EDIT 27/09/2024: I recently interviewed Francis Coates about his work on Xtro, as well as touching on his work on other genre productions as a sculptor and modelmaker. You can read it here!
'To do the most disgusting things that we could possibly get away with' was director Harry Bromley-Davenport's imperative for Xtro. To this end Davenport hired newer actors from theatre and television rather than star actors, to let the budget mainly go to effects.
Francis Coates, a sculptor who had worked for the BBC and White Horse Toy Company, was credited under 'Creature Effects'. Assisting Coates was Richard Gregory, who ran the freelance effects company Imagineering, and credited under 'special effects operator'.
Robin Grantham was credited as 'makeup supervisor', with John Webber credited as 'additional special makeup effects makeup'. It can be assumed that Grantham and Webber handled Philip Sayer's and Simon Nash's transformators towards the end of the film.
Coates and Grantham both worked from designs by Christopher Hobbs, credited under 'visual consultant'. Hobbs, a production designer, had also visualized (on paper) the gruesome effects sequences in Ken Russell's
The Devils and Neil Jordan's
The Company of Wolves.
Family man Sam Philips, abducted by a UFO, returns to Earth as a scuttling alien. It was Francis Coates who decided the alien should walk on all fours, as he was tired of all the monsters he'd made on Doctor Who that were performers walking upright in masks.
Preliminary sculpt of the monster suit by Francis Coates
Inside the monster suit was mime artist Tim Dry, of the music duo Tik & Tok. Dry and his counterpart Sean Crawford were chosen for their skill in body movements, with Dry playing the monster and Crawford playing a giant Action Man.
Crawford got the better end of the deal as all he was required to do was wear a large static mask (fabricated by Coates & Gregory) and army fatigues, and walk around a set.
Meanwhile Dry was subjected to a life casting of his body in the crab walking position (a photo of which can be found on Coates' website) for the foam rubber suit to be sculpted around, and
then for the actual filming had to crabwalk in a damp forest at night while wearing the suit!
Some close-up shots required the monster to flick its tongue out, or for a phallic tendril to snake out of its chest. Coates, in my interview, said there was no close-up prop due to the lack of budget, but this one behind the scenes photo makes me wonder if he was misremembering. Note the short stubby arms and the way it's shot in close-up.
Coates' sculpture must have been used to at least make *one* recasting for an 'empty' latex skin, after the monster has impregnated an unlucky Susie Silvey.
A behind the scenes shot of a possible close-up puppet?
A latex skin recasted from the original mould. Ew!
Coates and Gregory handled the film's other transformation effects and assorted props; two sculpted dummy legs and a latex skin were made for the infamous birthing scene. I suspect that this involved Susie Silvey partly hidden underneath the set's floor to achieve the illusion.
For when Philip Sayer is rebirthed, a (possibly gelatin?) fake umbilical cord prop was also made, for him to bite apart. Not many behind the scenes images of this sequence!
More advanced latex prosthetics were made for Simon Nash's and Maryam D'Abo's alien infections. According to Coates, this was Richard Gregory's work, and he explained how the effect was achieved;
'We (made) a body with very thin latex channels inside them, pretty much invisible. (...) we made these ball bearings ('eggs') and pushed these ball bearings along these so-called veins to make them stand up. (...) The third stage, we just used a suction pump so that the tubes just disappeared from her body, but the 'eggs' stayed'.
The Simon Nash prosthetic; was this just a DIY air bladder effect?
The infection appliance on D'Abo
Coates and Gregory also handled D'Abo's full transformation into an egg-laying mutant; an ovipositor-like piece was sculpted, while latex appliances were placed over D'Abo to achieve a cocoon-like effect. D'Abo herself had to sit on a bicycle seat (obscured by part of the set, to achieve the illusion that she was stuck on the wall) for several hours!
Coates and Gregory also realized the film's alien bodypart props, such as the Tim Dry monster's appendage, as well as a set of eggs and a phallic organ for the film's reshot ending. I imagine some form of pump was used for the 'heartbeat' effects on the latter props.
While Coates and Gregory handled the film's 'creature effects' (and the film's stranger gore effects), the 'standard' gore and makeup effects went to Robin Grantham. Most of the work came for Philip Sayer's transformation at the film's end, as his skin starts to decay. The first stage makeup consisting of discoloured, scarred appliances on Sayer's cheek and back.
The second stage of Sayer's transformation makeup consisting of laters of latex giving him a discoloured appearance, with appliances to show that his skin was starting to split open.
The third and final stage makeup had Sayer completely transformed into a bestial appearance, with the latex applied in a way to make it appear that the skin around his face was cracking apart. Dentures completed the animalistic look.
Grantham and Webber also were tasked with transforming Simon Nash to have a decayed visage as well; it seems that a latex face mask was made for Nash to wear. Interestingly, the original ending had several child actors in eerie face masks, to imply they were clones of Nash's character; I wonder if these were taken from the same cast used for Nash?
The ending has Sam completely transformed into a skeletal alien being; the distance shots of him standing with Simon Nash were achieved with a posable puppet sculpted by Coates.
The closeup shots of the alien were achieved with a more detailed puppet, possibly a radio-controlled one according to Coates. The close-up puppet was more detailed, with a posable head and a throbbing, 'beating' heart.
Interestingly, the shot of Sam's face melting as he transforms into the skeletal creature was another case of reusing a mould; notice the shape of the melted Sam face's eyebrows and ears, and then compare to the mask sculpted by Coates and Gregory for the giant Action Man.
It seems that a gelatin mask must have been made from the same sculpt, patched up with hair, and placed over the skeletal alien puppet. Perhaps a hairdryer was used to make it melt, as usual for melting gelatin head effects since Raiders of the Lost Ark?
The melting Sam face mask, over the skeletal alien puppet
The giant Action Man mask. Notice a similarity?
Sources:
- 'Xtro Xposed' interview with Harry Bromley-Davenport
- Fangoria issues #19 and #24
- Famous Monsters of Filmland issue #191
- Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine, December 1982
- Francis Coates' official website: http://www.scopedesign-uk.com/
