• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • FFS PRODUCTIONS
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Horrifying behind the scenes footage from Titanic movie set shows how they made frozen corpses

Home> Entertainment> Film

Published 16:30 5 Oct 2025 GMT+1

Horrifying behind the scenes footage from Titanic movie set shows how they made frozen corpses

No extras were frozen when filming these scenes

Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper

Creepy behind-the-scenes footage has revealed exactly how they were able to make it appear as though people had frozen to death in the Atlantic Ocean in Titanic.

By now, you're probably all more than aware of what goes down in James Cameron's Oscar-winning classic, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as star-crossed lovers whose whirlwind romance is cut short by their ship crashing into an iceberg and sinking to the bottom of the sea.

Although Jack and Rose exist only in fiction, the events onboard the HMS Titanic during her first and only voyage are very much real.

Advert

The Titanic would never make it to New York City, instead finding a watery grave in the North Atlantic.

It's estimated that anywhere between 1,490 and 1,635 of the 3,327 souls onboard the ship died in disaster – with Cameron depicting the events in an incredibly chilling fashion.

So, how did they do it?

One of the film's more creepy moments (Paramount Pictures)
One of the film's more creepy moments (Paramount Pictures)

How did they make the frozen corpses in Titanic?

Like the atomic explosion in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, Cameron and co weren't allowed to chuck actual bodies in the Atlantic Ocean and film them, as that would be both highly unethical and illegal.

Advert

But to make audiences feel as though they were looking at the real thing, the make-up department were required to get pretty creative. According to footage captured behind-the-scenes, extras had wax added to their hair to make it look as though there was ice growing on it.

The actors' faces were then smothered in spirit gum and gelatin crystals, with extra Ellen Mower revealing the mix would expand when it came into contact with water, creating the eerie look.

Practice staying completely still while floating about in the water and voila, you have a bunch of believably dead corpses.

Watch a clip of the process below:

The deathly make-up wasn't the only clever trick Cameron utilised in the pre-CGI era either, with crews building miniature sets to film some of the most iconic scenes.

Remember the moment where water was seen surging through the ship's halls as it plunged deeper into the Atlantic? Well that was created with a dolls house repeatedly flushed with water.

Advert

The moment was a particularly memorable one for the crew, with model crew chief, Gene Rizzardi saying the scene was 'really fun' to film.

"Even to this day when I show people pictures, they think it's a real hallway... it was only quarter scale," he said in a featurette on the making of the movie.

Meanwhile, a scrapped scene depicting an alternate portrayal of Rose boarding rescue ship the Carpathia alongside other survivors also does the rounds from time to time, showing a more realistic aftermath many real survivors faced.

Featured Image Credit: Paramount Pictures

Topics: Titanic, Film

Brenna Cooper
Brenna Cooper

Brenna Cooper is a journalist at LADbible. She graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History, followed by an NCTJ accredited masters in Journalism. She began her career as a freelance writer for Digital Spy, where she wrote about all things TV, film and showbiz. Her favourite topics to cover are music, travel and any bizarre pop culture.

X

@_brencoco

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Harrowing Titanic movie BTS footage shows how they made frozen corpses
  • Behind the scenes footage shows how Stephen Graham thriller Adolescence filmed ‘insane’ one shot episodes
  • Child actor who still gets paid for starring in Titanic shares exactly how much he's made 27 years on
  • Child star from Titanic who still gets paid for role shared how much he still earns from movie years later

Choose your content:

an hour ago
2 hours ago
  • Netflix
    an hour ago

    Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have unique contract clause for new Netflix film The Rip that is major industry first

    The Rip sees Affleck and Damon continue their 30 year long partnership

    Entertainment
  • Rockstar Games
    an hour ago

    Rockstar to issue GTA 6 release date update after rumours game is 'not content complete'

    Rockstar's parent company Take-Two will issue an update during its quarterly earnings call on 3 February

    Entertainment
  • Erika Goldring/Getty
    2 hours ago

    2026 MOBO Awards nominees have been announced

    Who do you think will win?

    Entertainment
  • BBC
    2 hours ago

    The Traitors' obsession with contestant's jobs is bizarre and it doesn't help you win

    Harriet has spoken about why Amanda being a detective didn't actually help her

    Entertainment