Terrifier 3 (2024)

In the scene where the two actors walk into a basement and see a couple of rats on the floor, the trainer brought the rats out from their containers and placed them on their marks. The production enclosed the set with chicken wire and wooden boards to prevent the rats from escaping. On action, the rats freely roamed the enclosed set, exhibiting natural behaviors. On cut, handlers collected the rats and returned them to their containers.

In the scene where two actors are held captive, and the man places a jar on the table with a severed head with rats crawling on it, prior to filming we inspected the fake prop human head to ensure it was safe for the rats. The fake blood make-up that had been applied to the prop head was safe for the rats to come into contact with. Prior to filming, wranglers carried the rats and placed them in prop cage. They filmed them crawling on the prop head for a few mins.

In the scene where a rat is placed in a tube and crawls into a person’s mouth, this scene was achieved by using a prop dummy that was safe for the rats. Once a couple rats are placed in the tube, the killer slits the person’s throat and the rats spill out of the fake throat. Prior to filming, we checked the set over for potential hazards. We also inspected the prop dummy, plastic tube, and prop cage with the fake human head to ensure it was safe. When production was ready to film the animal action, handlers removed rats from the holding container and placed them in a small carrier. The rats’ action in the first set-up was to walk through the plastic tube toward the dummy’s mouth. On action, the handler removed a rat from the carrying container and released the animal into the opening of the plastic tube. The rat freely walked through the tube toward the dummy’s mouth. When the rat reached the end of the tube, the handler collected the rat. Production added light movement to the dummy to make it look like it was a living person. On cut, handler Steve placed the rat back in the carrying container.