Monsters On Screen: Full Eclipse (1993)

Working on Anthony Hickox's werewolf cop thriller was Alterian Creature Crew (now Alterian Studios), overseen by Tony Gardner. For most of the movie, Alterian's duties were helping construct the tight bodysuits worn by the lycanthrope commandos of 'the Pack', with fitted padding to imply heavy musculature, as well as prosthetic claws; Hickox was inspired by comic books when visualizing the werewolves;

'I'm a huge comics fan; I read a lot of Marvel Comics, so I had a look I wanted, (...) Superheroes gone wrong, the whole Marvel mutant thing. I've always liked that concept; people with superpowers were a heavy influence. I'm quite sure I can't buy the rights to the X-Men, so this allowed me to do my own version'.

Hickox also drew from classic horror for inspiration; 'I wanted the wolves to look like the first actor (Henry Hull) who played one in Werewolf of London (...) We were going for a cross between him and Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf. There's a great moment where he turns from the jail cell window, and that's kind of how I hope our werewolves are going to look. But I also wanted this to be different, especially with the two stages. There's a first stage the Pack goes through, where they become superman and look like the true werewolves as the legends describe them- half man and half wolf. Then there's the stage where they become full wolves at the end.'

Hickox elaborated; 'We really tried to let the actor shine through (...) It's funny how each face takes on a different character. We didn't want them to be covered in makeup. We really built on their foreheads, cheeks and necks. I also love their weapon claws, and the fact that they actually bleed when the claws come out of their fingers, which I think would happen if you were transforming.'

Tony Gardner of Alterian stated about the makeup; 'We have a stage one look, which is just additive makeup and dentures, (...) Stage two is where we get into appliances that go down from the forehead almost to the outer corners of the eyes. We've got this weird, funky appliance that goes from the tip of the nose to the lip line, just to connect the two in a more animalistic way. We've also got upper and lower teeth.

The makeup took roughly four hours to apply. Mario Van Peebles said of the role 'It was my first time in that kind of heavy prosthetics (...) The makeup these days is getting so good that you can really see what you feel, and what expressions work or don't work. It physically changes the way you move. You find yourself moving differently and experimenting with a new look and power.'

Gardner's team made a new prosthetic for Bruce Payne's villain Garou transforms at the finale. Gardner explained; 'Bruce Payne is the only person who enters stage three. That's a big appliance makeup which goes from his collabone over his head and covers him entirely, which big fake ears and hair and stuff like that. It's a much larger cranium and you see a lot more skull structure.'

The third-stage makeup was designed and applied by David W. Smith, and made it on the cover of Fangoria #129. Incidentally, Payne also portrayed the vampire Harker in Howling VI.

The final werewolf form of Garou was constructed by Alterian, with animatronics installed in the head. The suit proved to be troublesome to film, according to Hickox;

'Well, my favourite werewolf that I’ve done is the Waxwork one. For some reason I just love that one by Bob Keen. I love Bob. And I love Tony Gardner, but the thing with the end werewolf is that it was done very late so we couldn’t really work and refine it. It’s like a first draft of what it was meant to be, and it kind of just always pissed me off that we didn’t get into it earlier.'

'It’s not really the design, it’s the fact it’s so unmovable. It’s kind of like wearing a suit of armour. Like, the guy inside couldn’t even move the wolf! I kinda wanted a World War Z version of a werewolf; a fast moving one, that’s why he’s climbing all over the crate at the end. CGI would have been great in those days! Emotionally, yeah, it does what you want it to do, but it was all put together in the cutting, and it was tough to cut. It was just a guy in a suit, and that suit was really fucking heavy!