Howl (2015)

Originally, Paul Hyett was enlisted to realize the special makeup effects for Howl, having previously designed the special makeup for Neil Marshall's The Descent. Initially, Jon Wright was slated to direct, but when Wright left the project, Howl's producers watched Hyett's The Seasoning House and decided he would be a good fit for the project.

Hyett's first move as director was to change the design of the werewolves. Hyett stated in an interview for Clout Communications, 'I changed the creature straight away, Jon wanted more rat-like feral skinny creatures, I’d always wanted to do big, muscly, massive, fuck-ugly werewolves.'

In another interview with Film4 FrightFest, Hyett stated, 'I didn't want big furry, snout ones (...) I thought, feral people that have been bitten by something and start to evolve and mutate over the years. I didn't want to go through the silver bullet, howling at the moon, full moon transformation (...) Once they're bitten, they start to transform, and they never go back'.

Satinder Chumber was credited for key prosthetics, with Mike Burne, Steve Byrne and Rachel Coenan as makeup artists. Francesco Fabiani, Andy Hunt and Cesar Alonso were credited as sculptors. The early stages of Ed Speelers' transformation were realized as prosthetic appliances placed on his face and chest; these photos are from the Facebook page of Rachel Coenen

The werewolves were realized sculpted prosthetic suits and facial appliances, with CGI added in post-production. As Hyett stated in Starburst Magazine, 'A lot of people are saying, ‘look Paul has gone old school with these practical effects’ but they’re kind of not. The actors did have prosthetic creature suits but they have lots of 3D elements. What I did was take everything I knew from those two disciplines. You never want to do a fully CGI creature as it never looks as good so I felt lets have the suit, but I couldn’t have had the triple jointed legs without the visual effects. It’s the same with the opening of the jaw. Anything I couldn’t do with prosthetic I then employed CG.'

Four werewolf suits were created; three female werewolves, credited as 'Blonde' 'Bald' and 'Hunchback', and a male werewolf credited as 'Scar', whose bodysuit was sculpted to be more muscular in comparison, though the face was altered with CG VFX in post.