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Here's how they made those freaky Fiends move around in Fiend Without a Face
Those Fiends may not have had a face, but boy did they have spirit!
With such fancy special effects in so many films these days, it can be difficult to remember that many years ago, special effects were an art and a labor of love.
For the time period, the special effects in Arthur Crabtree's Fiend Without a Face are surprisingly good. Released in 1958, the film features some pretty heavy action sequences of (SPOILER ALERT) disembodied brains trying to kill people in various ways.
An issue of Fangoria Magazine covered the film's special effects process, largely headed by German special effects artist K. L. Ruppel.
The article explained that in order to make the brains move, they were connected to multiple wires. The wires were then controlled by a system of buttons. "Upon entry [to the studio], a maze of wires attached to small overhead motors all led to a board dotted with press buttons," the article stated. "The entire maze was a mixture of an aircraft control panel and computer."
When the buttons were pressed, the brains were able to move in various actions, including "to raise the head, to make it stand on its tail, to fasten its feelers beneath the wooden boards barricading the windows, to pick up and withdraw a hammer left on the sill."
Some clever camera work was also utilized during the special effects process in order to make it seem like the brains were moving on their own.
"Ruppel had carefully timed the movements of the Fiends to coincide with the camera shutter," the article stated. "The creature models were linked up with the camera in such a way that a single small movement of a Fiend was photographed on two frames of film. When the next movement was activated, another two frames would be shot, and so on."
The finished product made filming look more fluid and continuous. "The results were fantastically realistic."
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