The X-Files (1993) - Season 9

Continued from The X-Files - Season 8

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' ninth season!

Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf continued acting as the makeup department's head for for the last season of X-Files' original run, with Matthew Mungle handling the special makeup effects.

The realistic demon masks worn by the killers in 'Daemonicus' were fabricated by Mungle's team. Each mask had a differing design and paintjob.

The episode 'Lord of the Flies' was about mutants whose jaws could elongate to reveal insect appendages inside. Mungle explained on his old website how the prosthetics were made.

'The jaw appliance was sculpted and molded to cover the cheeks, up to the sides of the nose. A vaccuum form of the actors jaw was made and fitted with a cotter pin to stick out from the tip of the jaw. On a metal rod we glued a small hook which could be attached to the eye of the cotter pin sticking out of the appliance after application. The jaw was pulled during the take and visual effects erased the rod in post.'

Mungle's team also made a grisly deflated prop head, depicting someone whose head had been eaten inside out by insects.

One of the most intensive episodes for the makeup department was 'Hellbound', thanks to the script requiring several shots of the killer's flayed victims. Mungle explained on his old website:

'These prosthetic appliances were manufactured in only 5 days. We sculpted and molded generic faces, a bald cap, shorts, hands, feet and slightly curved body appliances on project boards. Foam latex was brushed into the molds and cursed to produce generic wraparound appliances.All the appliances were pre-painted before application.'

Mungle described how the fake blood aided the makeup work. 'Flat sheets of muscles and they would wrap around various parts of the actors, and because we applied a lot of blood on it and a lot of veins, we could blend these pieces easily.'

Montesanto-Medcalf also remembered how challenging the 'Hellbound' workload was. 'We had over 200 prosthetic pieces on these guys. We laid the veins all over them, then we took a lot of time with our highlight and shadow (makeup paint) to really emphasize certai parts of the muscles and then we kind of made them all shiny. There was seven makeup artists working for seven hours for each person, and that went on for ten days!'

Montesanto-Medcalf also revealed her secret method behind the veins and arteries that were applied on the prosthetics. 'I got capellini spaghetti for all for all of the arteries, because it was really easy to bend and glue on and colour.'

Certain shots also needed the prosthetics to be put on static dummies, as there was no time to sculpt a detailed flayed body prop from scratch. Montesanto-Medcalf said about why she used several prosthetic pieces rather than single masks.

'When I do makeup, on all of my shows, and it's just a personal preference: I don't like using full-on masks. I like using piecea and incorporating things because the face moves, to me it feels more real. (...) I really wanted to use the structure of everyone's face so everybody that was skinned looks different. That takes a little more time, but it always makes me happy at the end, I just feel it's a little more artistic for my liking'.

A grisly skeleton corpse prop was also made for 'Hellbound', with latex applied and painted on to give the anatomy skeleton a fleshier texture.

Robert Patrick commended the makeup crew's diligence for 'Hellbound', 'I have to give credit to Cheri Medcalf and the special effects makeup guys. They literally did a 36-hour day (shift) to pull some of that off.'

The nightmare insect in 'Scary Monsters' was designed by Matthew Mungle and sculpted by Richard Redlefsen. It was then molded by Ryan McDowell and Eddie Vargas, and then animated by Guy Himber.

According to Mungle's old website, 'This lovely creature was created in 5 days. (...) This 16-inch creature had movable legs, pincers and was pulled across the floor by monofilament.'

Chris Owens, whose character Jeffrey Spender had been last seen in the sixth season, was asked to return to the series by David Duchovny for the episodes 'William' and 'The Truth'. Owens remembered Duchovny's brief and blunt warning about what he was about to endure!

'I got a call from David out of the blue, saying, "We're shooting the finale and the second-to-last episode, and I want to bring you back (...) It'll be fun. Well, it won't be fun for you, you'll be under all that shit." I thought, "What is he talking about?" And then I get there, and I realize "Oh my god!"'

The most simple of the 'William' makeups was for the brief flashback sequence of him being injected with a serum that makes his skin bubble and blister. Mungle explained on his old website about how the effect was achieved.

'I made two seperate bladders, one for the arm and one for the face, each having several round bladders on them. The other blisters were gelatin applied around the working bladders, coated with gelatin and airbrushed with several colors of Stacolors.'

Mungle also explained the design and application of the main Spender makeups. 'It had to look as though he was wearing a wig, false nose and forehead, eyebrows and ears over a horribly scar-burned face. The appliances were all made with gelatin. Cheri Montesanto, Clinton Waye and I applied the makeups.'

A variant of the 'healed' Spender makeup was also applied on Owens.

The 'fully burnt' makeup on Owens was more graphic, with an exposed nostril, burned off ears, and a hairless head achieved via a bald cap.

A full body version of the fully burnt Spender makeup was also applied on Owens, for the shot of his medical examination.

The season finale, 'The Truth', required William B. Davis's character, the enigmatic Cigarette Smoking Man, to be aged and wizened after having lived in the wilderness for years.

Mungle explained this fairly more simple makeup on his old website, 'The makeup consisted of a bald cap, stretch and stipple aging all over the face an a lower neck appliance with a working tracheotomy tube so he could smoke through it.'

Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf's work on X-Files ended with 'The Truth'. The respective attempts to reboot the series - the I Want To Believe movie in 2009, and the 10th and 11th seasons in the late 2010s - were filmed in the show's original home of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Montesanto-Medcalf looked back on her time on the series. 'Interestingly enough, X-Files made me like science-fiction! Before that, I didn't, so when was I originally offered the job, I was like, 'I don't really know if I wanna do that, I don't really like science-fiction?'. Well now I absolutely love it, though I always loved anything extra-terrestrial. It was just incredible. It was the best group, I know everyone says that, but it really was like a family. Everyone cared about each other, it was so creative and we all pitched in. (...) We worked long hours, but it was so worth it, because the end result was incredible as far as I was concerned.'

Mungle echoed these feelings in an interview with Classic-Horror.com, while also remembering the series being one of his hardest gigs. 'Challenging? I think X-Files was. Just trying to keep up with the time allotted to do things was difficult. Also, the creativity behind it was outstanding. It was so excellent to be working on a television show like that. They excelled at continually making things more different and more bizarre. It was a great, great experience.'

Sources:

• Matthew Mungle interview with Classic-Horror.com
  
• 'X-Files Fan Retrospective' interview with Cheri Montesanto
  
• Archive crawl of Matthew Mungle's old website.
  
• Assorted 'Behind the Truth' featurettes.
  

Continued in The X-Files - Season 10