Keep your eyes out for the short film “My Dinner with Chuck” in the local horror film festivals later this year. In this short you will see our most advanced creature to date: Chuck, the sentient King Crab. There’s also a fun face ripping scene that we provided the FX makeup for.

Synopsys

Mallory is on a first date in a fancy restaurant, but the guy turns out to be a jerk. As the date is taking a turn for the worse, her sea food suddenly starts talking to her. Chuck proves to be more than anyone expected…

Chuck

Meet Chuck. Chuck is an Alaskan King Crab, but not just any King Crab. For this role, the crew needed a crab capable of following the directors instructions, like looking around the restaurant and communicating with his fellow actors. Rather than training an actual King Crab, the team behind “My Dinner with Chuck” reached out to us to have a King Crab replica made.

We built Chuck over the course of 4 months, out of 32 pieces (not counting the inner mechanics!). He is cable controlled, with 20 cables coming out of his stomach. These cables lead to 4 controllers that are operated by 2 puppeteers.

A big thanks to Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada in Toronto is in place! They provided us with access to their King Crabs to learn more about their anatomy. Without them we wouldn’t have been able to make sense of all the little parts that make up a crab’s face.

Want to see Chuck in action? We will post screening dates here and on social media as they are announced.