Note: I would like to thank Matthew Mungle for having been so kind to provide me with several behind the scenes photos of his work on the series' eight and ninth seasons!
The special makeup effects of the eighth season were split between John Vulich's Optic Nerve Studios and Matthew Mungle's W. M. Creations. Optic Nerve handled the makeup effects on the episodes 'Patience', 'Roadrunners', 'Salvage' and 'Per Manum'.
The rest of the series' makeup effects were handled by Mungle. Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf oversaw both Vulich's and Mungle's contributions as head of the series makeup department.
The shots of Mulder being experimented on in the opening episodes 'Within' and 'Without' required David Duchovny to wear a set of facial appliances, sculpted to look as if his flesh was being pulled by hooks. According to Montesanto-Medcalf in behind the scenes featurettes, this was fabricated by Matthew Mungle, despite the episode crediting Optic Nerve.
Because of this odd crediting, I'm not sure if it was Mungle or Optic Nerve who realized the melting dummy head effect for when an alien agent is killed. Otherwise it seems to be a melting gelatin head effect a la
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The bat monster in 'Patience' was realized as a set of facial and body prosthetics, with rubber wings fitted to the performer's arms. While the makeup was designed and made by Optic Nerve, Mungle handled the application at Montesanto-Medcalf's request.
For 'Patience', Optic Nerve also supplied a bitten-off hand (sadly barely seen in the episode) and a pair of chewed up prop fingers.
The slug-like parasite in 'Roadrunners' was an animatronic puppet, and small enough to be held by an actor. The parasite was based on a banana slug.
Optic Nerve also fabricated a dummy torso back and head for the shots of the parasite writhing out of bodies, in particular when Doggett performers emergency surgery on Scully.
Optic Nerve applied a series of makeups on Wade Williams for his role as a man mutated to become made of metal. Montesanto-Medcalf recalled how the makeup was made, and also that there had originally been a different makeup design planned, and sadly never used;
'They were thinking of getting (Optiv Nerve) to do this big metal costume (ergo, a foam rubber suit). And Chris (Carter) saw the photos of that and he didn't like it. So I said, 'No, we're gonna make it look like the junk's coming out of him'
That was really fun, really intense and a TON of work. Not only was it a ton of work putting all the metal pieces on him every day, but I had an entirely different crew that would come in the morning to take it off, as it took three hours to remove. We didn't have enough hours for me or my crew to take it off, so we had a 'cleanup crew' come take it off.'
Early stage 'metal man' makeups on Wade Williams.
Later stage 'metal man' makeups on Wade Williams.
Optic Nerve also again supplied the gore effects, such as a dummy head with holes punched in, representing one of the metal man's victims.
Optic Nerve also applied a fully sculpted 'metal man' victim whose body had been entirely turned into metal. The prop is currently on display at the X-Files Preservation Collection.
A prop body with a bulging abdomen was made for 'Badlaa', for the infamous scene of Deep Roy's magician crawling out of the belly.
For the 'The Gift', the mutant Soul Eater was realized as a set of prosthetic appliances on Jordan Marder, giving him a diseased appearance.
For the shots in 'The Gift' of the Soul Eater attacking, Mungle made an articulated silicon dummy. The dummy's jaws and teeth could be moved, to imply the mouth was distending.
Mungle contributed several grisly images in 'Medusa', the first being the half-dissolved body of a transit cop seen in the opening sequence. This was a silicon dummy head on a false body.
The other gore effects in 'Medusa' were prosthetic appliances. A simple cheek appliance was made for Brent Sexton, to show his cheek having partly been infected.
A more elaborate facial appliance was made for Bill Jacobson as an infected thug, along with a chest appliance showing his exposed ribcage.
'Per Manum' was another episode that shared credits with Optic Nerve and Mungle. Optic Nerve made an animatronic Grey alien baby, as well as a dissected dummy Grey baby prop.
Several mutant fetus props were also required for 'Per Manum', some of these apparently being made by Mungle, who sent me the below images.
'Deadalive' required a heavy makeup effects workload for the sequence where Zachary Ansley's drowning victim comes back from the dead. All stages required a body suit made of latex and polyfoam, based on a life cast of Miles. The facial appliance was made of foam latex. Subtle detailing was done on the sculpt to make it appear that the flesh was scarred.
Close-up shot showing the scarred detailing on the sculpt.
When giving the final paintjob on the first stage makeup, Montesanto-Medcalf recalled '
We wanted him shiny, kind of wet looking.
Montesanto-Medcalf also recalled on the second stage makeup, '
When he's on the hospital bed we did a couple of different looks as he's starting to dry out, and it's building up to shedding the skin. So we then started putting skin on top of skin, that would start peeling off.'
Mungle explained how the shot of the undead cadaver's flesh sloughing off was achieved, 'We had to come up with shredding flesh when he stepped into the shower. Between the actor's skin and the appliance was a series of tubes that we pumped goo and warm water through.
So with the water from the shower hitting the outside of the appliance, it made the gelatin appliance basically shred, and the actor would move his foot a little bit so it would shred a bit and fell into the drain.'
Montesanto-Medcalf's team only had six days to achieve the sequence. Some of the 'blood' used in the shower shots was actually strawberry jam!
A prosthetic appliance was required for a shot in 'Empedocles' where a man would claw at his face showing burning fire underneath. While the 'fire' was a digital effect, there needed to be a prosthetic 'green screen' to overlay the footage over.
The salamander monster in 'Alone' was a full body latex suit, with a cowl and mask. The suit and mask were sculpted on a full-body casting of the performer inside. The performer inside the salamander suit wore specially made fanged dentures.
Like many
X-Files monsters, the salamander creature in 'Alone' is barely seen in the actual episode, so thank goodness for these behind the scenes photos provided to me by Mungle!
And of course Mungle also handled the explicit gore as well, fabricated a decapitated dummy head for the episode 'Essence'.
Sources:
Continued in The X-Files - Season 9
