Vfx Legion Delivers 225+ Fx For 'Cobweb,' Lionsgate'S New Psychological Thriller Directed By Samuel Bodin

VFX Legion Delivers 225+ FX For Cobweb

The Primary Visual Effects Vendor for Director Samuel Bodin’s Psychological Thriller, Legion Delivers over 225 Shotsfor the New Horror Film Out of Lionsgate. The Foreboding Tale Starring Award-Winning Actors Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon), Anthony Starr (The Boys), and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex) - Premiered in Theaters on July 21st.

Burbank, CA /British Columbia, CA: VFX Legion served as the primary visual effects vendor for Cobweb, the psychological thriller directed by Samuel Bodin and written by Chris Thomas Devlin. The global visual effects boutique delivered over 225 shots for Lionsgate's newest horror film, which premiered in theaters on July 21st. 

The story follows Peter (Woody Norman), an eight-year-old terrified by mysterious tapping and eerie whispers coming from inside his bedroom wall. His mother (Lizzy Caplan) and father (Anthony Starr) insist they are just his imagination, but as the boy’s fears intensify, he suspects his parents are hiding a dark secret.

An atmospheric thriller with a fairytale quality, Cobweb called on Legion to help bring the director's vision of his debut feature film to life. Artists crafted invisible effects designed to heighten the horror of the bone-chilling tale as it unfolds inside the family’s eerie old house. Computer-generated gory shots were required for the few visceral moments in the film - along with a range of digital effects - from a 3D spider brought to life with animation, and digital limb replacements to CG environments.

Shot on a soundstage with almost all the action confined to a house built without a ceiling, Cobweb required some tricky set extensions to augment the practical footage. 

Matchmove artists followed the camera as it meandered through hallways, rooms, and secret spaces – tracking its movements, orientation, and field of view, and then recreating identical angles with a virtual camera. CG sections of the ceiling - constructed by artists to blend with the texture and look of the dilapidated building - seamlessly integrated into the real-world environments captured on practical footage.

Cobweb had been in development for a few years before its release. Devlin's screenplay was featured on the prestigious Black List in 2018. Lionsgate acquired the rights to the film and signed French director Samuel Bodin (Marianne, Lazy Company) in 2020. Award-winning actors Anthony Starr (The Boys, Banshee) Liz Caplan (Masters of Sex, Castle Rock), and young Woody Norman (C’mon C’mon, The White Princess) - attached to the project later that year.

Shooting began in Sophia, Bulgaria in November 2020 and was delayed when COVID-19 halted production. Legion, conceived as a fully remote global VFX boutique in 2013, continued to move forward, working with existing footage throughout the pandemic.

Co-founder and VFX supervisor James David Hattin headed up the job, assembling a team of production managers, producers, VFX artists, animators, matte painters, trackers, coordinators, and support talent custom-tailored to the film’s needs.

The visual effects company with studios in Los Angeles, California and British Columbia, Canada, a pioneering collaborative remote pipeline, well-established protocols, and a diverse international collective of talent - in place and evolving for almost a decade – provided Cobweb with the efficiency, scale, and caliber of visual effects resources the film demanded.

The visual effects for Cobweb were all created remotely using a variety of tools, including Autodesk Maya, Foundry Nuke, Maxon Redshift, and SynthEyes.