How Bones Created A Barf-Inducing Severed Head

In the modern TV landscape, there isn’t really anything quite like “Bones.” Not only are there so few shows outside of reality or unscripted TV that can claim they’ve made it to 12 seasons in the streaming era, but so many shows have gone the serialized route. On the flip side, this was very much a network TV show that allowed viewers to pop in and out, catching up with Brennan and Booth for the murder of the week. The creators often went all out to make those murders stand out, particularly when it came to the bodies. To that end, a severed head from the show’s second season was so realistic it was downright barf-worthy.

In the “Bones: The Official Companion” book, authors Paul Ruditis and Hart Hanson go into detail on the severed head of Caroline Epps from the episode “The Man in the Cell.” Crafting this prop was a challenge for the makeup effects team. The team faced many challenges during “Bones,” including mishaps with decapitations, but this was truly a big ask. As makeup effects artist Chris Yagher explained:

“We had the actress come in for a life-casting session, during which we took a mold of her head and neck. We then poured up a plaster positive of her likeness and cleaned up the cast. Next, we molded this plaster positive and created a plaster core that is about half an inch smaller than the actress’ actual head. By placing this core into the newly created head mold and pouring flesh-tinted silicone between the two, we were able to create a ‘skin’ of the actress’ head and neck.”

The actress in question was Christie Lynn Smith, who had previously appeared in the episode “The Blonde in the Game” earlier in season 2. But creating that life-casting was truly just the beginning of the process of crafting this severed head.

Ultimately, the team used some real human parts to bring the prop to life. Yes, really. Given that Fox had issues with the actual bones in “Bones,” that may be surprising but Yagher revealed that lifelike teeth and real human hair were attached to finish the prop.

“With the skin in the upside-down head mold, polyfoam was then poured into the head cavity, to give the skin an understructure, and capped with hand-fabricated severed-neck tissue. After the head was seamed and painted, realistic teeth were placed into the mouth. A wig made from real human hair was attached to the scalp, and then more human hair was individually punched into the head to create the hairline, eyebrows and eyelashes.”

The series crafted some truly gross props over the years even beyond the dead bodies themselves, with Emily Deschanel being particularly creeped out by the coral in “Spaceman in a Crater.” But this lifelike severed head truly got the job done, so much so that creator Hart Hanson nearly puked when he got a little too close for comfort.

“I leaned over to the severed head — I was going to pretend to kiss it. I got too close to it and I threw up in my mouth!”

It’s beyond impressive that something so gross was cooked up for a mainstream network TV show. It’s even more impressive when considering the strict budget and timeline these shows are produced on. It’s not like a movie where there are months worth of production. It’s one episode to the next, with no time to breathe. But when you’re show is about crafting a compelling murder, making those dead body props effective is important.

“Bones” is currently streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.