WEAPONS PRODUCTION
A CLASSIC TWIST By keeping the main antagonist off-screen until the third act, Weapons preserves its sense of dread and mystery
These little moments aim to confuse the audience and make them feel uneasy – just as much as Justine is.” Once in the backyard, Justine peers through a gap in the newspaper- covered windows, seeing Alex’s parents inside. They’re not like normal parents though – they’ve got wild hair, fork marks in their faces and expressionless eyes. Later on, the audiences learns how they got that way; they were possessed by Alex’s Aunt Gladys. “When you read the script, you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be murder town’,” begins Satkovich, “and it actually wasn’t.” There’s a moment when “Alex’s parents are stabbing their
faces with their forks,” he describes, “but you don’t see any blood flying around.” But almost every other time they’re on screen, the stab marks are still visible. To create this effect, Satkovich marked up the actors’ faces in a design program and sent a copy to Jason Collins, the film’s special makeup effects designer. Rather than having to apply individual stab marks, Collins created full-cheek prosthetics for Alex’s parents, with some smaller pieces. “We wanted to be able to slap them on,” says Collins, mainly to save time in the makeup chair. Satkovich and Collins also wanted to see the depth of the wounds on screen, cementing prosthetics as the obvious choice.
The sound team – primarily the foley artists – sonically enhanced the stabbing scene, but it’s not overdone. “When creating our mix, we found that upping the gore factor took us out of the picture,” Messeder reveals. “The more realistic we were with those sounds, the more horrific they became.” LOCK YOUR DOORS! After seeing Alex’s parents, Justine returns to her car and falls asleep. We then watch the front door open and the mother walk out, scissors in hand. “She’s completely backlit. If it weren’t for her hair – and crazy walk – it wouldn’t have had the same effect,” argues Satkovich.
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DEFINITIONMAGS
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