
During week 1 we were tasked with creating a model creation for the split-face poster. For this task, I chose to research different horror movies, directors and actors to act as inspiration or be used as cast in the poster later on.


For my first set of research I decided to look into David Cronenberg's and John carpenter's work in order to have a greater look into body horror, for example: "The Thing" and "The Fly". In both of these movies the monster consists of an grotesque creature that slowly consumes the body/mind of the character/s into its own collective or form.


In "The Thing" a group of researchers find a dog that is being chased by a group of Norwegian researchers. Once the dog is taken in however, The Thing begins slowly assimilating each of the researchers one by one. This is done by totally recreating the assimilated target with its own biology and pretending to be them. The transformations in the film were also often violent and gory as their bodies ripped apart against each-other while shaking rapidly. This gives the effect of the accumulation of flesh is fighting against itself and shows the transformation as significantly more horrific. This is especially seen in Plamer's transformation after the blood test, as his eyes swell and bleed, shaking violently and screeching demonically.

In "The Fly", a researcher is attempting to invent teleportation and eventually this pays off and it works. However, it goes wrong when he goes through the teleporter in a test, when a fly had flown in with him. This then leads to the slow transformation into a half human/fly hybrid. While this happens, the researcher's girlfriend is pregnant but it is unsure if the child was formed before or after the researcher merged with the fly. In the climax of the movie the researcher is almost completely changed into a monster and is attempting to merge in the teleporter with his girlfriend and unborn child an a fit of madness. The transformation in the film is slow and horrifying due to the slow pealing and inflammation of the skin while his body deforms and contorts into a monstrous appearance with his eyes being the only remaining gateway into his last part of humanity.


For my second set of research, I investigated Stephen Norrington and the movie "Blade 2" in the attempt of understanding the slow devolution and feral appearance of the vampires effected by the Reaper virus.

The Reaper virus is a mutated strain of the vampire virus in the Blade series that was made as an attempt to create a new form of vampire that was immune to sunlight, garlic or silver. When the new version of the virus was given to the leader of the vampires' son it did give them an immunity to silver and garlic, but didn't give any immunity to sunlight. Unfortunately, the virus had also mutated and heavily distorted his appearance and caused him to feed more regularly.
The transformation of a human or vampire into a reaper vampire caused hair loss, skin and eye discoloration while also transforming the hosts mouth to split open, catch its prey in its teeth and maximize its bite. Each mandible has a curved fang that secretes a antitoxin into its victim to hold it still. Then using their tongue, which had small fangs attached to the inner tendrils, it sucks the victims blood while also sanctimoniously infecting the victim.


My third set of research was set around Toby Wilkins and the movie "Splinter". In this movie there is a monstrous infection that causes black splinters to grow and overtake the body of an infected individual. The areas infected by this act are completely separate to the actual victim and will do anything to infect other individuals, including breaking their own victims limbs. The infection's transformations include large splinters growing from the infected/touched areas of the victims body and their bodies contort and break their own bones in the process.
The movie begins by showing an animal infected with the splinter infection attacking and infecting a gas station worker before cutting out. There is mystery to how the infection itself started however, it shows that it is an incredibly violent infection. After this, the small animal is hit by a group of people in a car, two of which are wanted thieves that are manipulating the other characters. One of the thieves pricks themself on one of the splinters on the animal with his hand but when he looks to remove it is it gone, as if it had sucked into their hand. Eventually they reach the gas station and find the infected man who attacks and infects the other thief as the rest barricade themselves in the gas station. This is where they first see the ferocity of the infection. Next, a police woman arrives after they call the police and she recognizes the remaining thief in the gas station and attempts to arrest them from outside. However, before she can do this the infected attack her and the survivors still remain trapped. Soon after this the infected break in and they hide in the cooler, this is when they realise the infection can only see in infra red. At the same time, the first thief's hand begins to control itself and attack the other survivors while they attempt to hold it back. The hand breaks the mans arm attempting to get to them, before they finally cut it off and attempt an escape. They manage to escape by lowering their body temperature enough to not be seen and then destroying the gas station.

For my fourth set of research, I chose to research Justin Jones and the movie "Invasion of the Pod People"/"Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

The monsters of the movie are mostly an alien like plant based form of the people they have copied. They also act as some form of hive mind, screeching at any people who are seen and are not assimilated. However, they are easily tricked and in many scenes the survivors simply blend in with the crowds.
The way that they transform into this is by waiting for the victim to be asleep and then assimilating them into their collective. By using plant-life to simultaneously clone them and dissolve their real body they blend in more seamlessly, without others realising what has happened.

For my fifth set of research, I researched Stephen King and the movies "Pet Sematary", "IT" and "The Mist".
The Mist is a movie based around mystery and the actions of people in dire situations rather than the monsters themselves. The monsters throughout the movie are horrific creatures ranging from demonic bat like creatures to small deadly spiders and humongous tentacle covered hulking monsters.

The monster from "IT" is a demonic being that preys on the fears of children before eating their souls.

It transforms into many different creatures that are dictated by it's victims worst fears. Some of these transformations include: the undead, one of the children's missing brother and his trademark creepy clown.
The monsters in "Pet Sematary" mostly consist of the undead including a cat, dog and woman. Each of these undead have deathly glowing eyes. All of the monsters have an extremely intense rage and unnatural strength.