cat head/mouth prop?

[Josh Bass]

I know if this the weirdest thing that's ever been asked here, but hopefully top 10.

I have a short film I've been wanting to make for several years, MIGHT finally do it soon. One thing that's been written in is a cat tearing chunks off a dude's corpse and feeding the chunks to a baby. I swear it's a comedy. Now, the cat eating off the corpse could probably be done with a regular cat and some ham or something, but I don't know about getting a cat to drop food on command. This is zero-budget so no trained animals here. So I guess I need a cat head/mouth prop...something with moving jaws that could pick up or drop stuff. I don't have any idea how to build something like this. I know there are prop animals/puppets and companies that specialize in that, but I'm pretty sure these cost a fortune.

Ideas/thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Justin Kuhn]

https://www.thepuppetstore.com/Realistic-Animal-Puppets-a/267.htm

Not terribly realistic, but maybe something like that could play if it was all bloody and had the right movement and sound effects. Good references would be gremlins and caddyshack to start.

 

[Josh Bass]

It's not the worst idea. I mean ideally it would look similar to the real cat that we'll use where we can. If it has to be ultra close on the jaws so you don't see how stupid it looks, then so be it. Or maybe something clever like a backlit/silhouette kinda deal.

 

[morgan_moore]

Walter klassen has mad stuff

 

[Josh Bass]

Thanks I will look at who/whatever that is.

 

[morgan_moore]

http://www.wkfx.ca/

Can’t see many animals on their site at the moment - I know they did animals - it’s one of the expensive prop places - doubtful in your budget unless they rent

 

[Josh Bass]

Ah. That could have been the one a colleague referred me to.