POSSUM

"The thing is pure nightmare fuel" - den of geek

“Truly horrifying puppet " - bloody disgusting

"A terrifying puppet" - time out

The most horrifying puppet you've ever seen " The Shiznet

“And then there's little Possum himself. Holy Crap”. - Horror talk

“The freakiest horror movie puppet ever commited to film" - short.com

"Possum is the stuff of real nightmares" - film enquiry

Here are some pictures going through the design process on Matthew Hollness’ wonderful Possum.

The most important thing with any design is that it is able to function. so here you can see a quick foam mock up that was done to make sure that the required elements could not only fold up into the bag that was it’s abdomed but also hang on a door looking creepy. As the creature was designed to be made in zbrush this was crucial, as working out how gravity affects objects isn’t zbrush’s strong point.

The design was then sculpted digitally, before the files were sent off to OddStudio in Australia, where Adam Johansen, Damien Martin and their team fabricated the puppet.

Even though I spent months with Matthew honing down the design of the face, when it came to shooting he found it wasn’t quite what he wanted, so a clay head was sculpted quickly and shipped off to set in the next day or so. I have Tristan Schooneraad to thank for that as he moulded and finished the completed sculpt extremely quickly. It was one of those skin of your pants moments that makes filmmaking feel alive and ultimately a lot of fun.

All in all, it’s one of the things I am most proud of, not just because it was an international effort with some friends across the pond, but because the film was made with such great care and scared the pants off so many people.