How The Thing Did The Spider-Head (Without Any CGI)
John Carpenter’s The Thing is a classic of the genre with amazing practical effects; here’s how they pulled off the Spider-Head effect sans CGI.
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Here’s how The Thing pulled off that incredible Spider-Head effect in an era before CGI. The Thing is a remake of the 1951 Howard Hawks’ production The Thing From Another World. This b-movie classic was an adaptation of the 1930s novella Who Goes There?, which featured a team of scientists trapped in an Antarctic research base with an alien creature that can perfectly imitate any living being. The 1951 version dropped this angle, and instead featured the team being stalked by a vegetable-based alien (James Arness, Gunsmoke). The movie is still held in high-regard and features jumpscares and stunts that are startling to this day.
Filmmakers like Tobe Hooper circled The Thing remake before John Carpenter signed on. This was the director’s first big studio project, but despite being a fan of the original, he wanted to make something completely different. He sought to make a bleak, uncompromising story about the loss of humanity and went back to the novella’s concept of a shapeshaping creature. Despite being hailed as a classic now, the movie was lambasted upon release for being far too dark and gory. The movie’s underperformance is often blamed on the success of E.T., which was released that same summer and offered a more hopeful take on alien visitation.
The Thing is now rightly hailed as a masterpiece and its practical special effects hold up remarkably well. This is largely down to the work of Rob Bottin, who previously collaborated with Carpenter on The Fog. Bottin is credited as Special Makeup Effects creator and Designer on the film, and it was his brave suggestion that the creature could look like anything it has ever imitated on other worlds, so when it’s caught it would freak out and twist into various shapes. This was a big project for the then 22-year old, who worked so relentlessly for a year without any breaks that he was hospitalized with exhaustion when it was done.
The Thing features several impressive creature effects sequences, but the one everyone remembers is the Norris Thing transformation, which leads to the Spider-Head moment. In the story, geologist Norris (Charles Hallahan, Pale Rider) is taken to the infirmary after suffering an apparent heart attack, but when outpost doctor Copper tries to revive him with a defibrillator, Norris’ stomach rips open to reveal a maw of teeth that sever the doctor’s arms. A creature then emerges from Norris’ body but is quickly burned by Kurt Russell’s MacReady. Not wanting to perish, the head from the Norris Thing detaches and rolls to the ground. It then grows stalks and become the Spider-Head creature, which is also toasted.
The Thing’s Spider-Head scene is a bravura example of practical effects. The first part of the scene involved actor Charles Hallahan being sculpted from the neck down, with a perfect replica of his body built. The stomach mouth was a hydraulic mechanism that ripped through Cooper’s arms, which were made of jello and plastic veins filled with blood. To make the shot work from a distance, a double amputee was hired to briefly play the now armless doctor, who wore a mask of Copper’s performer Richard Dysart.
In the second part of The Thing’s Spider-Head scene, a replica of Hallahan’s head was made. A hydraulic ramp built under the table stretched Norris’ head as it escapes the fire, with veins constructed out of melted plastic and bubble gum to shoot out otherworldly goo. Sadly, the first build of this piece blew up due to fumes from this effect building up in the room, which ignited when fire was added to the scene; it was then hastily reconstructed. The Spider-Head itself was a combination of a mechanical head for close-ups and a radio-controlled device to make it look like its moving for long shots. All these elements combined to make one of the most jaw-dropping, non-CG effects sequences of all time.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/thing-movie-spider-head-creature-effect-no-cgi/