Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
Poltergeist is another one of my all-time favorite movies and another one I’ve discussed at length before, so I’ll save any broad “this is awesome-amazing!” statements and focus on the awesome picture.
This moment always got me as a kid, the decomposing skull that pops up at the doorway that causes Craig T. Nelson to let go of the rope… It’s crazy-looking and horrific. And it wasn’t even the first design for the effect, but I’ll get to that in a second.
Here’s a brilliant bit of miniature work that I couldn’t really figure out how they executed until I saw this image. To me that skull looked 10 feet tall. I never would have pegged it as a miniature.
Amazing, right? That kind of work floors me. I can’t imagine having the talent to create something like that.
Craig Reardon designed a different face for that moment, but it was nixed. Reardon actually retooled the design a few years later for a gag at the beginning of the Twilight Zone movie, but I figured you guys might want to see what was original proposed before I wrap this BtPotD up. Thanks once again to the Practical Effects Group for providing these images. Here is the original grinning face concept:
If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.
Tomorrow’s Behind the Scenes pic comes from a less traumatic ‘80s movie… involving aliens...
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page One
Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page Two
