Bad Moon (1996)

Note: I would like to thank Steve Johnson and his archivist Chris Dotson for having provided me with so many behind the scenes photos of XFX's work on Bad Moon! Truly, it is amazing to see all the hard work that went into this underrated film!

When adapating the Wayne Smith novel Thor as Bad Moon, Eric Red was adamant that his lycanthrope would be fully visible in its scenes, as opposed to other films hiding it in shadow or quick cuts. Red told Fangoria;

'This creature's not shy. In most monster movies the beast isn't shown with absolute clarity, but in this one you see him in tight close-ups when he attacks the house at the end. He's surrounded by the home's interior lighting.'

Most effects houses balked at the prospect, but it was Steve Johnson who rose to the challenge. Red said, 'I hired (...) Johnson's XFX after a long search because I found them to be the most realistic in terms of (current makeup effects technology).'

Heading the main sculpting duties on XFX's Bad Moon team, especially for the werewolf, were Bill Corso and Scott Patton. Handling the bulk of prosthetics were Christopher Allen Nelson and Charlies Porlier.

Among the XFX team handling the animatronics and creature suit was Tamara Carlson-Woodard, Mark Boley, Bernie Eicholtz, Janet Evaschuk, Eric Fiedler, Joe Fordham, Deborah Galvez, Rob Hinderstein, Mark Killingsworth, James Kundig, Lennie MacDonald, Scott Patton and Dave Snyder.

The most elaborate of XFX' duties was Michael Pare's transformation into a werewolf. The first stage makeup was very simple as Johnson recalled; The very first stage of Michael's makeup in that transformation is just makeup! There's no appliances! He's got teeth, and he's got lenses (...) that are fairly subtle. The rest of it's paint, I actually applied it myself!

The second stage makeup was more elaborate, being a face appliance punched with grey hair, and a mottled paintjob to give Pare a sicklier appearance. Fanged dentures and contacts completed the look. Pare remembered;

'It was a long scene, the transformation. Four nights! The makeup guys had a motor home, and I would sit in the chair, and for 8 hours they'd be gluing and pasting and painting (...) and all kinds of monster stuff. And then I'd go shoot for 12 hours, and they'd take it off. And I'd go to sleep and 4 hours later I'd be back in the chair. (...) I didn't flinch at the idea. Doing a real werewolf movie, the way it's supposed to be done. You have to be a fool not to agree to that!'

Pare in the second stage transformation makeup. 

 

Much more ambitious was the final stage transformation appliance that Johnson had sculpted for Pare to wear, as Uncle Ted's transformation intensifies. The lopsided, malformed makeup, an advanced remake of Johnson's makeup for Stephen Geoffries in Fright Night, was another attempt by Johnson to realize his vision of how a werewolf should transform;

'Ever since The Howling and American Werewolf in London I'd felt that, if a person was changing into a wolf, why would it happen evenly and symmetrically? Why wouldn't one side of the body boil up suddenly, followed by the other side?'

Sculptures visualizing the Ted werewolf transformation. 

The transformation makeups were then enhanced (or, looking back, ruined) by digital technology. Johnson recalled about the process; 'It wasn't fully digital. The idea was we would make interim pieces and morph between them. So I still got to make several full-body prosthetic pieces, and if I recall some of them had a little bit of mechanical stuff in them, to help ease the difference between the dramatically different stages'.

The 'malformed' transformation torso sculpture. 

 

At the time of filming, Johnson was hopeful on the process; 'This is the first werewolf movie made since digital technology has become so accessible so we have a really nicer marriage of animatronics, prosthetics and digital technology. We linger on the transformation in this film, and I think that for the first time we're going to have a genuinely gradual and asymmetrical transformation that pays off.'

The 'malformed' transformation facial appliance. 

Years later, Johnson's attitude was very different; 'It is probably one of the worst transformations EVER put on film, the result is 2D!'. It was so disliked that Eric Red removed the transformation sequence entirely in his director's cut.

The effects highlight of Bad Moon was its werewolf, which was required not just to walk around on-camera without cuts, but also grapple with attack dogs for fight scenes! Johnson found a way to get around the usual problem of werewolf suits, by doing away with wolf-like legs.

The werewolf suit's hand sculptures. 

Johnson recounted his inspiration; 'The biggest inspiration for the wolf in Bad Moon was, well I was a huge fan as a kid of the Warren magazines, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella. And there was a story with a depiction of a werewolf* that stuck in my mind since I was 12 years old. It was human in its lower body, from the waist down. The upper body was very wolf-like.'

(In a later inteview with Darkside Magazine, Johnson denied that it was inspired by the iconic Frank Frazetta cover for Creepy #4. So, which Creepy or Eerie werewolf inspired Uncle Ted then...?)

Johnson described the suit's design; 'When you look at a wolf or a coyote, their shoulders are sloped and the neck is much longer. So what I wanted to do was replicate this old Warren cover. In order to get that longer (canine) neck, we built our animatronic head out (in front of the performer's head). It allowed us to fill it full of motors, but it also allowed the neck muscles to slope up and be real long, so it had this haunch like a real wolf.'

The werewolf head was sculpted by Bill Corso. One issue Corso had was knowing the final head would be coated in fur. Johnson remembered;

'It's kinda tough when you do a character that you know is going to be covered in fur (as) it thickens the sculpture, and buries the sculptural detail. So you've really got to have experience and know what you're doing, so you don't lose everything by the time you put fur on it, or do it too exagerrated and it looks ridiculous when you put fur on it. Bill did a really good job on it'.

Red wished for the werewolf's head to be the focal point of the design; 'I was very insistent on the amount of movement and detail that the head would have, because (...) by the end of the movie, the creature had to be seen in full-light and intense camera scrutiny'.

The 'hero' animatronic head's underskull.. 

The 'hero' animatronic head being fabricated.

Another requirement was that the werewolf would look different to previous movie werewolves, such as the Jeff Shank and Rob Bottin creations for The Howling.

'I also wanted genuine wolf colouration, which was rarely been done, so we had the fur tipped and multicoloured like it is on real wolves and coyotes. And this time, we decided against a bald muzzle. In my opinion, this one's an improvement on the designs for Howling and American Werewolf'.

Johnson admitted in a later interview that surprisingly, it was coyotes that provided inspiration for the Ted werewolf's fur colouration. Johnson explained;

'People always ask me about the ‘weird colour’ of my werewolf; I based his colour and hair patterns on coyotes. (...) Coyotes have an interesting look and face, we see them in California all the time, and they look really cool. Also, using a coyote’s hair pattern and coloration made it unique for a werewolf.

(When) I worked on The Howling with Rob (Bottin), and we were just punching as much dark hair into the werewolves as possible! Since I also did American Werewolf with Rick (Baker), where we just put in as much dark and white hair on the werewolf as we could, I thought the coyote coloration on mine (in Bad Moon) would help him stand out.'

The 'hero' animatronic head.

At least three heads were made; an animatronic 'hero' head, a stunt head that could be worn with the suit or operated like a glove puppet, and a stunt head to be blown up.

The stunt head in gruesome action. 

The stunt head, attached to the suit in an attack scene.

(I presume the below two images are of the 'dummy' head that was blown up, but I'm not sure).

Inside the rubber suit was Ken Kurtzinger, who was made to endure the usual trials and tribulations of a creature suit performer, with added hardships. In Kurtzinger's own words;

'It was one of the hardest jobs I ever did. I made four trips to Los Angeles to have a full-body cast made of myself so that they could mold the werewolf suit to me. They had to make the suit two sizes smaller than that would normally fit me, and make it out of a really dense rubber because during the movie I was gonna be fighting actual (German Shepard) attack dogs.

The challenge with working with the dogs was that the werewolf suit looked so much like a dog, it actually intimidated most of the attack dogs! They weren't really willing to attack me! There was this one dog, a female dog, and she was the smaller of the shepards, but she was the most aggressive and wouldnt hesitate (to attack). It helped that she was smaller, as it made me look bigger (in the shot).'

An early test of the werewolf suit.

As usual with monster suits, vision was limited for Kurtzinger; 'The hard part was you're looking out the mouth of the werewolf, It's got a piece of black mesh, a tongue that movies, and saliva that drools (out a pump). The drawback was you couldn't see what was attacking you! The suit was very limiting, just getting air was (hard!).

The suit before fur was applied.

Test images of the furless suit with the hero head.

Eric Red viewed the experience in a humorous light, recalling to Fangoria;

'There are some scenes with Ken wearing a full-body werewolf suit, and there wasn't much room in the thing for air. It was made with six layers of latex to prevent the German shepherd from biting through, and Ken was also wearing this animatronic werewolf head as the costume's crowning touch.

After a while, he began to complain about the heat in this getup, but it was tough to look serious, supportive and sympathetic with these gripes popping out of a werewolf's mouth. Here was this huge, formidable beast moaning and groaning about itchiness and sweat. I couldn't help but tease him about it.'

Red had another amusing anecdote about Kurtzinger's ordeal; My fondest memory was (...) between takes, Ken had to keep the head on, and his body language was like this mopey werewolf. It was a very funny thing to see!

Michael Pare also noticed how humorous Kurtzinger looked, “As Uncle Ted, when I put on the prosthetic, I came alive, like a real wolf would! When he put it on, he was like, ‘This is so heavy!’ Eric and I laughed, ‘Werewolf? This is more like Depressed Wolf’!”

Steve Johnson only had one problem with the final werewolf suit, namely that Eric Red showed it in harsh light too much. Johnson said in Darkside Magazine;

'I love Eric Red, so it was fun to work with him. We’ve gone bowling together and, outside of one really terrible CGI shot, the werewolf looks good! Eric shot him in a lot of light… I prefer my creatures in a bit of darkness.

There’s so much light in the ending scene, you can tell my werewolf couldn’t close his mouth! Even if you don’t know he can’t close his mouth watching it, I knew he couldn’t close his mouth, so it bothered me!'

For the nightmare sequence where Thor, the film's heroic canine, briefly transforms into a 'weredog', XFX fabricated a puppet. The puppet was designed to evoke the Ted werewolf, while appearing even more monstrous.

In an interview with Darkside Magazine, Johnson remembered a mildly embarrassing incident that occuured with the design drawings for Bad Moon's weredog;

“I did a lot of blow on Bad Moon. The hookers in Montreal were stunning, just stunning. The hookers wondered why I had pictures of the dog all over my hotel room… They probably thought I was freaky, but it was because I was designing Thor’s ending transformation!

“I told one of the hookers, ‘You have to stay the night, this can’t end now.’ But I had no money to pay her, so she said, ‘I’m going to stay but I am taking your attaché’ case with me and when you get the money tomorrow, call me and I will trade your attache case for my money.’

“That case had a lot of my werewolf design work in it! The next day, I got her money and worried all day that she broke into my case and robbed me blind, but she didn’t; she was as good as her word. I always think of that when I think of the dog turning into that werewolf, because all the plans for that were in my case!”

The weredog sculpture.

The weredog puppet's underskull.

The weredog puppet seems to have been rod-puppeteered, with cable mechanisms in the head to make it move the head and open the jaws. The weredog puppet was given a similar hair job and colouration as the Uncle Ted werewolf suit.

A dummy Thor body was also constructed for the stunt sequence where Primo, one of the trained German Shepards, is thrown into the lamp. The stunt was too unsafe for a real animal to be used; animal welfare policies were strictly adhered to on Bad Moon.

Naturally, XFX also supplied the film's gore effects. At least two major prosthetic gore makeups were made; a slashed face and throat appliance on Johanna Marlowe, and a slashed gut, throat and hand appliance on Hrothgar Mathews.

XFX also suppled a corpse dummy in Marlowe's likeness, for the shot of the werewolf punching her skull in, and a dummy head in Gavin Buhr's likeness for the shot of the Ted werewolf crushing his skull in his jaws.

Most gruesome of all were the gored remains of some unlucky campers, represented as a severed arm and a gored torso dummy with an exposed ribcage.

XFX was so proud of their Bad Moon work that a replica werewolf statue was made for XFX's headquarters. Christopher Allen Nelson and Scott Patton were involved in the sculpting of the replica werewolf, which was stuck in an 'action' pose.

The replica werewolf statue had thicker fur and a different colouration compared to the on-screen werewolf suit. Annoyingly, I've seen it shared online as being *the* screen-used suit!

Sources:

• Fangoria #158 and #159 
• Darkside Magazine #260
• Assorted bluray featurettes