Turning the Body Inside Out (Interview)

To quote star Yvonne Strahovski, the fallout from new Peacock horror series Teacup is “so disgusting and astonishing.” As viewers of the first two episodes discovered (along with the three families trapped together in the series), crossing a seemingly arbitrary line has serious consequences. Like your body is tearing itself apart.

“Basically you turn inside out; Her bones are pulled and rebuilt and pulled to the line,” Carey Jones, makeup supervisor at KNB EFX, told IndieWire. “(Creator Ian McCulloch) sent me a bible about the general feel of things, about how things should look, how they should feel, and the texture and taste of it.” When I read that, I was fascinated, because it was something I had never done before. I'm a real nerd when it comes to old-school filmmaking and things like that, and this film had that feeling.”

Viewers saw this for themselves in the Oct. 10 premiere of the two-part series “Teacup,” when a frightened Claire tries to run home and finds herself on the wrong side of the border (and her bones on the wrong side of her skin ). The sequence is grisly and disturbing in an almost primal way and perfectly sets the stage for the rest of the characters.

In the video above, the creative team behind “Teacup” — including creator and showrunner Ian McCullough and executive producer James Wan, as well as Strahovski and co-star Scott Speedman — talk about bringing the horrific tale to life, adapting a sprawling novel into a tighter version , more focused story. But none of this would work if we didn't believe in the reality of the world and the horror of what happens when you cross the line.

“Early on, we all decided that we wanted to do practical effects, special effects makeup and prosthetic effects and then enhance them with CGI,” Wan said in the video. “We have literally returned to being the fan children we are.”

“A lot of inspiration comes from nature, when you see a tree reaching for sunlight, which is its source of life,” added executive producer and director Kevin Tancharoen. “The bones stretch out towards the blue line, which is the source of life for them.”

Encouraging Jones and the KNB team to “light up the sky,” McCulloch sketched some initial designs to begin a dialogue with the “Teacup” creatives, but the final drawings came together surprisingly quickly in the photorealistic phase. “When it came back to me, there weren’t any big changes at all,” Jones said. “That was great, and then we got down to actually creating it.”

Fortunately, Jones emphasized, he was involved early enough in the process to ensure there were very few unexpected delays. “(The team) got me there early enough where we could have conversations and they let me start working,” Jones said. “We are often brought in after pre-production is complete and there is a rush. They also did the homework and knew how this process worked. We came up with the design before we went on set, picked the locations, did the casting and all that, which, as I said, is rare.”

This extra time paid off – as did the years of experience. Jones was aware of the time constraints of a television series and placed great emphasis on preparing the actors as much as possible. “We do a lot of painting on the actual unit before it ships, so it takes some time to apply,” he said. “Trading has many tricks. And the one thing we know is that time on set is a commodity. When we design makeup, we always try to take this into account. A lot of it was just stuff that (the actor) just put on, almost like a costume underneath the clothes, and then pre-painted arm pieces went over the top and we glued the edges in place. After doing this for years, you come up with ideas that make the application a little more efficient.”

New episodes of “Teacup” premiere Thursdays on Peacock until the finale on October 31st.