Make-up FX: Intestines and other Vital Organs

by Marc Fratto

When production started on my first feature, "Strange Things Happen at Sundown", I took it upon myself to handle the movies special makeup effects, in addition to directing and cinematography. Because of this, the effects had to be assembled quickly. I couldn't spend more that 45 minutes preparing a complex effect, because there was still lighting, blocking and rehearsing to get to. In addition, our movies limited (and I mean, limited!) budget didn't allow for expensive effects.

My experience in makeup effects is limited. I dabbled in the usual latex/derma wax type stuff a lot of us did as teenagers. I read Tom Savini's Grand Illusions ritualistically, and never looked at Rice Krispies the same. I even developed a formula for blood that looks so much like the real thing its frightening. But I've never molded a head, or created a foam appliance or anything too extensive.

My effects are quick, cheap and can be constructed in a relatively short time. They often rely on two very important factors. Lighting and blood. Both of these can be instrumental in masking cheap effects.

Which brings us to...intestines. In Strange Things Happen at Sundown, there are several scenes involving intestines, and other vital organs. In the first 10 minutes, someone's heart is torn out. About 40 minutes in, a girl vomits up her digestive tract. Later on, a vampire house of horrors reveals several incidents of exposed innards. A girl writhes on the floor with her intestines and her liver hanging out of her body. A man has his intestines ripped from his stomach. A vampire barbeques up assorted limbs and innards.

I mulled over the many ways intestines and other organs could be effectively created, and came up with a solution so simple it was frightening. I molded them out of paper towels! Yes, you heard me right....paper towels.

For starters, get familiar with what guts look like. How big certain organs are, how thick. If you have an old medical book laying around, check it out. Things like livers, pancreas, that can be fudged. But everyone knows what intestines look like, and what a heart looks like as well. I once watched a movie where spaghetti was used to substitute intestines. Spaghetti! I mean, come on. Everyone knows the difference between long thick intestines and little teeny spaghetti.

So lets begin.....

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Liquid latex
A roll of paper towels
Fake Blood
Grease makeup pencils (red, black, purple)
A bowl
Water

1) Molding the guts.... For intestines, you're going to have to spool off a ton of paper towels and mold them into long, thick strips. This will mean folding the paper towels over and over each other to add girth. Soak them in water, and squeeze tight until the water is drained out. Do this until you have the desired amount of intestines. You can make the intestines in strips of 2 feet or so, and then squeeze them together at the ends to bind them.

For other organs, such as a heart, or liver, your going to need to add valves and stuff like that. Take enough paper towels to mold a heart (about the size of your fist), soak the towels in water, and squeeze them dry as you mold them, adding paper towels if you need to, to achieve the correct size. Take one or two sheets of paper towels, soak and squeeze them dry in the shape of small tubes or valves. You can stick the valves onto the molded organ by digging a small hole into the organ itself, shoving the valve in it, and squeezing them together to bind them.

Put the guts in a dry place, like on a towel or large pan to dry out.

2) Adding texture and detail..... This is where the liquid latex comes in. The flesh colored latex is ideal, especially for intestines, but the clear one will do. After your guts have dried out, start coating all the guts in latex. It doesn't have to be rocket science. you can pour the latex into a bowl, and just use your hands to glop it all over. As the latex on your hands dries, peel it off, and place the little strips on your guts, to give the appearance of veins, arteries and other little nooks and crannies. If you decide to paint the latex on, instead of glopping it on with your hands, then take some latex, smear it on your palm, wait for it to dry, and peel it off in strips. curl the strips up like long dingleberries, and stick them on your organs.

3) Adding color..... the flesh colored latex should do the trick, but you can also add a lot of character to your guts with soft greasy makeup pencils (the kind you by in magic shops.) Add little touches, paint some of the veins black or purple, smear a little red here and there. this is an area that is largely up to personal taste.

4) The finishing touch... get a large bowl and fill it with fake blood. soak your guts in blood. This is what really adds that final, gross effect.

When it comes time to extract these organs, alot of the effect is going to come from the right lighting. Without the budget for complex chest tearing effects, and my desire to shoot the scene, so that the flailing victims limbs are in the shot as his insides are being torn out, we had to rely on lighting trickery to get us around it. This would entail hiding the guts in the victims shirt, and then lighting using a single lamp placed low to the ground, creating a ton of shadows, obscuring alot of the detail in darkness (as well as adding a nice mood to the whole thing).

vampire just finished vomiting her liver. notice the little tube at the end of it....	a heart
some intestines	using lighting to obscure cheeseball effects

Learn more about Marc Fratto and STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN AT SUNDOWN by visiting Insane-O-Rama.com

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