A path of bloody animal carcusses leading to a beat-up old trailer in the woods appears in “(I Remember) When She Loved Me.” Outcast prop master Joe Arnold was in charge of upping the creep factor. Here’s the lowdown on how the set came into being.
Creative vision…slightly awry.
Arnold got direction from executive producer Chris Black that the strung-up dead animals should not be instantly identifiable. Sourcing the initial build from an outside creature effects team, Arnold describes the design as a total misfire: “They looked like dead gremlins.”
The redux.
Enlisting Conor McCullough, Outcast’s special effects makeup artist, the pair ended up sourcing the animal design from old taxidermy, ensuring an authentic look and upping the creepiness exponentially.
The build.
According to Arnold, in an effort to create the creatures, McCullough “took out the stuffing from the taxidermy and soaked the skins to make them workable.” The special effects makeup artist then proceeded to make the spines and ribcages from scratch, using hot glue and rubber silicon material to “build various guts and goo to dress the insides.”
Setting the stage.
The next step was to bring the “critters”—as Arnold refers to them—to set: “We started placing them on designated trees. I remember having a fun time experimenting with how to pose them in the most horrific, sad, pathetic, gruesome ways allowed.”