Exclusives
[Exclusive] Douglas Tait Talks Playing the Werewolf in ‘Annabelle Comes Home’ and Shares Images of the Suit!
With a clever Night at the Museum-style concept, Gary Dauberman’s Annabelle Comes Home blows the Conjuring Universe wide open, unleashing all sorts of brand new entities from the Pandora’s box that is the Warren family’s home museum of cursed objects. Perhaps most notably, this latest spinoff brings a freakin’ werewolf demon into the franchise!
Referred to by Dauberman as the “Hellhound,” the werewolf is actually based on a real-life case investigated by Ed and Lorraine Warren, wherein a man was allegedly possessed by the spirit of a werewolf. According to the Warrens, they exorcised the demonic force from the body of William Ramsey back in the 1980s, which was the subject of one of their books.
While many fans seem to think that the werewolf in Annabelle Comes Home was entirely computer-generated, the beastly creature was actually played by stuntman/creature performer Douglas Tait, who notably played Jason Voorhees in the final moments of Freddy vs. Jason and more recently became the boar-like Gruagach in Neil Marshall’s Hellboy!
“It’s not CGI,” Tait told us this week. “There is a part where I come out of the bush and they added some effect around my Werewolf head, but the whole suit and head was practical.”
Tait continued, “The practical suit was made by Justin Raleigh and the team at Fractured FX, and It was incredible. The hair was hand punched, and it had an animatronic head with 2 puppeteers off set timing my movements with the eyes and mouth.”
When we asked Tait how he landed the role of the Hellhound, he explained to us, “[Recently] it was between me and another actor for a lead role in a TV series being produced by James Wan and his company Atomic Monster. I didn’t get the role, but the head of Atomic Monster, Michael Clear called me and told me that we will definitely be working together in the future. True to his word, he called me a few months later and offered me the Werewolf role. I did not have to audition for it.”
“One of my bucket lists was to work with James Wan, and I can check that off my list now,” Tait added. “James and director Gary Dauberman are geniuses. There is a reason why their movies are so good and I experienced it first hand. They are huge fans of practical monsters and practical FX, and that is another reason why their films are so scary, and audiences can connect with them. My character was all practical FX with a slight CGI enhancement. Justin Raleigh, the owner of Fractured FX does all of James Wan’s films and their work is absolutely stunning.”
Annabelle Comes Home is full of spinoff potential, and a solo film for the Hellhound is always on the table if the character proves popular enough. Tait would love to come back.
“This team is incredible to work with and I am so thrilled to be a part of The Conjuring Universe,” he told us.
Meet the Hellhound in Annabelle Comes Home, now playing in theaters!
A hospital stay grows more nerve-frazzling when memory loss distorts reality in our exclusive clip from This Tempting Madness, inspired by a true story.
The mind-bending psychological thriller will be released in select theaters and on demand on June 12 via Vertical.
Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”) stars as Mia, who awakens from a coma, grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions and her perception of reality.
In This Tempting Madness, “Mia awakens from a coma grievously injured, her memory fractured. As she puts the pieces of her past together, she starts to question her own actions, and her perception of reality.”
Jennifer E. Montgomery makes her feature directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with director of photography Andrew Davis, inspired by Montgomery’s first-hand experience with tragedy involving her best friend.
“Months before the incident, there were signals that her world was unraveling,” says Montgomery. “I could feel the pressure building, though I didn’t know what form it would take. I never could have known what violence would come, and I certainly never imagined making a film about it.”
Austin Stowell (“NCIS: Origins”), Suraj Sharma (Happy Death Day 2U), Mojean Aria (Reminiscence), Amol Shah (“For All Mankind”), and Zenobia Shroff (“Ms. Marvel”) round out the cast.
Smoke Jumper Films and Mango Monster Productions produce in association with Catchlight Studios (Heretic, The Blackening).
This Tempting Madness is rated R for “language, violence/bloody images, and brief sexuality.”
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