By Michael Martin
Making the Dog-thing for The Thing (1982)
When legendary makeup effects creator Rob Bottin (Legend, The Howling, Total Recall) and his crew became overwhelmed with the workload on John Carpenter’s The Thing, they reached out to Stan Winston for a little help. And did they get it! Tasked with building a mutated hairless dog for the groundbreaking film’s kennel scene, Winston took the simplest route; he and his team made a hand puppet.
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(Lance Anderson and Michiko Tagawa at work on the dog-creature at Stan Winston Studio.)
In one of the first revelations of The Thing, the kennel dog was required to raise its head and squeal at the camera. In this excerpt from The Winston Effect by Jody Duncan, Winston revealed that time constraints dictated his approach to creating the character:
With no time to engineer sophisticated mechanical components, Winston designed the dog-thing essentially as a hand puppet. He started by taking a photograph of himself standing with his arm raised, as if in a puppeteering position, and then drew a dog-thing shape that would fit over the silhouette of his head and arm. "I designed the character to fit the puppeteer," said Winston.
(Another angle of the dog-thing being sculpted by Lance and Michiko.)
Designing the Dog Creature
From these initial "proof-of-concept" designs, Stan Winston Studio team member Lance Anderson illustrated a more detailed rendering which would serve as the blueprint for the dog-thing sculpture. The next step was to create a life-cast of Anderson holding his arm up, over which Anderson and fellow SWS artists James Kagel and Michiko Tagawa sculpted the dog-thing in oil-based Roma Plastilina clay.
(The twisted reverse side of the alien creature.)
When finished, the foam latex dog-thing puppet featured radio-controlled eyes, snarling action, and cable-operated leg movement, yet it was still basically a hand puppet. Winston explained, “Lance Anderson puppeteered it from below an elevated kennel set, actually wearing this dog-thing puppet over his head and upper body.”
(Detail of the dog-thing’s leg sculpture.)
Shooting the Dog-thing Sequence
The dog-thing sequence was shot in North Hollywood, CA over a two day period. In an interview with SWSCA, Anderson recalled the experience, “I had my arm up in the dog-thing and operated the mouth…all the twisting and everything.” Anderson would also operate the little ‘chicken leg’ sticking out the front of the dog with his other hand. And what about that ever-present ‘Thing slime’ seen throughout the film? To quote Lance, “…there was slime constantly running down my back and down my neck.”
(The dog-creature’s head has been removed from the full-size sculpture for detailing and casting.)
For shots where tentacles slither out from the dog-thing's body, reverse photography was used, which meant Anderson had to puppeteer in reverse, pulling tentacles into the puppet, instead of pushing them out.
(The dog-creature puppet with some of its controls ready to be taken to the set.)
In addition to the slime and the challenges of reverse puppeteering, Lance was required to wear a leather helmet to protect his head from the explosive squibs the effects department was setting off on the dog-thing above him, which made shooting the sequence almost as scary as the scene itself.
(In the kennel set, the dog-thing puppet is covered with blood, gore and slime.)
Creating an Iconic Creature
But it was all worth it. What began as a simple hand puppet design would end up going down in creature cinema history as a shocking and impressive effect. Not wanting to take away from Rob Bottin's remarkable achievement on The Thing, Stan didn't ask for credit for his contribution to the film, so the producers gave him a ‘Special Thanks to Stan Winston’ mention in the end credits.
(The final dog-creature, tentacles and all, rears its alien head!)
Courses with the Creators of The Thing
- Fake Beard Application with Lance Anderson
- Prosthetic Makeup Basics - Gelatin Facial Appliances - Part 1 with Rob Burman
- Prosthetic Makeup Basics - Gelatin Facial Appliances - Part 2 with Rob Burman
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