by Adam Scott, introduces us to the horror of the monkey when he brings the decorated toy into a deposit house. After trying to convince the annoyed employee to take him out of his hands, the monkey beats his drum and led to a harpoon gun spanned the employee and recovered his guts.

The Harpoon shot was completely real. In order to carry out the kill, the effects team created “a dummy body that was wearing the wardrobe of the shop”, which they pissed off with the Harpoon, and then pulled through “30 feet” from Requisitendar. Then they agreed with the real actor and sewed the two shots together with VFX.

“We had to use a little CG to connect the parts so that everything was tidy up,” says Douglas. “But I would say that 90% of everything in this sequence is more practical, all of which are glued together by VFX.”

In the following scene, Scott’s character tries to destroy the monkey with a flame thrower, another practical effect. Douglas remembers that the star of the “Severance” had the gun into her hands that he didn’t want to put it down.

“He was so excited to play with the flame thrower. He was dizzy, ”says Douglas. “We unpacked him, it was time for him to go home, and he said:” With this flame thrower I can take a few photos and videos. “(We said), ‘absolutely, Adam Scott.’ “

Further into the film we see the death of Hals Aunt Aunt Ida, which shines on fire through the influence of the demonic primate, while she grabs with a faulty gas stove and first drives her head into a pointed shield outside her house. Douglas was “really proud” of this sequence because she was perfectly married and married.

At first they shot a stunt person who desperately walked around as if their head was actually on fire. Then a special effect technician took a “poured into ignition fluid” prosthesis head and went through the house, “to match the movements of the stunt performers”. The two elements were then sewn together and brought the moment to life. When it was time to shoot this to the sales sign, they let a stunt performer run primarily with the spike for security reasons, then Douglas added the killer effects in post -production.

“Every piece of fire in this sequence is practical,” explains Douglas. “It is this choreographed dance between Stunts, special effect team, prostheses -Make -up team for the amazing combustion make -up and visual effects.”

The most complex kill that had to be produced came near the film’s film. After Hal switched up the air in his curved hotel room, he goes to the pool to take a call with his alienated twin brother Bill (also played by James). His thermostat tinkering was unknown and led to the alternating current unit had short -term obligation. It falls from the roof and ends up in a puddle of water, which means that the pool elects. Before an unsuspecting swimmer can notice, she dives into the water and immediately explodes a bloody fog.

They started filming the diving jump into the water as usual. After calibrating their “blood cannon”, they streamed them on a green screen bridge over the “exact point at which (the swimmer) appeared and provided the” beautiful rain “that they see in the film. As an additional grade, a special effect technician was on the bridge in a Greenscreen suit and threw prostheses into the air.

Despite the blood cannon and the flying limbs, Douglas still had to add more gore in mail to achieve the blood mirror “Disney Fountain” required by Perkin. However, Douglas takes intensive absurdities. After Douglas worked on “Longlegs” and “The Monkey”, he is more familiar than with the visceral style of the director’s filmmaking.

“So it is to work with OZ. If you are on the set with him instead of calling cut cut, you will sometimes giggle and laugh behind the monitor, which says: “Okay, I think you did it,” says Douglas. “I only think that in visual effect reviews, if you show you something, it may not be any hints, only in huge laugh. And then you know that you have nailed something. “