Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)

The makeup effects for the fifth (yet not final!) Howling sequel was split between Steve Johnson's XFX and Todd Masters; Masters handled the werewolf, while XFX handled the rest.

The werewolf suit, worn by Andre Busanoby, had specially constructed legs resembling wolf haunches, which removed the need both for cutaway shots to puppet legs (as in The Howling) or overhead wires to suspend the performer (as in Pumpkinhead). Masters explained;

'The legs go all the way up to the actor’s thigh and are jointed everywhere his leg is, and that carries all the way down these two-foot haunches, (..) The weight is distributed all the way down. The ankle can’t carry that weight so we redistribute it to the hamstrings. The haunches have to be exact, cast from the performer who is to wear them. They can’t be off by even a millimeter. We’ve applied for a patent on the design'.

Most of the werewolf suit footage was cut, with a transformation sequence also entirely excised at director Hope Perello's wishes. Perello explained his reasons;

'There was nothing wrong with them from an effects standpoint, but I never wanted to make an effects film in the first place, (...) However effective they might have been, they didn’t advance the film or the characters and I wanted this to be a character-driven film'.

All that remained of the transformation sequence in the final cut was a brief shot of a 'change-o-part' foot puppet stretching, and shots of Brendan Hughes in a prosthetic appliance. Judging by behind the scenes photos, this was an air bladder appliance, something not seen in the film.

The transformation makeup being applied; notice the air bladder tubes.

The transformation makeup in the film.

Masters commented about the choice; 'That’s the old story for effects people, (...) All you can do is design it and build it. After that it’s out of your hands. You can’t control how it’s filmed or even if it’s used. If you’re going to work in this business, you just have to accept it.'

The Howling 6 suit was reused by Masters in the Tales from the Crypt episode 'Werewolf Concerto'; once again it was Bustanoby inside the suit, with a new face appliance.

Note: Brendan Hughes being credited here is an error.

Johnson's XFX handled the other makeups in the film, the price was not high enough to take on the full workload, and XFX was already committed to other projects.

Bill Corso's sculpt of the Alligator Boy arm appliance.

One of the XFX makeups was the 'Alligator Boy' Winston, portrayed by Sean Sullivan. The Winston makeup was designed and sculpted by Bill Corso, in one of his first jobs for XFX.

XFX also handled the demonic form of Bruce Payne's vampire R. B. Harker, which was made up of a face, head, chest and hand appliances.

Sculpt of the Harker vampire facial appliance.

Johnson explained how he came up with the design; 'I always try to do something different when I’m dealing with a subject that has been portrayed so many times before, (...) The script, and the producers, wanted a real monster for the vampire.

Luckily, Bruce Payne had a vision similar to mine. He wanted a very elegant and suave approach. It’s a little classic, with Nosferatu allusions mixed with a real demonic look. I was pretty pleased with it.'

Johnson also handled Harker's grisly death at the film's climax, 'Once again I was busy and the price didn't work out, so I just handled the vampire, its deterioration and the alligator boy effects. The deterioration was really neat, and I want to do it again on another movie'.

Sculpt of the Harker skeleton.

'We made the vampire's skull out of something that wouldn't sandblast and the skin out of a material that would, then blasted it with an industrial sandblaster. It worked fairly well, but it was such a low-budget project that we didn't have time to test it properly.'

Sculpt of the disintegrating Harker.

As much of a low reputation as the various Howling sequels garnered, Johnson was fairly positive on them as actual working experiences;

'I don’t do a lot of low budget work anymore. (...) The money is just too low to really do your best, and who wants to keep doing less than they are capable of. But I kind of enjoy working on the Howling pictures.'

Shots of the Harker disintegration dummy ... in reverse order!.

'I like Steve (Lane) and Bob (Pringle) and the films are low-key, low pressure. No one expects miracles from you and wants them today. After doing something like The Abyss which damn near killed everybody involved, something like these films is kind of fun.'

Sources: 

• Fangoria #134 'The New Breed of Werewolf FX' by Mark Salisbury
  
• Cinefantastique Vol. 22 No. 1 (August 1991) 'Still Howling After All These Years' by John Thonen
   

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Ginger Snaps Back was filmed back-to-back with Ginger Snaps 2, and also had its makeup effects realized by KNB EFX, with particular involvement from Howard Berger, Greg Nicotero and Robert Kurtzman. The half-transformed 'Wolf Boy' was a sculpted prosthetic mask worn by child actor Stevie Mitchell. The mask was seperate to the jaws, connected to Mitchell's own face, with having an opening for the mouth.

The werewolves in Ginger Snaps Back were realized in the same fashion as the werewolf in Ginger Snaps 2; several additional 'burnt' stunt heads were also created.

The Beastmaster (1999)

The success of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess resulted in a glut of sword and sorcery television series; among them included a TV reboot of 1982's The Beastmaster. The series was filmed in Australia, with its special makeup effects handled by Australian makeup artist Jason Baird.

Baird and his team were reimagining the original film's Birdmen in the episode 'The Island'; for the most part adhering to the original William Munns design, Baird's design gives the Birdmen a slightly more dragon-like appearance, with a padded hunchback.

The Spiderwitch in 'Obsession' was realized as a performer in heavy prosthetics with an all-CGI spider body for distance shots; the prosthetic makeups are fairly impressive, and so are included here.

The title monster of 'The Minotaur' was realized as the performer in bull-like facial prosthetics, and fur applied to the rest of their body.

The ape-creatures in 'Manlinks' were performers in prosthetic makeups and wigs applied.

The cat-like Lyca in 'Mate for Life' was realized as actress Laura Vasquez in facial prosthetics and a slightly furred bodysuit.

- Behind the scenes images are from Jason Baird's archived JMB FX Studio website

The Twilight Zone (1985 & 2002)

(And also the ill-fated Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics TV movie)

The release of Twilight Zone: The Movie spurred a television revival of the original series in 1985; one thing that complicates writing about its special make-up effects is the fact there aren't really any special makeup credits on the episodes!

Things get very complicated with the title monster of 'Gramma' which clearly was a special makeup effects job, but there was no credits on the episode! Jeff Farley (@obscureartifacts on Instagram) clarified to me that this was the work of James Cummins.

To quote Farley's direct message, 'From what I understand, the entire episode had been shot (or was nearly wrapped) and they were having trouble with the concept of the “Gramma” character. They planned on not showing much from what I recall being told and were using a rather large performer in an old-age makeup… I don’t know at all who did it and production realized that they were in trouble as it wasn’t working at all. They knew they needed a more extreme version and I’m not sure how James was contacted or even considered for the job. They could have had numerous bids from other places and James just happened to place the best estimate ($35,000.00 from what I recall) for the week-and-a-half’s work. James did a design as I recall… he was very good at that.

The entire creature was a suit and cable-controlled head with gloves to cover the performers hands. I was immediately placed on working on hand sculptures and then put onto something else as required. I did a little of everything. As far as crew goes; Bryan Blair, Brian Wade, Larry Odien, Dirk von Besser and myself. There may have been one or two others. The foam fabricated suit was done a few blocks from James place… all in my neighborhood and I wasn’t aware up until then. After Dirk & I made the core for the head mold, that was sent off to The Burman Studio to run & bake the foam latex pieces.'

(Farley suggested there was no 'special makeup effects' crediting due to the rushed schedule, and for the other episodes, they could not have been crediting due to budget reasons, as individual credits cost money. I would like to thank Farley for at least solving this mystery!)

Meanwhile, the demons of 'Personal Demons' were a series of latex masks; again, there is only a 'make-up artist' credit for Charlene Roberson, IMDB reveals that the masks were the work of veteran maskmaker and special makeup artist Rick Stratton.

More prosthetic demon masks were made for 'Dead Run', albeit partly obscured by the riot helmets they wore; Lance Anderson was credited for the creature makeup, making this the only episode included here with any special makeup effects credited *in the actual episode*.

Note; The first photo was provided to me by Lance Anderson via email; gloves were seemingly also fabricated for the performers playing the demonic prison guards.

The insect aliens in 'A Day in Beaumont' were realizd as masks and gloves; again, only IMDB gives a clearer picture, as again these were the work of Rick Stratton apparently.

The demon in 'Crazy as a Soup Sandwich' was realized as a prosthetic makeup, with heavyset eyes and a ridged forehead. Again, there is no actual makeup artist credit for this, so who made this?

A few years after the 1985 series finished, yet another attempt was made to revive Twilight Zone's legacy, with the 1994 pilot movie Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics and was a flop. Several zombie makeups, courtesy of Jim Beinke (working under Alterian) were made for it but until I find a good enough copy, there's no screenshots for now!

The series was rebooted again in 2002, but the only episode with special makeup effects work was the remake of the original series episode 'Eye of the Beholder'.

Oddly, this episode has no special makeup effects credit, but the episode's IMDB page states that the makeups were handled by Toby Lindala and Mike Fields. Due to the 2002 revival being filmed in Vancouver, this is likely.