Abstract

One of the first genres to be established with the advent of film is Horror, and as such these films have evolved immensely over the years, matching the cultural landscape of the times in which they were produced. In my project I chose to investigate what makes us fear horror monsters, and also what techniques are used to make them reality. The first half of my project involved the most common method of creature effects in the last decades of the 20th century: latex prosthetics. I was able to create a mask using the same procedures as those that made the Xenomorph, Freddie Kreuger and The Thing the iconic creatures that they are. I decided that for the second half of the project, which was to be made entirely digitally, I could experiment with the scale of the scene. A model was created, rigged, and composited onto footage that was filmed in my local area.