HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness is, among other things, a cautionary tale. Explorers discover the realm of what they dub the “Elder Things,” otherworldly beings who created a sophisticated and beautiful civilization on Earth by engineering monstrous “shoggoths” to serve their grand visions. With every need served, the civilization degraded, until its citizens met their doom at the amoebic appendages of the horrors they had created but failed to control.
Behold the eldritch terror of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ special effects
“They break the standard Golden Ratio Triangle which nearly all human faces have, from the nose to the corner of the mouth.”
“They break the standard Golden Ratio Triangle which nearly all human faces have, from the nose to the corner of the mouth.”
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Where the Elder Things captured this process in subterranean friezes, I imagine that future explorers will look instead to this Wired video about creating the special effects behind this year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. Instead of shoggoths, they will discover the hulking forms of giant turtles, lips pulled back in motion-captured grins. And behind it all, that hideous, rumbling piping...
...not “Tekeli-li,” but “Cowabunga.”
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