Writer/director Bradley Rust Gray’s JACK & DIANE (debuting today on VOD from Magnolia Pictures) is an intense relationship drama with a small but crucial creature component. We’ve got an exclusive pic of the movie’s monster, along with comments from its creator, makeup FX veteran Gabe Bartalos.

The movie stars Riley Keough and KILLER JOE’s Juno Temple as New York City teenagers (Keough’s Jack is street-smart, Temple’s Diane is sheltered) who meet by chance and fall into an emotionally tumultuous romance; the scary side of falling in love is visualized in brief scenes with Bartalos’ creation. When Gray approached the artist about making the monster, “I thought it was very cool that it wasn’t primarily an effects film, based around the creature,” Bartalos tells Fango. “The narrative was pretty neat, and obviously very contemporary, touching upon modern youthful lifestyles. But then in the middle of this ‘normal’ film, it descends into this no-apology creature stuff—this girl’s rage is manifested three-dimensionally, and the audience sees this embodiment of her id in this slobbering, deformed monster. So I signed up right away [laughs].”

Bartalos also contributed some physical damage Keough’s character suffers in the film. “Jack has her tooth knocked out in the film, and it has this progressive negative cycle. We did a dental plate for her, which was very subtle, but in close-ups it’s there—you see the loss of the tooth—as well as designing the progression of her bruising. When she gets gored up, we did a body cast of her and her leg so we could make replicas for the carnage. That’s always a great way to break the ice.”

JACK & DIANE, which also features visceral stop-motion sequences by the celebrated Quay Brothers, hits theaters November 2; watch the trailer below, see the official website, and pick up Fango #318, on sale next month, for further interviews with Bartalos and Gray.

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