‘Wolf Man’ Needed 650 Prosthetic Pieces and 5 Stages to Transform Christopher Abbott — All In-Camera

With “Wolf Man,” director Leigh Whannell (“The Invisible Man”) wanted a grounded, real-world, post-COVID reinvention of the classic Universal monster. Instead of the traditional lupine curse and hairy transformation every full moon, he envisioned it attacking the victim like a virus in progressive stages. Physically, he was drawn more to David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” than John Landis’ “An American Werewolf in London.”

Whannell’s “Wolf Man” finds stay-at-home dad Blake (Christopher Abbott) being attacked by an unseen creature when returning to his family farmhouse with wife Charlotte (Julie Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). They barricade themselves inside; however, by nightfall, Blake starts behaving strangely, with deteriorating skin and wounds that won’t heal. He slowly transforms into something unrecognizable that could pose a threat to his wife and daughter.

Whannell tapped two-time Oscar-nominated prosthetic designer Arjen Tuiten (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) to create the nuanced look with practical effects. With the aid of soft silicone prosthetics, several contact lenses, and canine teeth, the transformation marks Blake’s gradual descent into a beast.

“When I first met Leigh, he spoke about being locked up during COVID and viewing [the transformation] as an infection,” Tuiten told IndieWire. “He wanted it grounded in reality, the rawness of it, how it would work today with the bewildered man in the forest, where this folklore started.”

‘Wolf Man’Photo Credit: Nicola Dove/Universal Pictures

Tuiten, who borrowed the makeup case of legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce (“The Wolf Man”) from living legend Rick Baker to keep by his side, rewatched “The Fly” for reference. He marveled once again at the Oscar-winning work of makeup effects artists Chris Walas and Stephan Dupuis.

Like Jeff Goldblum’s Brundlefly,  every time we see Blake, he looks different. “It’s the slow progression,” Tuiten said. “Once you have it, you’re doomed. Leigh was very keen on doing it all in-camera, every makeup look, every prosthetic.” But it was important to never lose sight of Blake’s humanity.

“So we met, he expressed what he wanted, and I just did what my gut told me,” Tuiten continued. “I designed a sculpt 30 and a half-foot-long of Blake on the floor, against the wall, rather sad and tragic,  and him losing his family and they’re losing their dad. I sent it to Leigh one night, and the next morning, he emailed me. And he said, ‘You absolutely nailed it.'”

The prosthetic work on Abbott by Tuiten and his crew of 25 artists was divided into five stages. But first, hair and makeup designer Jane O’Kane (“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) applied transitional stages of makeup to make him look paler. To make it look gradual, she tanned the actor and reverted to his normal skin for the transition.

‘Wolf Man’Photo Credit: Nicola Dove/Univer

For stage one, Tuiten gave Abbott very thin cheek and forehead prosthetics, dental veneers with infected gums, and a three-quarter wig with receding hairlines to simulate the first hair loss. “ The first stage happens when we see him in the basement, where his wife is making the radio calls, and he starts peeing his pants,” Tuiten explained. “And he has a kind of a pockmarked [early] transformation. We have the infected wound on his arm, he loses his molar, he pulls his hair out of his head, and we see his fingers on the bed.”

Stage two consists of slightly heavier facial and hand prosthetics, dental pieces, contact lenses, subtle facial hair, thinned-out wig work, and a forehead piece, and small neck pieces. “Going into stage two, when he’s on top of the greenhouse and inside the house, he’s starting to fall in and out and not understanding his wife and daughter,” added Tuiten.

In stage three, Blake’s teeth get sharper, his eyes mutate, and his chest and hands evolve with heavier body, arm, hand, and facial prosthetics. This stage also involved fully animatronic replicas of Abbott’s head and hand to simulate bones and jaw breaking under Blake’s skin.  

Meanwhile, in stages four and five, when the transformation grows more intense and the two anatomies try to mix, Abbott needed six hours in the makeup chair for heavier prosthetics. “When I first met Christopher, I was a little worried,” Tuiten said, “because I wasn’t sure if he fully comprehended what this was going to take every morning.

“But it was great to work with him,” he continued. “Christopher switched [into character] as soon as he showed up on location and went into monk mode for those six hours in the chair. I needed him to come to makeup and act through it rather than being covered up. I wanted to make sure he could do his thing, where this needed to be an emotional piece.”

The fact that this was all done in-camera, including the animatronic head (which, by default, would’ve been done digitally) is a testament to the director’s old-school ethos. “People don’t make films like this with so many in-camera [makeup] effects,” said Tuiten. “ Our pre-production time was short already due to our actors and writers strikes, so my build time got cut in half, pretty much.

“But I think what separates this from most films in recent years is that the transformations, whether it’s any creature, is done digitally [with VFX],” he continued. “And my hope is that in the coming years, people will appreciate what we’ve done, making 650 prosthetics, with everything done in-camera.”