The Art of Corpse Creation: An Insight into Paul McGuinness’ Craft
“I am churning out bodies left, right and centre.” These striking words come from Paul McGuinness, a distinguished expert in prosthetics and special effects, known for his unique ability to create incredibly lifelike corpses. If you’ve watched a crime drama or a superhero flick recently, there’s a high chance you’ve encountered McGuinness’s artistry. His impressive portfolio includes acclaimed titles such as Bad Sisters, Silent Witness, Wonder Woman, Justice League, and SAS: Rogue Heroes.
“I’ve done so many that I’ve earned the nickname ‘the body man,’” McGuinness shares, reflecting on his journey that began at the BBC in the 1980s. There, he honed his skills in pyrotechnics, mastering everything from simulated weather effects to dramatic explosions. He recalls a pivotal moment: “While working on a Land Rover bomb scene for the first season of Silent Witness, they requested some background dummies. Fortunately, I had a keen interest in anatomy and physiology – I even studied it during night classes when I was just 15 – which enabled me to make them look realistic. That was the starting point of my career in this field.”
For the Apple TV+ dark comedy series Bad Sisters, McGuinness faced the challenge of creating a dismembered body to fit inside a suitcase, which was ultimately disposed of in a lake. “It had to resemble a rotted, semi-skeletal figure,” he explains, showcasing the level of detail and creativity involved in his work.
Growing up in Scotland, McGuinness often felt out of place among his peers who were engrossed in sports. Instead, he found solace in his bedroom, sculpting various figures. “I have photos of myself at age seven with elaborate gashes on my face that I crafted, surrounded by rubber spiders,” he laughs, reminiscing about his childhood.
In the early phases of his career, his towering height of 6ft 5in led him to take on roles as monsters and aliens in iconic shows like Red Dwarf and Doctor Who, since he was already sculpting the characters. One of his first significant body projects involved creating a mold of himself lying on an autopsy table for the series Degrees of Error.
Now, McGuinness’s company maintains a stock of around 150 models, ranging from infants to the elderly, including forms of burnt, bloated, and decomposed bodies, as well as limbs, torsos, heads, and internal organs. “In the past, we used different materials for these creations,” he notes. “Dummies were primarily made from gelatin with polyurethane foam cores. The process involved boiling syrups like glycerol, sorbitol, and gelatin powder. While it produced sturdy models, they were heat sensitive and prone to melting. Back then, the BBC was reluctant to invest in silicone, so we often relied on vinyl molds, which were hazardous to work with.”
In 2001, McGuinness worked on a TV film titled Impact, starring Hugh Bonneville, which depicted the catastrophic explosion of a plane over the English countryside. “We had a 757 model ablaze in a field, with bodies scattered and helicopters hovering above us,” he recalls. Although the film never saw a worldwide release due to the events of 9/11, it provided McGuinness with an opportunity to experiment with silicone that closely resembled human flesh and exhibited remarkable durability. “Given the rain and fire, gelatin bodies would have become slimy in the wet conditions or melted under heat. The silicone proved to be the perfect material, providing a realistic appearance.”
McGuinness’s expertise extends beyond human figures; for Wonder Woman, he meticulously crafted and cast lifelike dead horses for battle scenes, ensuring every detail was accurately represented. For the sequel, he engineered a horse that a young Wonder Woman character could ride, which was affixed to a truck and needed to move and buck along a cliff’s edge.
As demand for his services surged, McGuinness established his own company, Corpse Hire. “I was frequently approached on Friday evenings with urgent requests: ‘Can you provide a woman with her face chopped off or hands removed within a few days?’” he explains. The industry has shifted dramatically; where once he would receive detailed requisition forms months in advance, now he faces tight deadlines with unexpected requests.
Some inquiries can border on the bizarre or even dangerous. “Once, I was contacted by Al Jazeera, but they were vague about the project’s nature,” McGuinness recounts. “They needed a child-sized dummy and said they would send me some reference photos. When I quoted my price, they asked if it would be cheaper if the dummy lacked legs. I agreed, but the conversation went quiet. Six months later, they returned with confirmation to go ahead. It turned out to be part of a documentary in Ghana about ‘spirit children’ who are sacrificed. My dummy was used as a stand-in during a sting operation, which led to the arrest of a spiritual gang. It felt rewarding to contribute to such a significant cause.”
Recent projects include creating stand-in bodies for the series Slow Horses, utilized when characters are unconscious or motionless. He crafted similar replicas for the vampire horror-comedy film The Radleys, where his models depicted Damian Lewis’s character in various scenarios. “We also created a lighter, realistic dummy for A Gentleman In Moscow, where Ewan McGregor’s character needed to carry a young girl to the hospital,” he notes. “And for SAS: Rogue Heroes, we produced numerous dummies since they don’t require feeding or hydration in the desert; they simply remain in the background.”
In the superhero film The Suicide Squad, McGuinness created meticulous replicas of Flash (Ezra Miller) and his girlfriend, along with the 1950s Oldsmobile they were in during a dramatic crash sequence. “The car was crafted from a silicone mold and carbon fiber casts, making it lightweight,” he explains. “We then secured it to an articulated lorry on a track using a robotic arm. The actress portraying the girlfriend was in Los Angeles, so they sent me a scanned image of her head, which I molded and printed to achieve an accurate representation.”
Now, with his growing workload, McGuinness has enlisted the help of his sons. His eldest has taken to sharing videos on TikTok that showcase their body creations, amassing over 300 million views in just a year. “Many viewers, including pathologists, have commented on our videos. One pathologist even reposted the body in the suitcase from Bad Sisters as a demonstration, claiming, ‘this is this and that is that.’ I had to clarify: it’s just a piece of latex and silicone!” He chuckles, reflecting on the surreal nature of his work. “It’s all completely bonkers, but I genuinely love what I do.”
