Werewolf by Night Director Praises Special's Practical Effects

Like the very movies it pulls inspiration from, Werewolf by Night chooses to use practical effects whenever possible. Between a practical suit for the eponymous shape-shifter and other surprise characters, the project's special effects and production designers had their hands full. As it turns out, that was entirely by design largely because Michael Giacchino wanted to do it the old way.

"We did absolutely everything on set as we as much as we could, because from the beginning, I did not want this to be a festival of green or blue screen. I wanted real sets," the filmmaker said in a new chat with Fandom.

As the entire special takes place at a single location in Bloodstone Temple, each of the set pieces was built practically.

"All of those sets are real, everything you see is real. All of those locations, all of that was real," he added. "It's already hard enough to buy into the fact of monsters and all of this, but if we make the environment feel real, not just for the viewer, but for the actors themselves, I thought we had a chance of making this feel like something that could have happened. So any practical effect [we could], we did." 

Not only that, but one of the special's most iconic shots—the one of Jack Russell (Gael Garcia Bernal) transforming into the werewolf as seen in the trailer—was film practically as well, rather than digitally recreated.

"The shot of the [werewolf] transformation, that's all in camera. We really went to great lengths to just do as much that way as we could. So it was just a fun exercise in old school filmmaking," he concluded.

Marvel's official synopsis for the special can be found below:

"On a dark and somber night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader," the synopsis reads. "In a strange and macabre memorial to the leader's life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster."

Werewolf by Night hits Disney+ on October 7th. What other characters do you hope to see appear in the upcoming special? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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