“Object from Planet Contains spoilers.

Individuating the process of transformation as a Monster

Director Carpenter was fascinated by the classic `` The Planet X '' (1951), which is the original version of this film, and liked it so much that he quoted it in his own horror movie `` Halloween '' (1978). However, when remaking the film, they wanted a style that was more similar to John W. Campbell's original work, ``The Shadow Goes''. It is a suspenseful story in which the extraterrestrials do not know which of the members of the Antarctic base have assimilated, and the members are wary of each other. For this reason, he abandoned the concept of living beings as specific individuals and instead focused on the nightmarish image of the assimilation process.

Therefore, Carpenter asked visual effects artist Rob Bottin, who was in charge of the special makeup effects for his previous film, ` `The Fog '' (1980), to do the special makeup and creature modeling. Born in 1959, Bottin entered the world of commercial films at the age of 14. He became independent at just 20 years old, and developed his talent early on, creating the werewolf for the werewolf horror film `` The Howling '' (1981). is. In particular, ``Howling'' is known as a work that revolutionized the expression of monsters by skillfully using a device to inflate air bladders to realistically depict the process of transformation from a human to a wolf without using images to disguise it.

Bottin was 21 years old and had just started his own business when he received the offer for ``Object X.'' No matter how talented he was, such a rookie was given an important position in a major studio's summer box office blockbuster, so the pressure must have been immeasurable.

However, in order to meet the expectations of being selected for the role, Bottin spent two weeks creating storyboards with production art director Dale Cuypers, and also designed the Monster himself. He devised a horrifying process of transformation in which every time a living organism assimilates, it undergoes a physical change in which its body turns inside out, revealing the attributes of the individual that it has taken in so far. They take on various forms depending on the situation, ranging from a lump of flesh with tentacles entwined with the target to be assimilated, to one that grows crustacean-like legs from a human head and runs away, and is full of nightmares. However, many of them are not easy to visualize. But Bottin directed a 35-person special effects crew that worked 24 hours a day during the nearly two-year production period. During that time, he worked without taking a single day off and created the ugliest and scariest creature in the history of film.

“Object X from Planet” (c) 1982 UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The scene in particular that made the audience scream was when Norris (Charles Hallahan), who was in a state of cardiac arrest, suddenly opened his stomach and ripped off both arms of the doctor (Richard Dysart) who was administering a resuscitator. Bottin created a dummy with internal organs and fiberglass to control its movements, attached the Doctor's face mask and the dummy's arm to the actor, and completed such an amazing scene. Moreover, the series of shots in which a creature resembling Norris's face emerges from his split stomach is said to have taken about 10 hours to set up, and you can clearly feel the traces of the creator's ingenuity and struggle.

Monster Monster and Rick Baker