‘Teacup’ Keeps Things Practical (and Grisly) for Maximum Horror
To quote star Yvonne Strahovski, the effects on new Peacock horror series “Teacup” are “so gross and amazing.” As viewers of the first two episodes discovered (along with the three families trapped together in the show), crossing a seemingly arbitrary line has serious consequences. As in, your body rips itself open.
“You basically turn inside out; your bones are pulled and reconstituted, being pulled towards the line,” KNB EFX makeup supervisor Carey Jones told IndieWire. “[Creator Ian McCulloch] sent me a bible in terms of the general feel of things, what things should look like, should feel like, and the texture and the flavor of it. Once I read that, I was drawn in, because it was something that I haven’t done before. I’m very much a nerd of old-school moviemaking and things like that, and this had that feel to it.”
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Viewers got to see that for themselves during the two-episode “Teacup” premiere October 10, when a frightened Claire tries to run home and finds herself on the wrong side of the line (and her bones on the wrong side of her skin). The sequence is grisly and disturbing in an almost primal way, perfectly setting up the stakes for the rest of the characters.
In the video above, the creative team behind “Teacup” — including creator and showrunner Ian McCullough and executive producer James Wan, plus Strahovski and co-star Scott Speedman — talk about bringing the terrifying story to life and adapting a sprawling novel into a tighter, more concentrated story. But none of it would work if we don’t believe in the reality of the world and the horror of what happens when you cross the line.
“Early on, we all decided that we wanted to do practical effects, special effects makeup, prosthetic effects, and then using CGI to enhance it,” Wan said in the video. “We literally just sort of reverted back to just the fan kids that we are.”
“A lot of the inspirations where taken from nature, when you see a tree reaching for sunlight, which is their source of life,” executive producer and director Kevin Tancharoen added. “So for this, the bones are reaching out toward the blue line, which is the source of life for them.”
Told by McCulloch to “blue sky it,” Jones and the team at KNB sketched out some initial designs to start a dialogue with the “Teacup” creatives, but the finalized drawings came together surprisingly quickly in the photorealistic stage. “When it came back to me, there weren’t a ton of changes at all,” Jones said. “Which was great, and then we were off to the process of actually creating it.”
Luckily, Jones pointed out, he was brought into the process early enough to ensure there were very few unexpected delays. “[The team] brought me on early enough to where we could have conversations and they let me get to work,” Jones said. “A lot of times we’re brought in after the pre-production is done and you’re rushing. They also did the homework and knew what that process was. We figured out the design before they got to set, did location scouting, did their casting, all that, which like I said, it’s rare.”
That extra time paid off — as did having years of experience. Knowing the time crunch of a TV series, Jones prioritized pre-prepping as much as possible for the actors. “We do a lot of paint work on the actual appliance before it’s sent out, so that takes time off of application,” he said. “There’s a lot of tricks to the trade. And the one thing that we do know is time on set is a commodity. So whenever we design makeups, we always try to take that into consideration.A lot of it was just stuff that [the actor] would just put on, like almost a costume underneath clothing, and then pre-painted arm pieces would slide on and we glued down edges. After doing this for years, you come up with ideas that make the application a bit more efficient.”
New episodes of “Teacup” premiere Thursdays on Peacock through the October 31 finale.
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