Fire in the Sky (1993)

On November 5, 1975, forestry worker Travis Walton went missing for several days, claiming to have been abducted by a UFO. The case was dismissed as a hoax by many, but that didn't stop Walton from writing The Walton Experience a few years later.

Walton and his family were known as UFO buffs, and two weeks before his supposed abduction, NBC had aired The UFO Incident, a TV movie based on the infamous Betty and Barney Hill abduction. No doubt Walton also was hoping for a motion picture deal.

He got his wish fifteen years later, as the success of Whitley Strieber's novel Communion had led to a renewed media interest in UFOs. By 1993, there was already several films and TV series based on harrowing tales of close encounters; Philippe Mora's film adaptation of Communion, Dean Alioto's The McPherson Tape, and the CBS miniseries Intruders.

Paramount Pictures wanted in on the action, and so hired screenwriter Tracy Torme (who incidentally, also wrote the script for Intruders) to write a screenplay based on The Walton Experience, with the caveat that the alien abduction scenes had to be scarier.

Robert Lieberman, who was attached to direct the screenplay now titled Fire in the Sky, felt he had to come up with different aliens. 'In Travis Walton’s book, he describes his abduction as they walked him into this geodesic dome that looked out onto the stars. He describes the aliens [as] being seven-foot-tall, Aryan-looking, [with] long blonde hair. I went, ‘I can’t have Dolph Lundgren playing the alien, man, they’ll laugh me out of the theatre.’

Assorted sets built by ILM for Fire in the Sky.

The special effects of Fire in the Sky were handled by Industrial Light & Magic, who got the job thanks to one of the producers, Nilo Rodis-Jamero, being a former ILM employee. Michael Owens, who acted as visual effects supervisor on the film, recalled how he got the gig.

'Nilo Rodis was an associate producer on the movie, and he used to work at Industrial Light & Magic, in the art department. The studio and the filmmakers realized that what Travis (Walton) described of his abduction was not very fascinating. They wanted to do something else, and Nilo came to me, to ask 'Could you come up with something?' as he knew I was capable.'

Owens explained to Cinefex, 'We basically took the project ‘sight unwritten’. The producers came to us with some rough storyboards, and Nilo Rodis, one of the associate producers, had done some preliminary conceptual work for the sequence. But with the exception of some of Nilo’s designs, most of the original concepts were eventually discarded'.

ILM was tasked with realizing the entirety of the alien abduction sequence; the aliens, the sets and props, and the effects shots of D.B. Sweeney 'floating'. Owens explained how the major hurdle on the project was the low budget, partly thanks to ILM being attached to Jurassic Park.

'Fire in the Sky was coming around the same time as Jurassic Park was happening at ILM, so the resources were all going there, and all the money going there also. Fire in the Sky couldn't afford (bluescreen or matte paintings) so we had to come up with a way to tell a story but not the visual effects. Meaning we were approaching it from almost a live-action method (...) so we still had puppets and animation, but it was pretty much on-camera'.

The decayed corpse prop fabricated by ILM for the spaceship sequence.

Agreeing with Lieberman's assertion to reject Walton's 'Nordic' aliens, Michael Owen remembered how daunting it was to design an alien unique to the film. 'That took quite some time to figure out, because of all the stuff we've seen in the past. You don't want to repeat it, but it does feel familiar to what humans think aliens might be.'

Designing the aliens was a collaborative effort between Nilo Rodis and members of the ILM team; art director Harley Jessup, model and creature supervisor Jeff Mann, animatronics engineer Guy Hudson and sculptor Richard Miller. Hudson spoke about the design process.

'It took quite a bit of time to get the design of the aliens just right (...) at one point they were going to have three leg joints, like a dog; but later it was decided to go with a more human, two-jointed leg. While others were working on those issues, Brian Dewe and I designed the actual structure for the aliens. It needed to be lightweight since we were going to be hanging it on wires, so we made it out of thin aluminum tubing with light aluminum joints. There was no facial movement — just joints that moved in the neck.'

The two aliens that drag D.B. Sweeney through the spaceship were five-foot tall rod puppets, operated by a puppeteer hidden underneath the set floor. An overhead rig was used to prevent the puppets from toppling over as they moved across the set on a wheeled platform.

The puppeteer operating the puppet from under the set also was on a wheeled trolley, so that they would move along with the puppet, and still be able to operate it. The puppeteer controlled the aliens legs and arms to simulate movement.

ILM's Dave Heron explained in detail to Cinefex. 'We built pipes into the set and placed carriages on them that supported the weight of the puppets. Underneath, there were tracks and slots where the cables and rods could come through. All the articulations were operated from below; the top was just a weight support. We had a large drum and an endless looping cable so that the carriage the puppeteer rode on and the carriages that carried the puppets all moved at the same rate of speed. They were connected'.

Brian Dewe and Jean Bolte designed and built the 'doctor' alien puppet to have articulated head movements, and could be operated like a hand puppet from a hole in the torso. Mike Smithson fabricated arm and hand prosthetics for shots of the aliens holding tools.

Michael Owens said about the 'doctor' alien puppet, 'We wanted the doctor to be different from the other puppets. He was older — more intense and more reserved — and therefore required a minimum of movement. His job was to convey thought and very specific action — he was our Laurence Olivier character. Very subtle movement can telegraph a great deal if the face sculpture is great — and we were pleased with the design. Just by sitting there and looking at you, the doctor was believable, yet creepy and unnerving.'

Harley Jessup recalled the process of the alien puppeteering, 'There were several different kinds of puppets. It took a team of about six puppeteers trying to fit in a very small space, keep out of frame and create the gestures and life-like movement. Only shooting their bodies at one point, or their feet, or their heads. They just need a moment (of puppet footage) in the shot, and it adds to the mystery of them when you're only seeing fragments of them within the mist. We used atmosphere a lot to help the believability of the characters.'

Lieberman was conscious of his aliens looking different to the assorted extraterrestrials witnessed in close encounters, but defended the choice years later. 'All the UFO groups and conventions and websites and all that stuff, they don’t like my movie because they don’t believe my aliens are true to form, you know? And I thought, no, I’m not buying into that. I got to make an alien that has certain qualities. One is it can’t look like a person’s inside it, right?'

ILM's work on the alien abduction sequence paid off, as it became the most infamous part of Fire in the Sky even to this day. Michael Owens reflected on how much of a challenge it was to achieve such a tall order - puppetry, set design and stunt work - with the limited resources.

'It was a thrill to solve these problems, and when you accomplish it, and it works on-screen, and the audience doesnt think it looks bogus, it's just fantastic. (...) But to get there, it was very difficult. Moving cameras? No. Panning cameras? No. Miniatures? It was really hard to photograph miniatures because you couldn't get enough light to have enough depth of focus! But still, it was a great challenge. Working with modelmakers, matte painters, animators, putting this together, it was really fun back then.

That camaradarie, with that kind of talent...today you go and walk around (ILM offices) and all these people are at their individual desks. One of the things I really miss is that team effort, physically working with people. That doesn't happen today. I miss that'.

Sources:

• Fear from Above: The Practical Effects of 'Fire in the Sky' featurette
• Cinefex #54 'Quick Cuts: Unfriendly Skies'
• The Companion 'Fire in the Sky | How We Made the 1993 Alien Abduction Thriller'

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) & Quatermass II (1957)

The BBC's original production of The Quatermass Experiment was, even by the standards of 1950s filmmaking, a very cheap affair. The BBC did not have a department for special effects in 1953, nor did it have the money to hire a freelance effects company.

Nigel Kneale, the serial's scriptwriter, remembered the BBC's blunt reaction to his ambitious finale where a giant blob of alien algae is nestled inside Westminster Abbey. 'When (the BBC) realized there was a special effects sequence showing a monster in the sixth episode, they said to me, "Well we're not gonna do it! You wrote it, you do it!"

Kneale and his future wife Judith Kerr made the monster themselves with some very DIY methods. They coated a pair of gloves in plants and other detritus, putting the gloves on and placing their hands in a hole cut in a blow-up photo of Westminster Abbey's interior.

The camera would be facing the blow-up photo, and Kneale would wriggle his fingers while wearing the gloves, to simulate that the creature's tendrils were moving.

Judith Kerr wearing the 'monster' glove decades later.

The cheap effects aside, Quatermass Experiment received large viewerships and critical praise, and various film companies attempted to buy the rights from the BBC to make a film adaptation. What drove all these companies away was that, if the serial was to be adapted faithfully - alien-induced warts and all - the resulting film would get an 'X' rating.

The one studio that did not balk at the prospective 'X' rating was Hammer Film Productions. Anthony Hinds, Hammer's owner, was so impressed with the serial that he had written to the BBC asking for the Quatermass rights before the serial's last episode was broadcast!

Hammer was a fairly unknown studio that produced low-budget 'quota quickies' and Hinds realized that the 'X' rating (which a more prestigious studio would avoid) could be used as a marketing gimmick, hence the film adaptation's title of The Quatermass Xperiment

Hammer's commitment to the original serial's grisly tone (and that 'X' rating!) meant that the film would not shy away from body horror or graphic death. The transformation of Richard Wordsworth as the mutated astronaut Carroon was handled by makeup artist Phil Leakey.

Leakey had previously only worked in 'straight makeup' duties; Quatermass Xperiment was his first foray into 'monster' makeups. Decades later, Leakey explained how he did the makeup. 'Richard remained in the hands of the makeup departmet for as long as he maintained humanoid form. (...) I had some discussions for the producer and director Val Guest, and we concluded that Richard should not look ugly - at least, not to start out with! Instead, he should look sad, ill...perhaps rather pitiful. After we all agreed on that, the rest was left up to me.

(The mutated arm makeup) was invented using simple items - corn flakes, rich, cotton wool, rubber and latex. We had no laboratory in the studio at that time, so I had to make everything at my home! The cactus-arm was a wrarparound piece made from rubber, cast from a plaster mold, which was attached to a lady's stocking so Richard could slip it on and off easily. Likewise, the handpiece was built onto a cotton glove.'

Leakey also made the corpse props of Carroon's victims, making a dessicated head prop and shrivelled hand props.

The 'inhuman' monster scenes, along with the matte paintings and miniature shots, were handled by Les Bowie's fledgling effects company. I've not yet found any information as to how they achieved the shot where a 'remnant' of Carroon's mutated body slithers across the floor.

Was it rubber mixed with cloth, or perhaps, like the main monster, tripe?

The effects for Quatermass Xperiment's finale were more advanced than the original serial's methods. Val Guest, the film's director, remembered how Carroon's final form was achieved.

'There were quite a few attempts to construct the monster that appeared in the climax, and eventually it ended up being made mostly out of pieces of tripe, as well as rubber solution. That was all the work of Les Bowie, the special effects man. It was all shot in the special effects department'.

Producer Anthony Hinds recalled how miniatures and camera trickery were also used for the finale. 'We had no money in the budget for special effects. We built a little model of the roof with this scaffolding there—the Abbey was supposed to be being redecorated, and this monster was in the scaffolding. And we got some tripe, which we wound round this thing on an elastic band, and when we undid it and ran the camera backwards - or rather printed the film backwards - it coiled its tentacles.'

The shots were the creature burns were done, according to Les Bowie himself, via 'some sparks and fireworks in the thing, and we made it react because we were using little wires and strings'. Sadly, in yet another example of old-school filmmaking's disregard for animal welfare, some close-up shots replaced the model with a real octopus that was set on fire.

Les Bowie's Carroon monster puppet.

Quatermass Xperiment was a commercial success, leading Hammer to immediately produce X the Unknown. X the Unknown was written as a Quatermass sequel proper, but was quickly retooled into an original film after Kneale vetoed Hammer's proposal.

X the Unknown once again had Phil Leakey and Les Bowie returning to do the makeups and special effects respectively. Leakey handled the grisly effect where a doctor is melted alive from exposure to radiation. Leakey explained the effect in Fangoria;

'For that effect I built a spong rubber hand, and into the hand were set thin plastic tubes with perforations along their length. These tubes entered the forearm through the wrist to each finger, and all the ends were attached to a specially-adapted pump. At the director's signal, a special chemical mixture was pumped into the flaccid handpiece, which immediately began to swell up and discolor. It was quite a good effect.'

The shot of the hand swelling was accompanied by a melting wax head built up over an anatomy skull, with camera trickery used to make the melting appear quicker; at least twenty years before Raiders of the Lost Ark!

An earlier version of Leakey's malformed hand.

The melting wax head.

Les Bowie's special effects were again a combination of matte paintings, miniatures and puppetry; I am not quite sure how the effect of the radioactive mud blob was achieved as of now; was it a rubber 'cloth' (also utilizing tripe?) with a light underneath?

Les Bowie's X the Unknown blob.

Interestingly, a year before X the Unknown, the BBC had allowed Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie to establish the BBC's Visual Effects Department, and the Department's first major workload was, of course, the BBC's own sequel Quatermass II.

Among the assorted miniature effects and spacesuit costumes, Kine and Wilkie also had to depict the alien blob writhing in the refinery's reactor. This was achieved cheaply, but effectively, as 'an empty tin, a toy ladder, Kine's hands in latex (gloves) and some dry ice'.

Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie's blob.

When Hammer greenlit their own adaptation of Quatermass II, Bowie Films Ltd would return to handle the special effects. Bill Warrington overseen the miniature and creature effects, assisted by Henry Harris and Frank George.

At the film's finale, a set of giant alien blobs burst out the reactors and go on the rampage. The blobs were realized similarly to the Carroon mutant in Quatermass Xperiment; they were made from a mixture of rubber and tripe from a butchers, and shot in a miniature set.

The extensive miniature filming under the studio lights caused the tripe to go off and stink, turning the shoot into a disgusting experience! Brian Johnson, part of the Bowie Films crew on Quatermass II, remembered how tripe still was used decades later for the gore effects in Alien.

Sources:

• Timeshift 'The Kneale Tapes' (2003)
• Fangoria #50 'Reluctant Monster Maker' by Randy Palmer
• Bernard Wilkie obituary on The Guardian, 2002
• Hammer – The Haunted House of Horror (Denis Meikle, 2024)
• 'Doubling Down - Discovering Quatermass 2' featurette

Species: The Awakening (2007)

The last of the Species films had its makeup effects handled by Joshua M. Logan's JML Film Corporation. Producer Frank Mancuso and director Nick Lyon opted to keep a similar tone to the original, which influenced the design of the film's aliens Miranda and Azura.

Logan explained in a featurette, 'The Miranda alien was very much inspired by HR Giger and Steve Johnson's Sil designs from the original film. The look we were going for was a very tall, very thin, extremely sexy, very streamlined alien. Nick's original input was that he wanted her to look like a runway model on heroin, and so that was our departure point.'

Another factor that influenced the Miranda alien's creation was the short deadline! ''We had a total of seven weeks from start to finish to build everything for the film before we began shooting. The timeline was extremely tight, and because of this schedule we actually began sculpting the alien bodysuit before we had a performer to go inside it! '

The sculpture had to double for both female aliens. It took about one week from start to finish to sculpt the suit, almost singlehandedly by Doyle Trankina. He then sculpted a crown piece to overlap the suit, and a face which would overlap the crown as a one piece prosthetic.'

'Once the sculptures were finished, the moldmaking process could begin which in the case of the bodysuit was done as a two-piece fiberglass mold due to its size. I believe the mold took two days to finish.'

A subtle difference between the two suits was the facial prosthetics, according to Logan. 'We sculpted different faces for the Miranda and Azura aliens, with the Azura alien looking far more sinister and menacing, trying to match her character.'

The Miranda facial prosthetic.

The Azura facial prosthetic.

The sculpted cowl piece.

'It took our makeup team about an hour to apply the alien suits on top of our two performers, Natalya and Veronica. The suits were painted by Mark Jurinko. The colour schemes of the two aliens were different. Miranda was a fleshy pink, and Azura was kind of a cold blue'.

Logan touched on how tough it was for the suits to wear. 'Performing inside a creature suit really isn't easy, and our girls did a spectacular job. In particular the fight sequence (...) the girls spent something like 15 hours straight inside the suits. It was just a marathon!'

(The other alien suit, seen in the last of the images below, as far as I know never appears in the film and is not touched on in the behind the scenes featurette I used as reference. Was it a suit rejected for the film, or was it loaned from another production?)

Prosthetics were applied on Helena Mattsson and Marlene Favela for the shots of their alien roles transforming. Logan recalled, 'We designed a series of prosthetics for both Marlene and Helena that we would apply over almost their entire body. It was difficult, but thankfully both ladies were extremely patient and helpful with what was an arduous task.'

A grisly prosthetic was made for Marco Bacuzzi for his role as the mutant Rinaldo. Logan explained, 'We achieved that with a puppet mouth that would strap on to Marco like a reverse backpack. Then we would use a prosthetic appliance, that would go over that and cover half of Marco's face, to give the impression that his head was ripping open.'

JML also were tasked with the alien cocoons, which were a complex effect according to Logan. 'At the same time that the suits were being fabricated, we began sculpting the alien cocoon, which was the single biggest effect we had to create for the film. The idea with the cocoon was that we wanted to see an actor inside it. We wanted to fit an actual actor inside it. So we began the sculpture by using a bodyform, as our sculpting armature.

We had to make a heavy duty steel frame for the cocoon, which wouldn't only support the weight of the cocoon which weighed about 300 pounds, but also the actor inside it.

We ended up casting the cocoon's skin out of a water-clear urethane, so that the actresses could be seen from outside the cocoons. Tom Killeen painted the cocoon's skins in three days.'

Sources:

• Special Effects Makeup of SPECIES: THE AWAKENING