House IV (1992)
Animal Action
While rummaging through some old things Laurel discovers a ceramic lamp in the shape of a dog. She names the dog Algernon and keeps the lamp at her bedside. When Laurel’s endangered, the lamp comes to life in the form of a Rottweiler and chases two thugs through a 2nd floor window. As the dog follows the thugs to the ground he changes back into a lamp which shatters as it lands. The real dog wore a lamp shade that was fitted like a hat with a chin strap, which our representative checked to make sure that it was not binding. The window that the thugs jumped through was made of harmless candy-glass. The glass was already broken at the time the dog jumped through it. A padded platform was constructed for the dog to land on after jumping through the window to shorten the actual jump to only a few feet. The dog was then filmed from outside the house to get a reverse shot of his coming through the window. This scene was filmed in cuts and the platform was never visible. The lamp was substituted for the dog in one shot and the magic occurred in the editing room. A rat is seen briefly in the basement. Oil flowing from a can turns into a snake and a box of matches turns into a box of bugs also with the help of film editing.
