Into The Badlands (1991)

In the film’s opening sequence sheep are milling about when a shot rings out and one is shot and can be seen lying on it’s side stained with blood. This sequence was shot in cuts, using a purchased dead ewe. The live sheep were filmed first, with the sheep being released from a pen and running to another pen where they were fed by wranglers out of camera range. The purchased dead ewe was then positioned on the ground and fake blood was applied to it’s fur. In the second story with the two women, wolves surround and attack their homestead. One wolf first appears at the window. Then a wolf crashes through the glass window. Alma fires at the wolves and two dead wolves can be seen lying on the ground outside. There are more close-up shots of a snarling wolf with a lot of quick shots of an attacking wolf, and Alma shoots again. The wolf attack scene was shot in many cuts. Close-up shots of the wolf’s head were accomplished with the use of a mechanical or articulated wolf’s head. Two wolves were filmed prowling a fenced in area of the set. To get them to jump through the window, food was tossed onto a bench on the other side of the window and they merely jumped through the open window frame to collect the food. The articulated wolf head was used to break through the candy glass window. At no time was there any actual contact between the wolves and people. For the shot of the two wolves lying dead on the ground, wolves were sedated by a veterinarian. The blood on them consisted of corn syrup and food coloring. They were under sedation for a total of five to eight minutes and revived with no ill effect. Our American Humane representative was present throughout. For a scene in which horses run across a shallow river bed, horses were released from a penned in area on one side of the river bed and ran to a grazing area on the other side. The obsessed Barston carries his prized corpse first on the back of a wagon, then, as time passes and as both he and his horse are dehydrated and sun struck, he leaves the wagon behind and places the corpse across his horse’s back. He is staggering in the blistering desert sun and his horse can go no farther and falls over. A trained falling horse accomplished the fall in deep sand, which cushioned the fall. Water and dirt were applied to the horse to simulate sweat. Shaving cream was applied to the horses mouth area to simulate foam. Of course, being a Western, horses are seen throughout, either being ridden or pulling wagons. Other animals seen briefly, primarily as background, are dogs, a lizard and a tarantula.