These Los Angeles Firms Have (Body) Casts of Thousands

Almost Human’s Culver City studio was even gorier than usual this week. The bloody limbs and decapitated heads were just business as usual. But they’d been joined by a clear plastic “disco ball” suspending several bodies from the ceiling and a trussed-up, bloody figure hanging near a table full of slimy silicone noses and ears.

Don’t call 911. Almost Human is one of dozens of firms around Los Angeles that make fake bodies, heads, arms and other appendages for movies and TV shows. No one tracks exactly how much is spent each year on such things. There are a few major players that pull in seven figures working on top films, trailed by many smaller companies bidding on projects that may only pay a few thousand dollars each.

Robert Hall, head of Almost Human, works frequently on quick productions for producers such as Roger Corman. Hall’s specialty is the painstaking painting that comes in handy for the red blood and white-and-yellow fatty tissue atop a decapitated neck.

“We made a cast of an actor’s head and shoulders, and created a silicone bust. Then we just ripped the head off, and kinda chewed up the area around the neck,” explained Hall calmly. He held a prosthetic he created for Corman’s “Club Vampire,” a low-budget 1997 horror flick. (In the film, a vampire gets his head ripped off by fellow vampires who disagreed with his becoming a vegetarian.)

“A forensic specialist provided us with photographs of some real decapitations. But we ended up adding a lot more blood,” said Hall, adding, “I’ve seen footage of actual amputations, and it looks weird. There’s very little blood.”

Hollywood’s blood lust has fueled an explosion of experts in graphic gore. Although movies about monsters, gangsters and war have been studio staples for decades, audiences are treated to ever more realistic gore, and the demand keeps rising.

From Lumpy Rubber to Pliable Gelatin

Materials have evolved over the decades, from lumpy foam rubber suits to more pliable gelatin pieces (yes, the same stuff used in Jell-O) to eerily lifelike silicone bodies, complete with individually punched-in hairs. But the basic techniques are essentially the same. Cast, mold and paint. Voila! A vampire face, a bloody arm, a neck and shoulders with the head ripped off.

Some top houses, such as Van Nuys-based Stan Winston, are union members (the Makeup Artists & Hair Stylists division of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees), so they can do more work for major studio productions. Winston won an Academy Award for work on “Jurassic Park.”

But there’s always work for outfits such as Almost Human because Hollywood seems to have an insatiable demand for guts.

“They [the top houses] get like half a million dollars and six weeks to work on something,” Hall said. “I get like three days and $10,000.”

The 24-year-old Hall, who claims to be the youngest prosthetics shop owner in L.A., is typical of the free spirits his business attracts: He wears his wildly curly black hair to the middle of his back, sports multiple earrings and has tattoos on both arms. He previously worked with bigger houses such as Winston and Chatsworth-based KNB Efx Group, on such films as “Island of Dr. Moreau” and “The X-Files.”

“I had a great time working on some of those bigger movies,” Hall said. “But here, I get to do everything from A to Z, even if it’s on a smaller scale. I don’t have to explain to my friends that my contribution to a creature was just doing the mold for one of the toenails or something.”

Through a partnership with the French effects duo of Anthony Gaillard and Pierre-Olivier Thevenin, Hall’s operation also makes fake humans and creatures for European productions and theme parks. Like most entertainment service firms, Hall’s staffing goes up and down with demand. He says he employs about 10 people on a regular basis, though on a recent weekday morning, only Hall and one other worker were in the studio.

Hall admits times have been tough recently for a lot of smaller firms because of intense competition and some production disruption caused by this summer’s threatened actors strike, which didn’t materialize. But he says Almost Human has been doing well, thanks largely to steady work on the “Black Scorpion” TV series, produced by Corman for syndication.

Puppetry Career Gives Way to Image Creator

Just a few blocks away from Almost Human in a cluster of warehouses taken over by film-related businesses is Image Creators, another small studio that trades in blood and guts.

Proprietor Fred Spencer came to prosthetics work after an early career in puppetry. The son of an amateur magician, Spencer played the Catskills as a child and joined Sid and Marty Krofft’s successful live marionette show in 1964, at the age of 18.

Once in L.A., Spencer turned to creating gorier fare as the business went in that direction.

“We created this to double an actor in ‘Shadow Chaser III,’ ” said Spencer, holding a foam latex head and a urethane eyeball on a long rod. “The gag was, this guy’s eye got poked out,” he said, demonstrating by twirling the eyeball into and out of the socket.

Spencer said that although materials have continued to evolve, there are still uses for good old foam rubber. “Silicone is heavy, so it’s not often practical to make a full head or suit out of it,” he said. “Also, when you punch hairs into a head, silicone has a tendency to grab the needle, so it takes longer and you need to put a lubricant on the needle.”

Regardless of advances in materials, those connected with the business fear that computers are beginning to take over. Silicone may ultimately be no match for silicon.

“I’d say three years ago, effects work was 75% prosthetics, 25% digital. Today, that’s flipped; it’s 75% digital,” said producer Larry Kasanoff. Kasanoff has produced such films as “Mortal Kombat” since leaving James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, where he worked on “Terminator 2” and “True Lies.”