n 1985, brothers James and Jim
Thomas penned a film script, The
Hunter, about an otherworldly
creature armed with near-magical
powers of camouflage. The script
has a counter-intuitive take on the
concept of invisibility. Rather than
a mere blank spot, the Hunter
exists as traces of motion without
coherent form, designed to
produce “a dizzying, subliminal
experience” and “an intensely
visual, highly emotional
confrontation for the viewer.”
During production, special effects
teams used ‘inline mattes’ to
superimpose concentric images of
background foliage onto an actor.
This fake translucency turns the
landscape itself into an aggressor:
when the Hunter or, as we know
him today, the Predator finally
attacks, it’s “as if the entire wall
of the jungle were rushing in”.
maropa
(Maropa)
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