Monsters On Screen: Xtro (1982)

'To do the most disgusting things that we could possibly get away with' was director Harry Bromley-Davenport's imperative when making Xtro. To this end Davenport hired newer actors from theatre and television rather than star actors, to let the budget mainly go to the effects.

Francis Coates was credited under 'creature effects' and had previously worked as a sculptor on various episodes of Doctor Who (as part of freelance firms contracted by the BBC's VFX Department) and Star Wars (on the R2-D2 suits). Assisting Coates was Richard Gregory, who provided puppets and makeup effects to episodes of Doctor Who and Space Precinct.

Coates and the effects team worked from designs by Christopher Hobbs. Hobbs, primarily a production designer (on Derek Jarman's films, Ken Russell's Salome's Last Dance, and the 2000 Gormenghast miniseries), had supplied the flesh-bubbling burning effects for Ken Russell's The Devils and storyboarded the effects sequences in The Company of Wolves. Hobb's work on Xtro went to visualizing the film's transformations.

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!

Family man Sam Philips returns to Earth as a scuttling alien. It was decided that the alien would be realized as a performer crabwalking in a suit. Inside the monster suit was mime artist Tim Dry, who together with Sean Crawford were the music duo Tik & Tok. Crawford also starred in Xtro as the giant Action Man, realized as Crawford wearing a static mask and gloves.

Preliminary sculpt of the monster suit by Francis Coates

At the film's climax Sam and his son Tony transform back into their alien forms, the skin sloughing off to reveal the alien underneath. This was achieved via prosthetic makeup; the first stage makeups consisted of latex applies on Philip Sayer, giving his face a discoloured, sunken appearance with pieces stuck on to imply his skin was falling off and the alien skeleton was showing.

The second stage makeup was more heavy in order to give Sayer a further decomposed appearance, with fanged dentures giving him a bestial look. An appliance was also worn on the chest to imply his ribcage was opening up.

Simon Nash early stage makeup as the transforming Tony were minimal, but the final stage consisted of a discoloured face mask - presumably taken from a cast of Nash's head, but cannot be sure - that was cut up around the jaw and painted to have a decaying appearance.

At the film's climax, Sam has fully transformed into a skeletal, biomechanical alien, seen only very briefly in close-up shot. The final alien was realized both as a mostly immobile full-body puppet for distance shots.