10 Small Details That Make John Carpenter's The Thing Perfect
2. The Cries Of The Dogs
This film is not a great one for dog lovers.
The first big reveal of the Dog-Thing comes at the expense of some very gorgeous Huskies, trapped in a cage with the monster that wants to devour and assimilate them. The flamethrower that rips through Stan Winston's design (Rob Bottin was simply unable to keep up with all of the demands while filming and Winston came on board to help) seems to put an end to the creature, thus saving the dogs. Happy ending?
The capture the sounds of the Dog-Thing in the cage, sound editor Colin Mouat stepped in with a very novel approach. He worked to create the wall of sound that came from the creature, something described as a hellish noise, terrifying to hear. To do this, he rounded up all of the dogs in his neighbourhood inside his house.
Then, donning a trenchcoat and a hat, he started to slowly walk around the building, allowing them to see him. They became agitated and so he continued, tapping on the glass as he went, driving the animals up into a frenzy. The noise that then came from these dogs was recorded and mixed together even deeper, eventually becoming the dreadful wailing heard in the film.
One can only hope he stood well back when opening the doors to his house afterwards.