I've had the idea of revisiting the Shrunken Skeleton for a few years. I even made a point of showing the skeleton escaping at the end of Scarecrow Doomsday (2011), so clearly I've had this as a vague idea since the beginning. I remember initially wanting to take it in a comedic direction, with the skeleton to make its next appearance duct taped back together after his spinal injury. That idea never saw the light of day though, which may have something to do with the original skeleton prop being thrown away without my knowledge. The idea of bringing back the skeleton went dormant after that, especially since I began to shift focus away from that film universe anyway.

 

It wasn't until 2016 that I began to take the idea of a Shrunken Skeleton comeback seriously, and I got to work on a script with Cooper helping me. At first I wanted to call it "Return of the Shrunken Skeleton", but almost immediately I thought it'd be way funnier to call it "Return of the Curse of the Shrunken Skeleton". Yes, so clearly I was never going to try and make this a completely serious movie, which is fair given the goofiness of the original installment. In September of 2016, I filmed the first ever shots for Return of the Curse of the Shrunken Skeleton—the opening shots, starting out outdoors and gradually working their way into the garage, before ultimately settling on a box of Halloween decorations from which the skeleton emerged. I used the Shrunken Skeleton voice again for the first time in perhaps five years, and it became pretty clear that my voice had changed too much to recapture the same voice the skeleton once had. I tried solving this problem by pitching up the recording, though in all subsequent shots in which the skeleton talks, I'd just try speaking in a higher pitch—until, of course, the skeleton grows to full size.

 

After creating the intro sequence in 2016, not much else was done for the movie until the year of 2018. Even the script stayed unfinished until July or August of that year. I suppose there must've been other projects to be done that took my attention away from RotCotSS. But 2018 finally seemed like the right year to make the movie, as I had skipped 2017 in terms of Halloween films, and plus my family and I would be moving out of the house in 2019, so this would be my last chance to make RotCotSS as I'd envisioned it. Having the setting as this particular house was important to the plot, as it was the same house the original Curse of the Shrunken Skeleton (2010) took place in.

 

So anyway, the script was finished at around the same time that of Top Predators 2 (2019) was wrapping up, and filming went from July to October. There were seven primary filming sessions in total within that time frame, but they were done rather sporadically as I was often shifting attention back to Top Predators 2, and also, not everyone was always available when I needed them. The film was very much ahead of schedule at first, with good progress being made as early as summer, but later on we began to fall a bit behind as we scrambled to finish the last last scene in October. Part of the challenge was requiring so many people in this film, with an unprecedented ten cast members (I was beginning to have a serious problem—I was running out of friends to use in the film!). Scene 4, the so-called "Mischief Montage", was filmed in one day but required six people. And believe me, getting the schedules of six people to align is no easy task. Each session went smoothly though, and even when we weren't able to finish a scene in one day, we were able to get it done soon after.

 

Unlike some of my other long movies, RotCotSS wasn't really all that heavy with special effects. The most significant effect was the skeleton himself, and this was rather simple to do. I just filmed the prop in close-up most of the time, manipulating its movements with an offscreen hand. In some cases the camera would be zoomed out more, and the skeleton would then be suspended with fishing line. Certain movements would also require the assistance of a fishing line or two—the shelf climbing scene, a walking shot, and the flashbacks of the skeleton standing around and getting progressively smaller. There were actually three skeleton props—two little ones (because one of them broke mid-shoot), and a large one for the climactic confrontation. In fact, the reason I even came up with the idea of having the skeleton grow back to full size was because we happened to have this large skeleton prop sitting around in the garage. It's actually made one prior appearance, in Fart Fraternity (2015). Digital effects-wise, green screen was rarely used, except in the aforementioned flashback shots, as well as the shot where the skeleton shrinks in Cooper's hands.

 

Another shot that required the use of a green screen was when Nikki in her role as the sorceress transformed the skeleton from his pre-skeletal state to his skeletal state. To achieve the effect, I green screened myself, back turned to the camera, and layered myself on top of the skeleton. Then, every other frame I'd make myself invisible, creating a visually interesting illusion of becoming the skeleton. Yes, that was me playing the pre-skeletal skeleton, but I made sure not to show my face because I wanted to keep the skeleton's original face a mystery. Plus, it allowed me to also play Victim F—the guy who got sprayed in the mouth with cat piss. That was a hilarious sequence to make. The cat piss prop was actually created using yellow watercolor, but in the shot I was sprayed it was of course just plain water. Funnily enough YouTube chose that very moment as the default thumbnail.

 

Anyway, back to special effects talk, I suppose the most effects-heavy scene was the final confrontation in which we see the skeleton grow, shrink, and fire electrical bolts of energy. The growing sequence was done by shining a light behind the skeleton, aiming the camera at its shadow on the wall, and then moving the light towards the prop to make the shadow increase in size. This turned out pretty well I think, and we hadn't even planned it ahead of time. I'm pretty sure Shotaro came up with that idea on set. The electric bolts were drawn in Microsoft Paint of all things, before being chroma keyed and blurred to give them a more realistic appearance. The bolts were accompanied by flashing lights, some of which were digital, and some of which were really there during filming. That whole scene was full of special lighting, such as the Magnaroth crystal's glow and the strobe light effect. This lighting was largely directed by Shotaro.

 

Oh, and an interesting note about the Magnaroth crystal—it was a concept I came up with for a different movie I was planning years ago, tentatively titled "Weird Villains All-Out Assault", and it was to be the mystical object the villains fight for. Back when I came up with that idea, the Magnaroth was called the "Korangar", which is just "ragnarok" spelled backwards.

 

Story-wise, RotCotSS didn't really undergo any major changes over the course of writing, except for the inclusion of Shotaro, whose role was originally going to be filled by  some new character. I remember recommending that Cooper invite his crush to play this role, but obviously that never happened.

 

Well, I think that just about covers the production of this movie, and it goes without saying that it was a big job. But of course, I think all that work paid off, because the finished product is something I am very proud of.