How The Yellowjackets Team Pulled Off Van's Terrifying Wolf Attack
Human vs. nature has always been a favorite topic for fiction fans. Movies and literature constantly pit animals against humankind and have done so going back to the very beginning of storytelling, and those tend to be the stories that survive! "Moby Dick" is still relevant today, and so is "King Kong," "Jaws" and "Robinson Crusoe." Maybe that's because it's in our DNA to have a healthy fear and respect for nature or maybe it's just the dose of adrenaline we get from a fight-for-survival thriller story.
Whatever the reason, people always perk up when a human has to face down a wild animal, especially if the human is out of their element and it's the animal's domain. The teen characters in "Yellowjackets" are certainly out of their element and it was only a matter of time before the rightful inhabitants of the nature they crash-landed in paid them a visit. In the show, these animals represent life for the starving survivors, but they can also represent a threat of death.
In the first season, one of the young women, Van (Liv Hewson) is attacked by wolves and mauled so badly that everyone assumes she's dead. Spoiler alert, she survived the attack. Van will forever carry the facial scars from the encounter, but the character lives and survives the ordeal, a surprise to both audiences and, believe it or not, the series's creators.
When speaking about filming the attack scene, filmed with real animals, Hewson said it was challenging, but not for the reasons you may think.
Who's a good wolfy?
The scene is very violent, with Hewson's character being mauled viciously on the face and neck. They used a clever little digital trick to pull off the effect of Van's cheek being ripped open. Speaking with Samantha Highfill at EW, Hewson recalled that the effects team painted a tiny greenscreen on their cheek and covered them with realistic stage blood.
Most of the actual attack was accomplished by a stunt performer that was already familiar with the animals used (and they with them), but Hewson did say that the performer and animals were so friendly with each other that it made it harder for the director to get the take. Turns out, wolves are very much like the dogs we all love and when they think they're playing, they have a very specific tell.
"Their tails were wagging a lot. The wolves were like, 'We're at work and we are nailing this and everybody is really happy with us!' But the problem was that they just looked like big happy dogs. It was a real issue that night."
The good news is that they got the footage they needed and nobody, human or animal, was traumatized in the process and the end result is a brutal attack scene that'll make you squirm on your sofa. Now that you've heard this story, make sure to check the tails of all the scary dogs you see in movies. Once you start looking for this tell of a very happy boy, you'll almost always see the big, scary dogs are having a grand old time.