By Michael Martin
The Making of Hereditary
Hereditary is not just a horror film. Hereditary is not just a family drama. It is not just a possession tale. It is a creative reimagining of several genres that blend together to form an insightful window into the meaning of family…and terror.
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- Using Prosthetics for Hereditary
- Behind Hereditary’s Disturbing Decapitation Scenes
- Effects Used for the Film’s Heads and Dead Bodies
- Creating Miniatures for Hereditary
- Hereditary: a Horror Film with a Family Connection
- Hereditary Makeup FX & Miniatures Crew
(Debut feature director Ari Aster and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski on the set of Hereditary. Photo by James Minchin, courtesy of A24.)
First-time feature writer and director Ari Aster brings us the tale of a family torn apart by grief after the death of a loved one. The film’s family consists of Annie (played by the Oscar-nominated Toni Collette), her psychiatrist husband Steve (played by Gabriel Byrne), and their children Peter (Alex Wolf) and Charlie (Milly Shapiro). After the death of her mother, Annie will find solace in the miniature dioramas that she creates.
Using Prosthetics for Hereditary
To create the film’s horrific makeup effects, director Ari Aster would seek out prosthetic makeup designer Steve Newburn (Suicide Squad, Flatliners, the 12 Monkeys television series). Newburn and his team of artists would be responsible for all of the prosthetic work and, ultimately, the miniature work seen in the film. Steve would talk to SWSCA about the effects he created for Hereditary.
(This pre-production artwork above gives a sense of the horrors to come in Hereditary. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
One of the realistic and disturbing makeups that Steve and his crew would produce would be a possession/broken nose and split lip for when the couple’s teenage son Peter smashes his face into his school desk. The prosthetics would be cast from silicone and the desk itself would be a soft top provided by the props department.
Behind Hereditary’s Disturbing Decapitation Scenes
There would be several decapitation scenes in Hereditary. Steve Newburn would say, “We did an entire prosthetic gag for Toni Colette.” This would represent a scene where Annie would cut off her own head with piano wire.
(Toni Collette is fitted with a neck appliance for her beheading scene. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Steve and his team would also build an animatronic puppet of the family’s thirteen-year-old daughter Charlie for her own decapitation scene, this time by telephone pole. This scene would lead to the makeup team's biggest challenge on the show. Originally, the car Charlie would ride in was meant to be mounted on a track that would lead it and the animatronic puppet into the telephone pole. But changes meant that the effect would be performed by a fully operational vehicle driving at sixty miles an hour!
(Child actress Milly Shapiro is cast for her animatronic puppet that will end up being decapitated. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
For the gag, a collapsible inner skull was built. This skull was meant to mirror the damage created on another "Charlie" head that was built to represent the aftermath of the accident. Tests were carried out in the makeup shop using a baseball bat to simulate the telephone pole’s impact. Even without the planned track guiding the car, the effect went off perfectly. “The driver, he nailed it the first time.” Steve would also say that it looked fantastic but, “They (only) used a few frames of it. It was a little too disturbing.”
(Work-in-progress shots of Charlie’s severed head and the final result. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Effects Used for the Film’s Heads and Dead Bodies
The makeup team would supply other severed heads and bodies, some rotted, that appear later in the film. They would also provide the production with dead bird bodies and other assorted animals for the daughter Charlie to behead. She would then carry these trophies around in a box.
(Rotting corpse effects and a headless body created for Hereditary. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Also, during the shoot, Steve and crew would produce minor prosthetics for the day-to-day trauma that the characters would suffer. These would be handed off to the on-set makeup crew led by department head Greg Moon and key makeup artist Abigail Spencer.
Creating Miniatures for Hereditary
One of the key visual motifs in Hereditary is illustrated by the miniature scenes that Annie builds which represent important moments from her life.
(Annie, played by Toni Collette, and one of her miniature scenes. Photo by Reid Chavis, courtesy of A24 and miniature image courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Originally, Steve Newburn had been contacted about providing the makeup effects for Hereditary but after he had read the script, he had an idea. Steve would contact the production and ask, “Hey, what about miniatures? Who's doing that…?” In fact, the production had been having trouble finding someone to handle the important miniatures for the film, so Newburn and company would take on that responsibility as well.
(One of the house miniatures under construction. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
The miniatures in Hereditary would become almost a character in the film. When Steve initially met with Ari Aster, he discovered that the debut director had already created a laundry list of the miniature scenes he needed for the movie.
(Another of the Hereditary homes in-progress and with interior detailing. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
There would be four or five primary scenes from Annie’s life plus a half-dozen others that represented previous events not seen in the movie. The previous ones would give Steve more freedom design-wise since they would not be tied to actual locations. Hereditary’s exteriors would be shot on location in Utah; the interiors would be filmed on stages constructed in Toronto. The miniatures required would include Charlie’s schoolroom, Annie’s mother’s hospice, and a multi-level version of the family house built atop other rotting and collapsing houses. What do you think Freud would say about that? While drawing concepts for these dioramas, Steve would communicate with the director by email several times a day and by Skype every other day.
(The schoolroom miniature, both under construction and detailed. Many of the toys would be 3d printed. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
The production would supply details for the miniatures, from both the location and studio environments. These would include measurements, multiple angles of props, paint splotches, along with images and samples of wallpaper and hardwood floors. Some of the details would be handcrafted while others would be 3d printed.
(The interiors of Annie’s miniature settings would be detailed with a wide variety of handmade and 3d printed furnishings. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Most of the miniatures would be built from balsa wood and basswood and other traditional hobby and dollhouse materials. The furniture would be handmade with the exception of the more ornate parts like legs. In fact, thousands of 3d printed parts would be produced. Everything from the table and chair legs to ornate chandeliers and light fixtures. Even the toys in the preschool diorama would be 3d printed. The carpets inside the miniature rooms would not be made of actual carpet, they would be screen-printed. It would take a miniature crew of about ten people two months to build all of the pieces required.
(A 3d printed car model built for Hereditary. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Armed with boxes of set dressing for the dioramas, Steve and crew would arrive at the shoot only to discover that they had done their jobs too well. Sometimes the production would ask for some of the details to be removed from the dioramas. Steve recalls being told, “It doesn’t need to be that detailed, it’s a work in progress.”
(Just a small selection of the thousands of pieces of furniture and other details built to flesh out the diorama interiors. Images courtesy Steve Newburn.)
In the end, Steve would be very happy with the way the miniatures were shot and how they were featured so prominently in the film. As for working with Milly Shapiro, Steve would say that the young actor was incredible. And how was it working with Toni Collette? “…Tony is Tony, she's amazing…the performance of a lifetime…” Steve would remember the shoot in a positive way as well. “It was a great experience…”
(The quicksand house miniature. Image courtesy Steve Newburn.)
Hereditary: a Horror Film with a Family Connection
Hereditary is a tour de force of mood and unsettling visuals combined with strong performances delivered by a cast of terrific adult and child actors. Despite its horror film trappings, Hereditary would not be a gore-fest but a film grounded in a strong story sense that goes back decades for inspiration.
Hereditary takes its place at the top of a long line of films that deal with the drama of families coming apart (think the multi-Oscar-winning Ordinary People). It also gives a wink and a nod to previous horror films of the seventies like Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. In the end, Hereditary reveals it’s dramatic and horrific lineage by making us think about how our past experiences can affect our future ones.
Remember, it’s all hereditary.
(Milly Shapiro, Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, and Alex Wolff. Photo by James Minchin, courtesy of A24.)
Hereditary Makeup FX & Miniatures Crew
Steve Newburn - Prosthetic and Makeup Effects Designer & Miniatures Supervisor
Daniel Carrasco Jabalera - Photoshop Designs & Zbrush Clean Up / Repose of actor scans
Prosthetic & Miniature Prep:
Adrian Stansfield
Neil Morrill
Kayla Dobilas
Jaimie Craddock
Jessica Craddock
Additional Miniature Prep:
Colleen Hogan
Angela Campanella
Erin Newburn
Nancy Warren
Additional Prosthetic Prep:
Mike Walsh
Chris Hanson (Utah)
With many thanks for the assistance of Greg Moon (Makeup Dept. Head) and Abigail Spencer (Key Makeup) who applied the day to day prosthetic wounds, cuts, etc.