The Time Machine (2002)

Stan Winston Studio was hired to realize the creature effects for Simon Wells' ill-fated adaptation, with Greg Figiel supervising the project. Mark 'Crash' McCreery diverged from previous adaptations in his design artwork; rather than the Morlocks all looking the same, this time there would be specialized 'breeds' adapted to different tasks, with muscular 'hunters', gangly 'spies' and so on.

The next stage for realizing the Morlocks would be creating the maquettes in order to convey how they would work physically..

As progress went on, some of the Morlock designs by McCreery were rejected, with only the 'hunter' and 'spy' Morlocks being realized on-screen; the large bulky design, as well as the original, more alien version of the 'Uber-Morlock' never left the preliminary maquette stage. The Uber-Morlock would be realized in the final film as Jeremy Irons in pallid makeup and a gruesome tumor prosthetic applied to his back, but that's more in the line of gore effects and thus not really included in this blog's scope.

The final films Morlocks were of course realized as latex bodysuits with animatronic heads. According to the official Stan Winston School website, each Morlock suit's head was fitted with thirty-two servomotors, which meant the actor inside couldn't see at all. To get around this, the heads had tiny cameras inserted in the Morlock head's nostrils, which then transmitted the image to a small monitor inside the Morlock head, allowing the actor inside to see.

The 'spy' Morlock suits than had a grey paintjob applied, with costume pieces added on; they were only briefly seen in the final film.

The 'hunter' Morlocks were designed to look like prehistoric throwbacks, especially in the skull shape. Like the 'spy' Morlock heads, these also had the same complex mechanics inside the animatronic head, but due to being required for more action heavy sequences, lighter stunt heads with no servomoters inside them, allowing the actors to see and not accidentally injure themselves or other actors.

Another similarity this film had with Island of Dr. Moreau was the impressive prosthetics work being shot close-up in broad daylight; this resulted in the Morlock effects being lambasted and Winstons' effects team taking the blame, even if it was all the fault of director Simon Wells, whose previous experience had only been on animated films, not live-action efforts, let alone ones with intensive special effects work. In a way I can't complain too hard though, as it lets the full suits be seen clearly and allow a lot of decent screenshots.

Sources:

- Creating Morlocks for The Time Machine (2002); Behind the Scenes at Stan Winston Studio