Current:Home > FinanceThat 'True Detective: Night Country' frozen 'corpsicle' is unforgettable, horrifying art-InfoLens
That 'True Detective: Night Country' frozen 'corpsicle' is unforgettable, horrifying art
View Date:2024-12-23 23:17:10
The "True Detective: Night Country" search for eight missing scientists from Alaska's Tsalal Arctic Research Station ends quickly – but with horrifying results.
Most of the terrified group had inexplicably run into the night, naked, straight into the teeth of a deadly winter storm in the critically acclaimed HBO series (Sundays, 9 EST/PST). The frozen block of bodies, each with faces twisted in agony, is discovered at the end of Episode 1 and revealed in full, unforgettable gruesomeness in this week's second episode.
Ennis, Alaska, police chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), who investigates the mysterious death with state trooper Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), shoots down any mystical explanation for the seemingly supernatural scene.
"There's no Yetis," says Danvers. "Hypothermia can cause delirium. You panic and freeze and, voilà! corpsicle."
'True Detective' Jodie FosterKnew pro boxer Kali Reis was 'the one' to star in Season 4
Corpsicle is the darkly apt name for the grisly image, which becomes even more prominent when Danvers, with the help of chainsaw-wielding officers, moves the entire frozen crime scene to the local hockey rink to examine it as it thaws.
Bringing the apparition to the screen was "an obsession" for "Night Country" writer, director and executive producer Issa López.
"On paper, it reads great in the script, 'This knot of flesh and limbs frozen in a scream.' And they're naked," says López. "But everyone kept asking me, 'How are you going to show this?'"
López had her own "very dark" references, including art depicting 14th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri's "Inferno," which shows the eternally damned writhing in hell. Other inspiration included Renaissance artworks showing twisted bodies, images the Mexican director remembered from her youth of mummified bodies and the "rat king," a term for a group of rats whose tails are bound and entangled in death.
López explained her vision to the "True Detective" production designers and the prosthetics team, Dave and Lou Elsey, who made the sculpture real. "I was like, 'Let's create something that is both horrifying but a piece of art in a way,'" López says.
The specter is so real-looking because it's made with a 3D printer scan of the actors who played the deceased scientists before it was sculpted with oil-based clay and cast in silicone rubber. The flesh color was added and the team "painted in every detail, every single hair, by hand," says López. "That was my personal obsession, that you could look at it so closely and it would look very real."
Reis says the scene was so lifelike in person that it gave her the chills and helped her get into character during scenes shot around the seemingly thawing mass. "This was created so realistically that I could imagine how this would smell," says Reis. "It helped create the atmosphere."
Foster says it was strange meeting the scientist actors when it came time to shoot flashback scenes. "When the real actors came, playing the parts of the people in the snow, that was weird," says Foster. "We had been looking at their faces the whole time."
veryGood! (832)
Related
- Businesses at struggling corner where George Floyd was killed sue Minneapolis
- Demolition of the Parkland classroom building where 17 died in 2018 shooting begins
- The Sphere in Las Vegas really is a 'quantum leap' for live music: Inside the first shows
- Trump once defied the NRA to ban bump stocks. He now says he ‘did nothing’ to restrict guns
- Traveling to Las Vegas? Here Are the Best Black Friday Hotel Deals
- Judge orders retrial of civil case against contractor accused of abuse at Abu Ghraib
- Some Mexican shelters see crowding south of the border as Biden’s asylum ban takes hold
- Tony Evans resignation is yet another controversy for celebrity pastors in USA
- Detroit-area police win appeal over liability in death of woman in custody
- Washington man spends week in jail after trespassing near Yellowstone's Steamboat Geyser
Ranking
- Will Trump’s hush money conviction stand? A judge will rule on the president-elect’s immunity claim
- Amazon reveals the best books of 2024 (so far): The No. 1 pick 'transcends its own genre'
- Tyson Foods suspends company heir, CFO John R. Tyson after arrest for intoxication
- Bridgerton Star Luke Newton Confirms Romance With Dancer Antonia Roumelioti
- Megan Fox Is Pregnant, Expecting Baby With Machine Gun Kelly
- Euro 2024 squads: Full roster for every team
- How hydroponic gardens in schools are bringing fresh produce to students
- Court upholds law taking jurisdiction over mass transit crimes from Philly’s district attorney
Recommendation
-
Nicole Kidman Reveals the Surprising Reason for Starring in NSFW Movie Babygirl
-
San Francisco park where a grandmother was fatally beaten will now have her name
-
Takeaways from Supreme Court ruling: Abortion pill still available but opponents say fight not over
-
Lynn Conway, microchip pioneer who overcame transgender discrimination, dies at 86
-
Get Your Home Holiday-Ready & Decluttered With These Storage Solutions Starting at $14
-
Tejano singer and TV host Johnny Canales, who helped launch Selena’s career, dies
-
Peloton instructor Kendall Toole announces departure: 'See you in the next adventure'
-
TikTokers are eating raw garlic to cure acne in viral videos. Does it actually work?