ALL ABOUT THAT CREATURE – EXCLUSIVES WITH BLOODY DISGUSTING.

Maybe it’s one of the genre’s main facets that made us fall in love with horror: the creatures. As an adult, I still crave them. They’re one of the field’s USPs and greatest treasures.

Some reveals and spoilers in this article. One for those who’ve seen the film.

““I think one thing about [Nevill’s] book is that the reader must actively conjure the images the author is describing,” said Bruckner in an exclusive conversation (full interview later). “So you have a hand in co-authoring the design every time you encounter something on the page. No matter how artfully Nevill described the creature, or Moder as it’s called in the novel, it was always shifting a bit in my imagination. For example is it bigger than before? Does it seem more sentient than at first? Also, in the book, it’s female, which we learn later and shades things somewhat differently.”

“With a movie though, one has to get very literal with all that,” he continued.

“And we always knew this was a show-the-damn-monster kind of flick.

So I wanted to preserve my own experience of reading the book, wherein the creature’s design is somewhat shifting. Or at least you have competing ideas about what it might be. We dug into Norse mythology and discovered a Jötnar clan of giants that were known as shape-shifters and would sometimes present with combined human and animal qualities. It felt close enough to what Adam had imagined but gave us a little room to experiment.

To get the look he wanted, he collaborated with the concept artist behind Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, as well as Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Pacific Rim.””

Full interview with David Bruckner here

And more analysis of that creature here (spoilers – article only for those who’ve seen the film).