The Slime in Bathtub Attack is a solid manifestation sent by Vigo to try and kidnap Oscar.
History[]
While Dana Barrett was attempting to give her child Oscar a bath, she turned on the taps and started running bath water. While her back was turned and she began undressing Oscar, the water changed and the Psychomagnotheric Slime began brewing into the bath. It then rose as a huge, pink blob. Dana, still oblivious, removed her own shirt to her white bra, finally turning to see the tub slime rising. It lunged for Oscar, but the tub being bolted down kept it immobile for the most part. In a panic, Dana fled with her baby and headed over to Peter's apartment. Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz investigated the bathroom and only found some slime residue.
Behind the Scenes[]
The Slime in the Bathtub went through several concepts. While trying to figure out what would kidnap Oscar from Peter's apartment, the concept of the tub came up.[1] Initially, the tub was going to turn into a porcelain version of Audrey II from "Little Shop of Horrors." Then it would turn into the beginning of an endless road then a bubble bath monster. Dana Barrett would put bubble bath in the tub and turn her back. The bubble bath would rise up to tower over Dana and the eyes of a dark shape within it open up. The lensing effect used would make all the bubbles look like eyes, too. Dana would panic and throw a hairdryer into the tub. The electricity would disperse the bubbles then the two eyes would crumble into cinders and disappear down the drain. Ultimately, it became just slime that fills the tub and the slime rises up, prompting Dana to run. Ivan Reitman decided the slime should turn into a creature inside the tub.[2]
A tub was made out of white silicone to look like it was porcelain and so it could bend. The tub creature was made out of dielectric gel - a Dow Corning breast implant material - reinforced with china silk and spandex. The slime creature would be operated like a hand puppet. Tom Floutz put his arm up through the bottom of the tub and operate the creature. The slime was dumped on the creature. Floutz had to endure and let the slime pour down on him, too. A maw-shaped piece of fiberglass was placed inside the puppet and attached to a vacuum tub in order to simulate a mouth. The tub and slime creature were filmed against a bluescreen. There wasn't enough of a pay off so John Van Vliet of Available Light did a cel animation of an animated tongue for the last shot for about 25 frames.[3][4][5][6]
Trivia[]
- In the September 29, 1988 draft of Ghostbusters II, on page 59, the slime coalesces into a large frog-like creature. Lane Walker, the love interest in early drafts, starts to step into the tub and sees the creature. She plugs in a hairdryer, turns it on, and drops it in the tub, electrocuting the creature then she flees.
- In the November 27, 1988 and February 27, 1989 drafts:
- On page 68, Dana brings Oscar to the bathroom. She is wearing a robe over her nightgown. She turns on the tap water and doesn't notice it switch to slime. She turns off the faucet without looking in the tub and squirts in bubble bath. As she lowers Oscar, the tub starts to close around him like a big mouth.
- On page 69, the tub convulses and vomits buckets of slime.
- When Ivan Reitman first read the Slime in Bathtub attack scene, it reminded him of when he worked on David Cronenberg's first movie "Shivers" which involved a woman getting attacked in her bathroom by a parasite monster.[7]
- Dana's bathroom was shot on set at Burbank Studios in Los Angeles but the actual slime in the tub was filmed at ILM.
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References[]
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 29. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "We also thought that maybe it could be something inside Peter's bedroom that would come to life. That notion eventually evolved into the tub creature and the idea of having the tub move around."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 22-23. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Many different ideas were discussed for the tub monster. It went from being somewhere where the tub turns into a porcelain version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors to the tub becoming the beginning of a long road that goes down forever. Perhaps the most cartoonish gag was one involving a bubble bath monster. In that incarnation, Dana put bubble bath into the tub and then turned away. While she has her back turned, the mountain of bubbles get impossibly high behind her and then--when it is up over her shoulder--a dark shape comes up inside it and these eyes open up. With all the bubbles, the lensing effect makes it look like there are hundreds of eyes around this dark shape. When Dana turns back around, the creature opens a big maw and scares her. She drops an electric hair dryer into the tub and there's a big electronic snap. All the bubbles go pop, and what's left is a tiny little creature with two great big eyes that crumbles into cinders and goes down the drain. Ultimately, Ivan decided that the slime itself should turn into a creature inside the tub."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 21 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Creature crew members Marc Thorpe and Wim Van Thillo prepare for a scene with the tub monster that threatens Dana and her baby as they are about to bathe. The slime creature – fashioned from dielectric gel – was hand-puppeteered from below the half-scale silicone tub and enhanced with cel animation provided by Animation Light."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "We made a tub out of white silicone which looked pretty much like real porcelain when it was all slimed up. It also bent well. Then we made the creature itself out of dielectric gel--a Dow Corning breast implant material. The gel is transparent and tends to be somewhat flimsy, so we reinforced it with china silk and spandex. Since this was designed to work as a hand puppet, Tom Floutz was able to put his arm up through the bottom of the tub from below and operate the creature. Then we dumped slime down over the puppet, and poor Tom had to stay down below the tub while all this gunk dripped down on him."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "To give the creature a mouth, a maw-shaped piece of fiberglass was placed inside the puppet and attached to a vacuum tube. At the right moment, the vacuum was triggered to suck the outer material down into the maw shape and thereby form the mouth."
- ↑ Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 23. Cinefex, USA. Dennis Muren says: "Initially, the scene called for the tub to fill with slime, the slime to come to life and lift up, and then Dana would run out of the room. But that was not enough of a payoff, because we had four or five shots in the sequence and the last one was not that much different than the previous ones. Ivan asked what we could do to make a creature come out of this slime. So we went back and had our slime creature come out again and had the tub move around some more, but that still was not quite enough. Then Ivan came up with an idea. 'Why not have it stick out its tongue on the last shot?' That was really what it needed. Each succeeding shot gave you more than the last, and the final one topped them all. Since we were really too busy to handle anything more at the time, John Van Vliet of Available Light did an animated tongue that comes out in the last shot for about twenty-five frames ."
- ↑ Ivan Reitman (2019). Ghostbusters II- Commentary (2019) (Blu-ray ts. 44:55-45:21). Sony Home Entertainment. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember thinking about this scene, Dan, because I did David Cronenberg's first movie, called Shivers, in which a woman in this apartment gets attacked you know by this parasite monster. And there was just something so horrific about being attacked in your own bathtub that I thought, well we should try something like this in this comedy."
Gallery[]
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Behind the Scenes[]
