Though mentioned often in the script, the creatures in PITCH BLACK are seldom seen at length; rather, they are glimpsed, they are heard, they are felt. They are, really, the embodiment of your nocturnal fears: a howling coyote that jars you awake; the painting on the wall that comes to life when stared at too… Read More Chimera of the Night
Markus, bitten by bat, became the blood leader of the vampires. For the first Underworld film, the most extensive Vampire make-up had been applied to Bill Nighy to portray the regenerating Viktor after his awakening. Otherwise, the Vampire make-ups in the film consisted in prosthetic teeth and bright blue contact lenses — showing their heritage from… Read More Marcus Corvinus
General note: the following article focuses on the six major alien species featured in Avatar, with deliberate excision of the Na’vis — which will not be analyzed on the site. No Neytiri here! James Cameron first conceived Avatar in 1994, with an 80-page treatment of the story — which was to be produced into a film… Read More Creatures of Pandora
“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man… Read More Martian Warmongers
Patrick Tatopoulos and his special effects Studios did not return to provide effects for the fourth chapter of the series, Underworld: Awakening. Although the french artist was attached to the production of the 2012 Total Recall film, he managed to create designs for two of the new Lycan ‘types’ introduced in the film — the… Read More Lycans of the Underworld — Underworld: Awakening
Tatopoulos Studios and Luma Pictures once again returned to bring to life the Lycans for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Set in ancient times, the film also marks the new appearance of the first generation of Lycans — the original, feral strain of Werewolves. Seven ‘first generation’ Werewolf suits and only one hero animatronic head were… Read More Lycans of the Underworld — Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
The success of Underworld quickly led to the production of a sequel. Len Wiseman returned as the director of the new film, and with him Tatopoulos Studios to bring the Lycans to the screen again. The same basic design for the creatures was used, and most of the moulds were actually reused. An innovation in the… Read More Lycans of the Underworld — Underworld: Evolution
An adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist was first considered by Frank Darabont (director of several other film versions of the author’s novels — i.e. The Shawshank Redemption) in the late 80s, with a script produced in 1988. Both Greg Nicotero, head of KNB Efx, and Everett Burrell, head of Optic Nerve Studios, were initially… Read More Monsters in the Mist
Whilst Alien Vs. Predator marked the first film appearance of an Alien birthed from a Predator host — abbreviated in ‘Predalien’ — the concept had already been explored in the eponymous comics and video games, starting from the 1995 run Aliens Vs. Predator: Duel. Shortly after the publication of that series, freelance concept artist and… Read More StarBeast — Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem, the Predalien
Amalgamated Dynamics returned bring the creatures of Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem to life. Accompanying them in the task was Hydraulx — directors Greg and Colin Strause’s own visual effects company, which provided digital counterparts for all the Alien creatures. Requiem would introduce the so-called ‘Predalien’, an Alien born from a Predator host, which only had… Read More StarBeast — Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem
Monster Legacy 