Top SFX shots No.39: Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

Very small-scale prop-work with moving parts is an incredible challenge often overcome by using an oversized environment. That trick was used to bring to life the plant-based alien life forms which arrive in spore-clouds to take over humanity in Philip Kaufman's atmospheric remake of the 1956 horror and sci-fi classic. The expansion of the tendrils is a reverse-effect (by SFX leader Howard Preston) that works because of the constancy of the zoom, and these are very convincing - if unwelcome - flora.

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