‘Oddity’s Damian McCarthy reveals the origins of his Picket Man

There’s something particular sitting on the coronary heart of Oddity. In a swirl of horror subgenres, this Irish gem gives homicide, vengeance, folklore, and extra. However at its core is a creepy collectible generally known as the Picket Man. 

“It starts with the object,” author/director Damian McCarthy informed Mashable in a Zoom interview, when requested about his inspiration level for Oddity. “I remember reading about Guillermo del Toro years ago, talking about his writing process. He said he really always started with a really strong image, and then almost builds out the story around that.” This machine has served the Irish filmmaker nicely; his earlier function, the supremely spooky Caveat, concerned a toy bunny with human eyes. For his follow-up, McCarthy targeted on a “mishmash of stuff” together with a haunted desk bell, an deserted glass eye, and the Picket Man. 

In a singular alternative, this reporter sat in Mashable’s New York studio with the Picket Man at my facet throughout our interview.

Search for our video to get a way of this expertise — and skim on for extra about Oddity‘s sure-to-be iconic creature. 

The Picket Man was born from legend. 

In Oddity, the Picket Man is introduced as a peculiar current from a blind medium named Darcy (Carolyn Bracken) to her widowed brother-in-law Ted (Gwilym Lee) on the one-year anniversary of her beloved sister’s homicide. A full-sized carving within the form of a screaming bare man, the Picket Man is an immediately arresting determine, creeping out Ted’s new girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton) — although that does not cease Yana from probing his open maw along with her fingers and exploring the holes drilled at the back of his cranium. 

Oddity as an entire was made up of parts McCarthy “cherry-picked from horror tropes.” The Picket Man was impressed by Jewish folklore of the golem, a big clay determine who will be delivered to life via rituals to do the bidding of its creator. McCarthy was additionally drawn to horror media the place dolls come to life, citing The Twilight Zone, Kid’s Play, and Annabelle. However probably the most influential film might have been The Wicker Man. 

“The Wicker Man is a good one,” McCarthy mentioned of the 1973 people horror basic, “Because it’s like, what would be your tool of revenge — or your weapon — be if you were a witch? What folklore are you using?” He was additionally drawn to how the movie refuses to spell out its logic to the viewers, a transfer he employs in Oddity. “There’s stuff in there that’s never really explained. Like, what are these rituals? Or how does this work? It’s a little bit like with the holes in the back of [The Wooden Man’s] head.” Whereas objects might be plucked out from the wood golem, their that means stays mysterious. “It’s just, it hints at something else that’s going on. You know, there’s some ritual or something has been performed off camera in the last week… It’s folklore. And it’s witches. None of it needs to be explained [as long as you] create the sense that somebody knows how this stuff works.” 

The Picket Man was sculpted over Zoom. 

Referencing the video conferencing we had been doing for the interview, McCarthy famous his collaboration with artwork director Paul McDonnell — credited as Oddity‘s Picket Man designer — occurred “just like this.”

McCarthy defined, “We didn’t have much time.” So he despatched some drawings to McDonnell for reference. From there, McDonnell sculpted the dream of the Picket Man into clay, with McCarthy giving notes over a dwell feed. 

“He was sculpting on camera, and it was me going, ‘Okay, cut off his nose. Okay, put his nose back on.'” McCarthy mentioned of the method, noting that due to the time crunch, “it was really done in a one-take kind of design, which is crazy when I think about it for how well it turned out. But that’s really down to Paul’s talent.” 

Key to this creature’s fearful impact is his countenance, frozen in a silent scream. “Having him screaming was always going to be a big [priority],” McCarthy mentioned, noting the pose tied to the movie’s eerie sound design and the chances this sculpt would supply. “We did spend the most time on, that day, how to get that frozen scream right. Because the way he looks, it just meant when we sat down to sound-design it, we were just wide open for possibilities in terms of how he can sound and what’s coming out of him. It was a little bit rushed. But it all worked out great.”

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Additionally essential to the Picket Man’s look was a way of texture. “We never wanted to make him smooth, or look like [he had] been sanded in any way,” McCarthy mentioned, “When I was just first trying to get my head around what he looked like, it was going to be more like something like the Green Knight or, you know, the Ents in The Lord of the Rings, covered in ivy and bark.” 

Whereas the ultimate look provided extra simplicity and fewer greenery, McCarthy discovered this mirrored the creature’s connection to Darcy, whose supernatural sensitivity is tied to touching cursed objects. “It was all about the texture of him,” he mentioned, later noting of the determine sitting subsequent to this reporter, “Look at that on his chest; he’s all knots and things, like this is timber.” 

In truth, his nipples are manufactured from knots within the faux wooden grain. 

The Picket Man calls for respect. 

When the large day got here to deliver the Picket Man on set, McCarthy knew he had no cause to fret. Rushed or not, his creature was right here, complete, and horrific. Recalling that second the Picket Man arrived, he mentioned, “This is going to work because he does look like a definite presence in the room. Wherever I shot from, he was great.” 

Forged and crew shared McCarthy’s awe, drawn to the touch the Picket Man — although by no means roughly. “He’s quite cool to the touch,” the author/director famous. 

Below our studio lights, I touched the pores and skin of the creature as McCarthy appeared on from the Zoom name, and I can affirm. His pores and skin is cool to the contact, even in a sizzling room. 

Because the movie toured festivals, followers additionally had the possibility to rise up shut and private with the Picket Man, as this perturbing prop can be arrange for photograph ops. “People were very respectful of it and taking pictures with it, but never, you know, wrapping it in a headlock or anything,” McCarthy shared. 

May the Picket Man return? 

Followers of Caveat thrilled to see its creepy rabbit featured on the cabinets in Darcy’s oddity store. So, does that imply the Picket Man would possibly pop up in one other McCarthy film? “I don’t have any plans for it at the moment,” McCarthy confessed. However he went on to notice one other Oddity character who would possibly reappear down the highway.

Darcy and her oddity store may encourage different tales of terror, full as it’s of intriguing tchotchkes. “She’s quite an interesting character. Could she have popped up for a scene if you were making another horror film where a guy needed something — a haunted object in his house that needed appraising? That, for me, [would] be kind of fun.”

Do not count on a proper McCarthy Cinematic Universe. 

As famous in my assessment of Oddity, McCarthy makes use of recurring imagery, forged members, or character names cross over from one movie to a different. For instance, Oddity features a character named Olin (Tadhg Murphy) who has a glass eye, whereas a previous quick movie of McCarthy’s known as “How Olin Lost His Eye.” This might-be origin would not match the story within the function movie — however do not name it a retcon. 

“It’s all stuff that interests me,” McCarthy defined. 

He went on to precise a frustration with Hollywood’s dedication to churning out elaborate cinematic universes. “I’m a bit tired of the whole universes and everything connecting,” he mentioned, including, “I think it’s just been overdone.” He fashions his self-references to these in Quentin Tarantino’s films.

“Some of his films had these very loose connections with a surname, like the Vega brothers from Pulp Fiction to Reservoir Dogs. But it’s never made a big deal of it. I like that kind of thing. Are they connected in some way? Are they the same? Could they possibly be in the same world? I think that [ambiguity] is more fun than going, ‘This is definitely a callback to [something else]’ or ‘This is setting up the next thing.’ I find it more interesting. It’s like, yeah, they’re connected because they’re written by the same person.”

I instructed these commonalities are much less shared canon and extra fingerprints of the identical creativeness. “That’s a really good way putting it,” McCarthy mentioned, concluding later, “I’d probably be slow to make direct sequels or prequels or anything like that. But the little connections, the fingerprints of imagination seems a nice idea.”

Oddity opens in theaters July 19.

This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.