PRODUCTION WEAPONS
There’s an underlying emphasis on hair throughout Weapons , with Aunt Gladys using it to control others – and sporting a very unique hairstyle herself. Hair department head Melizah Wheat had a field day, taking a ‘bolder is better’ approach to signify that certain characters had become unhinged – Alex’s mother included. She pauses for a moment outside Justine’s window, “and then walks out of frame,” says Vignola. “Then, you hear the car door open off-screen,” he continues, followed by Alex’s mother getting inside, reaching towards Justine and cutting her hair. “We had recorded the sound of this low, creepy, ominous breathing. We thought – sort of instinctively – to cut that in when this character enters the car. “It wasn’t until the last few days of the mix that we had a realisation of, ‘What if we don’t hear the breathing until after the scissors snip the strands of hair?’” continues Vignola. “We realised that the breathing gives away the proximity of the character to the camera. It was a very subtle thing, but an effective way to eke out more fear.” PRINCIPAL MARCUS GOES ROGUE Around the film’s mid-way point, the truth starts to unravel. “Once Aunt Gladys shows up, you’re in a different film,” states Collins, and the pieces slowly get put together. Although, chronologically, she’s already possessed Alex’s parents and classmates, principal Marcus is the first character to be weaponised on-screen, attacking his husband Terry and then Justine. In perhaps the most unsettling scene, Marcus uses his own face to
bludgeon Terry’s head. Most of the murder occurs on-screen, cutting away for only a few seconds before revealing the aftermath. Achieving authenticity proved a challenge for the whole team; “I’m inclined to say that none of the filmmakers who worked on this film have ever personally experienced a moment like that,” says Vignola. When first possessed by Gladys, Marcus’ eyes become crazed – a visual effect handled by Ingenuity Studios. The VFX team, supervised by Gabriel Regentin,
created what they call a ‘raccoon mask’, using motion capture to build a digital representation of the area around Marcus’ eyes. They could then adjust the eye-bulging intensity in post, depending on what each frame warranted. Marcus kills Terry quickly, leaving his head smashed open on the kitchen floor. For this sequence, “we made three separate heads,” explains Collins. “The first was an exact replica of the actor’s – and they’re all attached to a body that matched his size. Everything was soft,” he adds, so as not to hurt Benedict Wong, who plays Marcus. “The second head is starting to get caved in,” continues Collins, who attached each head to the body using Velcro. “While the camera is locked on Marcus, I can rip off that head and put in the last one, which is completely bashed in.” For the final touch, Vignola added re-recorded ‘dialogue’ – which was really just Terry groaning – in order to heighten the ‘human element’ of such a brutal sequence. “It’s a fine line between what is fetishised versus something that could be passed off as realistic,” he suggests. “It’s rooted in diegetic reality, but we added a little extra salt.”
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