How ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Created That Frozen Corpse Pile, Featuring Gouged Eyes and More Graphic Injuries
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor At the end of “True Detective Night Country” episode 1, a frozen block of naked dead bodies — seven to be precise, are discovered.
Their faces and a few limbs are sticking out of the ice, and their expressions are that of sheer terror. Ennis Police Department chief Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster), who has been investigating the disappearance of several researchers from the Tsalal Arctic Research Station, dubs the discovery a “corpsicle.” In Episode 2, the corpsicle is excavated and transferred to an ice rink.
Prosthetics designers Lou and Dave Elsey were in charge of constructing the giant set piece, taking inspiration from the grouping of rats known as a “rat king,” sculptures and illustrations such as those in “Dante’s Inferno.” It began with discussions with showrunner Issa López about what the conglomeration would look like and what the position of the bodies would be.
She didn’t want a pile of dead bodies. “It was about telling a story of what these guys went through. She (Issa) wanted individual stories told within this mass of flesh,” says Lou Elsey.
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