
Visual Effects
David Allen
Born 1944-10-22 · Los Angeles, California, USA
David W. Allen (October 22, 1944 – August 16, 1999) was an American film and television stop motion model (puppet) animator. Allen provided special effects on such productions as The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Young Sherlock Holmes (for which he earned an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects nomination), Willow and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He also had a long association with producer Charles Band, working on such films as Dolls, Puppet Master, Bride of Re-Animator, Subspecies and Demonic Toys.
Acting credits
NRDocumentary about the 30-year long process of David Allen's The Primevals.
Lost to Time: Unearthing the Primevals
2024
NRRevisit the killer puppets and paranormal researchers, whose brain fluid they craved, with in-depth BTS footage and commentary from the cast and crew.
Videozone: The Making of "Puppet Master II"
1990
7.0Documentary featuring director Joe Dante, screenwriter John Sayles, producer Mike Finnell, stars Dee Wallace Stone, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, and Belinda Balaski.
Unleashing the Beast: Making ‘The Howling’
2003
NRA short documentary featurette featuring interviews with the cast and crew of Full Moon's "Puppet Master"
No Strings Attached: A Behind the Scenes Look at Puppet Master
1989
2.0A reported monster is terrorizing a local community, but the police have no leads. A man who is fed up with the killings calls a handful of his friends and forms a posse to look for the creature. They head to Bronson Canyon to see if they can uncover who's behind all of these deaths.
Zorgon: The H-Bomb Beast From Hell
1972
Behind the camera
6.0A new team of paranormal researchers has come to the hotel to investigate its murder-soaked past; the puppets -- led by a new member, Torch -- shed some light on the matter, as they tunnel, burn, strangle and hook to survive.
Puppet Master II
1990
4.9A computer whiz is yanked into a twisted digital world by the sadistic wizard Mestema and forced through a gauntlet of wild, deadly trials, from mutant goblins to metal mayhem, with his girlfriend’s soul on the line.
The Dungeonmaster
1984
4.9A computer whiz is yanked into a twisted digital world by the sadistic wizard Mestema and forced through a gauntlet of wild, deadly trials, from mutant goblins to metal mayhem, with his girlfriend’s soul on the line.
The Dungeonmaster
1984
6.2Deep in the Himalayas, a group of sherpas kills a gigantic humanoid creature. Convinced that it is the legendary Yeti, Dr. Claire Collier organizes an expedition with her former student Matt Connor and hunter Rondo Montana, among others, to search for more specimens. But what awaits them is something that none of them could have imagined. A colorful fusion of real image and stop-motion that is reminiscent of fantastic films from the 1980s.
The Primevals
2023
NRA WWI zeppelin is attacked by pterodactyls, sending it crashing into a mysterious land populated by vikings and dinosaurs and ruled by violent lizard men.
Raiders of the Stone Ring
1968
NRA WWI zeppelin is attacked by pterodactyls, sending it crashing into a mysterious land populated by vikings and dinosaurs and ruled by violent lizard men.
Raiders of the Stone Ring
1968
2.0A gentle giant lives in a small village and has a beautiful flower garden where the children of the town play. In the giant's house rests a small treasure box. Every so often, the giant, asks the children a riddle, "What do you think is the one thing that makes people so very special?" If one of the children answers correctly the giant's magic treasure box will open. As time goes on one of the giants favorite children, Hans, gives the box to a greedy wizard. The giant goes after the box and brings it back as Hans learns an important lesson which suddenly opens the box.
The Magic Treasure
2006
NRHere is the test footage by the late, but great David Allen recreating the climax from the original King Kong (1933) at Cascade Pictures. This was made when there were rumours of a remake coming around the corner (mainly by Britain's Hammer Films). Also, there were plans to re-release that during the film's 1972 re-release (in all its uncut glory), the color scene popped up. This ended up on Cascade's demo reel and in 1974, it winded up on the Volkswagen commercial (which ran for a short period time for a few reasons. One of them was that people thought that the car was too big and the other was that the ape scared the daughter of the head of Volkswagen). David Allen would create and animate Kong again for the Imax film Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996).
King Kong Color Test Footage
1971
NRTest footage of David Allen's Taurus puppet. The beast looks like a combination between an ape and a bulldog. The test footage was shot on 16mm film (shot on a Bolex Camera and had a Motion-Analysis Film Projector) and was copying the climax to the original King Kong.
Taurus Test Footage
1965