From Zombos' Closet

Dragged to Hell With KNB EFX

Written by Scott Essman

When directors hit box-office gold, it is common knowledge that they can make whatever they wish for a followup film. For Sam Raimi, coming off of three Spider-Man films which all rank in the top 50 domestic box office grossers of all time, he could have made virtually any film he could conjure as his next cinematic venture. But, what did the director of such cult classics as Within the Woods (1978), The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), and Darkman (1990), decide to do after exiting the world of Spider-Man? One only need look at the opening animated Universal logo to determine Raimi’s intentions: the director chose a pre-1997 Universal opening to set the stage of this film: we were going on a journey that would be a throwback to the time when Raimi was a cult director, still largely undiscovered by the Hollywood mainstream.

For horror enthusiasts, when you think of Raimi’s early work, you recall shaky but taut camera moves, a mélange of harsh sound and light, intensified performances, and unsubtle moments of discovery and revelation. You simultaneously remember the outrageous often guttural practical makeup effects in those films: Evil Dead featured buckets of blood while the sequel was somewhat refined if still surreal in its over-the-top portrayal of horror as a genre that was being infused with new post-slasher film blood, built on the heels of the successes of the original Halloween, Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13^th, and other instrumental films in the genre.

Enter into this world a name that goes hand-in-hand with horror over the past decades that Raimi has been active in reinventing the genre. “If you’ve seen a horror movie in the last 15 years, they did it,” said special ‘horror’ makeup effects legend Tom Savini of the KNB EFX Group, a makeup effects and creature shop lead by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, and co-founded by ex-member Robert Kurtzman in 1988.

With his career coming full circle, Greg Nicotero and his company were the special makeup effects, corpse and special props designers on Sam Raimi’s new retro-horror film on Universal Studios Home Entertainment DVD and Blu-ray Hi Def, Drag Me to Hell. Of course, this is because Nicotero started with Raimi 22 years ago with Evil Dead 2 in which they created numerous makeup effects and creatures. In this exclusive look into his studio, we see how the different makeups, fake bodies and props from the film were designed and realized.

Nicotero, a Pittsburgh resident, has now been working in motion pictures for 25 years, starting as a makeup assistant on George A. Romero’s 1985 Pittsburgh-based film, Day of the Dead with Tom Savini. “I knew Greg Nicotero since he was 15,” said Savini. “He used to hang out on Creepshow. I used him on Day of the Dead and [Romero’s] Monkey Shines. He asked me to go to LA and form a company before KNB. He then introduced me to Howard Berger on Day of the Dead. I’m a Pittsburgh guy, so I’m not out there knowing who the up-and-comers are.”

With certainty, the mentorship that Savini provided to Nicotero and later Berger in the 1980s paid dividends for the duo, then in their 20s, as they learned both the creative and business aspects of running a makeup effects company. “Greg was a sketch artist and would handle my paperwork and my business stuff which is what he went to school for,” Savini added. “He dropped out of medical school to work for me. He had his hands in sculpting, but he wasn’t into doing the makeup back then. He learned by experience and now he’s a major player in the makeup world. He’s my best friend.”

Since they formed the studio in 1988, moving locations but remaining in the San Fernando Valley, KNB EFX Group has gotten many choice assignments, having been responsible for dozens of movie projects, including all of the films of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Wes Craven, and John Carpenter to name but a few. KNB has also joined the ranks of the A-list doing prestigious projects for the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and winning an Oscar for their work on the first Narnia film.

Thus, it was not surprising that after 22 years, Raimi, 50 this month, contacted KNB to handle the numerous gruesome effects that Drag Me to Hell required, harkening back to the director’s pre-Spider-Man days with the Evil Dead trilogy. Naturally, Nicotero speaks fondly of KNB’s working relationship with Sam Raimi for the past 20 years. “It has been pretty amazing,” said the effects master, 46. “We started with Sam and [producer] Rob Tapert on Evil Dead 2 and once KNB was formed in 1988, we handled most of the makeup and suit effects for their films for well over the next decade with everything from Army of Darkness to [TV’s] Hercules and Xena, A Simple Plan and so on. We didn't get the chance to work on the first two Spider-Man films, but Sam personally pulled us in on part 3, and I was delighted.”

Initially, Nicotero was concerned that KNB would not be involved in the designs for makeups, gags, props, and other work as it might have likely been handled by another conceptual artist, a common practice in contemporary filmmaking. “Sam is very accustomed to working with outside designs,” Nicotero explained, “so I, during my first meeting, showed him samples of the design work we did in-house and he really responded to what I had shown him. In this day and age, with so many conceptual artists that have background in creature effects, productions very often bring in the effects houses late in the game as opposed to having the supervisors having a hand in the conceptualizing and design.”

Raimi, however, is no stranger to working with effects teams and knew of KNB’s vast experience and hands-on approach, so getting KNB involved from the beginning was, according to Nicotero, “what the director wanted on this film; and he very much wanted input on what fans and audiences would respond to. Certainly our history made him very comfortable. I presented designs to him that were fleshed out here [at KNB], and we went from there. Shannon Shea was my right hand man on the show, and between John Wheaton, Garrett Immel, and Norman Cabrera, we brought some really fun ideas to the table.”

In Drag Me to Hell’s story, Alison Lohman plays the young Christine Brown, an ambitious bank clerk who is encouraged to be more aggressive by her competitive boss, played by David Paymer. Wanting a promotion, she denies a house loan extension to a mysterious Gypsy customer, Mrs. Ganush, perfectly played by Lorna Raver. For the character, KNB had to devise a shockingly grotesque haggard makeup for Raver, and they proceeded to create several versions of Raver’s character through the film. “We had worked out several stages via tests and Photoshop,” Nicotero said, “and of course her dentures played a significant part. Mainly, she goes from sympathetic old woman to ‘heinous horror hag’ in the car sequence, to back-from-the-dead possessed Ganush, as well as her demonic form. All [stages] had a variety of 3D transfers, prosthetics, contacts – Professional Vision Care always handles our work and has done so for years, supervised by Christina Ceret – and dentures. Garrett Immel, Camille Calvet Della-Santina and Mary Kay Witt applied her make-up. We also handled a stunt likeness makeup that Garrett sculpted that was fantastic, complete with lace wig and lenses.”

After denying and “shaming” Mrs. Ganush in the bank, Christine must thwart a physical attack in her car, after which Mrs. Ganush places a horrible curse on Christine. Subsequently, when evil forces pursue Christine, she tries to make amends with Mrs. Ganush by visiting her. Alas, it is too late, as Mrs. Ganush has died, which Christine discovers in a wake scene. For this appearance of the character, KNB had to create a realistic corpse in the likeness of Lorna Raver. “For the wake sequence, we created a dummy that had a jointed armature and a silicone skin, pretty straightforward,” said Nicotero. “All of the likeness were cast off of Lorna Raver, who couldn't have been a better sport. So often, people don't realize that our characters are brought to life by great performances, and she was terrific. When I saw her on set the first time, I believed she was this sad, tormented old woman having her house taken away. Then, Sam would yell cut!”

Another great moment in the wake scene is when Mrs. Ganush’s dead body falls onto Christine, leading to a nauseating effect where bodily fluid comes out of the corpse's mouth onto Alison Lohman. Undoubtedly, one of the convincing aspects of Mrs. Ganush’s character in these scenes is her false teeth. “The script was very specific in terms of the action of all the dentures,” Nicotero said. “She pulls them out, leaves them on the table [in the bank], has them smashed during the car fight sequence, and then has to put the broken teeth back in, all of which required specialized teeth that fit her and then fit over ‘gum dentures’ that we made. Grady Holder has handled our denture work for the last 10 years and is fantastic at creating all of our eyes and dental work.”

When it has become clear that Christine is truly doomed, she falls apart in a later scene in the bank when she bleeds profusely from her nose, squirting blood all over her desk and onto Paymer. “That was one of the first gags we worked out,” Nicotero stated. “It was realized with a pretty straightforward pressure pump rig with tubing that was attached to a prosthetic that glued inside the nose. The plan always was to digitally erase the tube and let the blood spray be done practically, and that was what ended up in the movie.”

In keeping with that fusion of practical techniques, such as the ones in which KNB specializes, and digital effects, Nicotero notes that Raimi entrusted much of the on-set work to KNB due to his love of the craft, even though there was some degree of collaboration involved with the computer-generated imagery team. “Sam has become quite proficient with digital effects,” Nicotero said, “and [visual effects supervisor] Bruce Jones had a lot to handle in terms of the shadow gags, visual effects of hell opening up and so forth, so there were very few instances when he augmented effects we had done practically. Truthfully, that was what was so much fun: as savvy as Sam is with effects, he still loves puppet heads and traditional prosthetic and makeup effects. During the development of the dream sequence, where rotted Ganush vomits worms on Christine, he actually laughed out loud when we showed him the first test, and told me I should be arrested.”

Other KNB work in Drag Me to Hell includes a demonic makeup designed and created for Adriana Barraza in a séance scene where her character Shaun San Dena tries to expunge the demon who has been haunting Christine. This makeup included prosthetics and haunting contact lenses by Professional Vision Care. One of the final great KNB moments returns when Christine digs up Mrs. Ganush’s corpse in the midst of a downpour in an attempt to reverse the curse, which involves a reappearance of the dead Ganush body, which was created to withstand drenching.

When reflecting on the special makeup effects in Drag Me to Hell and his work with Raimi, who co-wrote the script with brother Ivan Raimi, Nicotero exudes earned pride, now over two decades into the artist-director relationship. “I am tremendously proud of what KNB contributed,” he said. “An amazing team of artists, mechanics, puppeteers and makeup artists really helped Sam bring into the movie the fun that he has making these films. During script read-throughs, he would be reading something and then start chuckling to himself because some of the elements are so outrageous. The movie is pure fun, and Sam's enthusiasm is there in every frame.

Movie Review: Zombieland (2009)

Zombos Says: Excellent

Chef Machiavelli tossed the 4-iron to me. I restrained from yelling "four!" as I whacked the nasty, multi-legged, brown fur-ball scuttling toward me up and over the pool table. Times like this made me wish I had kept up my golf lessons. Not too shabby, though: I hooked the little bugger to the right. It hit the Yule marble fireplace mantel with a splat, leaving a gooey green stain. Glenor will certainly not like that. I turned my attention to the dozen or so other nasties climbing up Chef Machiavelli's legs, but he signaled he didn’t need my help. What a trooper.

Lawn Gisland, family friend and rodeo star attraction for the Smith and Walloo Brothers Circus, was showing off by improvising a coil of clothes line into a lariat and lassoing the bigger bugs. At least I think they were bugs. What he missed with the lariat he stomped hard with his Nocona boot heels. If he said "little-doggy" one more time as he threw the lasso, or "tarnation" every time he stomped, I was going to whoop him good myself. There are just so many "little-doggies" and "tarnations" a city-slicker like me can take in a day, if you know what I mean.

I took another swing while Chef Machiavelli bowled a 7-10 split on a handful of fur-balls. Surprisingly, they rolled very well. His usually immaculate white chef's uniform was stained green, and bits of fuzzy hair and goo stuck on his shoulders, looking like weird epaulets. That and his crushed-in Chef's hat made him look quite the worse for wear. I turned to Lawn to see if he needed my help. He was swinging a pool cue like a stick-ball bat sending toothy fur-balls flying in all directions. One clamped tight onto the end of it. Always the showman, he did a neat combination kick shot, squishing the bugger and pocketing the nine-ball at the same time, and then returned to batting away the rest of the competition. Within five minutes we had the situation under control and a hell of a mess to clean up. But that could wait.

The three of us collapsed onto the wrap-around leather sofa to catch our breadths.

It started when we began bowling in the mansion's recreation room. Lawn needs a bowling ball that fits his massive left hand—and its missing middle finger—so the ones we normally have on display don’t fit. We did have one custom made for him, but since he so seldom wants to bowl we keep it with the other more customized—hence little used—bowling balls in the second play-accessories storage closet. So we walked into the closet looking for his bowling ball. It wasn’t my fault I dropped it—it’s heavy, really heavy—on his foot. Luckily his boots were hard leather, but he still jumped high, bumping a low shelf. On it were more golf balls than we would ever, ever, need, some very old gut-string tennis rackets we stopped using, fishing tackle we never use, three-hundred and forty-eight bright orange ping pong balls (I know because I counted them later when I picked every single one of them up), and all the Halloween candy Zimba's been snatching and hiding from me and Zombos over the years. She insists on giving out toothbrushes and floss packs instead of sugary-treats for the kids, which always leads to major problems for Zombos and me.

In back of the shelf was a hole the size of Lawn's fist, and behind the hole were these hairy, candy-gorged fiends grown fat on years and years’ worth of Hershey bars, M&M's, maple candy corn (my favorite), Reese's Pieces, Milky Way Bars, and every other deep dark sinfully-rich, cavity-prone delight imaginable worth cramming into a trick or treat bag. The bugs followed the spilled candy onto the floor, then followed us out the door as fast as we could run. In one of those annoying turn of events that happen every now and then, Chef Machiavelli was bent over, serving his sugary sweet maple-toffee, dark apple cider, with melted caramel and toasted almonds, when we crashed into him, spilling it all over us and the floor. That overpowering sweet smell of sugary nirvana sent the buggers into a feeding frenzy.

"Say, hot-doggie!" said Lawn, scooping up a Twinkie from the candy assortment strewn across the floor. Zimba had banned those from the pantry, too. "All this sweetness has me hankerin' for something sweet." He unwrapped it.

"Are you crazy?" I said. Chef Machiavelli said something to the same effect in Italian, I think. The two of us looked at Lawn. "That's probably been in that closet for ages! It's not fresh." Chef Machiavelli nodded in agreement. Lawn ignored us and ate the Twinkie.

"Tarnation, it's a darn-tootin' Twinkie," he said, downing the golden spongy cake in one bite. "Don't get your boots caught in the stirrups, they last forever." He licked his fingers. "Everybody knows that."

He did have a point.

We looked at the mess all around us.

"Well," I summed up, "at least they weren't zombies." Lawn and Chef Machiavelli nodded in agreement.

"I'd miss Twinkies in a zombie apocalypse," added Lawn.

"Me, too," I said. Being eaten alive is bad enough, but no Twinkies? That's really hell on earth for sure.

 

Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) won me over immediately. Traveling a landscape overrun with zombies—that have really let themselves go as he puts it—his main goal, the one that keeps him alive and psyched for survival, is finding the last fresh Twinkie. Hostess Sno Balls just don’t do it for him. He wants the golden, creme-filled, real deal. His quest provides one of the lighter themes in Zombieland, an apocalypse romp that brings together four survivors, each psyched for survival by formulating his and her own rules for success in a really down economy of the undead.

Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) has a laundry list of rules: there’s one designed to keep his stamina up (Rule 1: cardio to outrun zombies); another to be wary of bathrooms (Rule 3: they know you are vulnerable when on the potty); and one to make dead sure the undead are really dead (Rule 2: do a double-tap with bullets to the head every time). His rules have kept him alive after a contaminated burger kicks-off the rise of the undead. He tells us how the girl next door, the one he had a crush on, introduces him to the dire situation. Up until then he was holed-up in his apartment eating pizza, drinking Code Red Mountain Dew, and playing World of Warcraft non-stop. So rules for staying alive come naturally for him: he just needed to switch his mindset from trolls to zombies.

Tallahassee and Columbus are an unlikely pairing. When they meet, Columbus is trying to get back home, and Tallahassee is trying to find Twinkies. They have little in common; Tallahassee is more of a redneck survivalist, cool to the touch and more loose in dealing with the walking dead, while Columbus is more of a rational, follow the rules or be dead kind of person. Tallahassee also really hates zombies. Columbus is non-committal; he just wants to get home to his parents. Driving down the highway, they stop to watch a zombie crack the bones and scoop up the intestines of one unlucky motorist. Tallahassee makes a point of opening his car door as he drives past to knock over the zombie. Columbus would have gone around and avoided it.

The quest for the last Twinkie brings them to a supermarket where they meet Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two sisters, the older one looking out for the younger one. They’re heading to Pacific Playland where there are no zombies but lots of fun rides. No one uses their real name. The only important thing is to not get attached, keep on moving, do not make friends. Familiarity and togetherness are for zombies, not survivors. The boys and girls go their separate ways.

They meet again on the highway and this time they stay together.

Stopping at the Kemo Sabe trading post, they first clear the place of zombies and then browse the merchandise. And then trash the place realizing it all doesn’t matter. Back on the road, Tallahassee can’t believe Little Rock doesn’t know who Willie Nelson is, and Columbus and Wichita are beginning to like each other, which goes against their own hard and fast rules.

Using a homes-of-the-movie-stars map they decide to hold up in a Beverly Hills mansion. The one they pick, with its well-known owner still in residence, provides the silliest fun you will ever have in a zombie movie. When Columbus and Wichita get too close for comfort, Wichita takes Little Rock and heads to zombie-free Pacific Playland. Or Zombie free until they turn on the rides and lights and sounds anyway. One of the rides provides momentary safety, but not for long.

Zombieland is a movie filled with clown and Charlie Chaplin zombies and big gun-toting survivors. It takes an NRA, redneck approach to a problem of apocalyptic proportions, and has fun doing it. After watching so many seriously undead in so many serious zombie movies, it’s refreshing to see an old-fashioned shoot ‘em up, where the bullets outnumber the zombies and the survivors are so likable I did not want any one of them to get bitten or eaten because that would spoil the fun. Harrelson is a natural zombie-hunter and very believable when handling high-impact automatic weaponry. I certainly would want him by my side when the zombies come: I’d be desperately searching for Twinkies, too.

A light-hearted gory romp with its brief serious moments makes Zombieland a refreshing bullets and zombies showdown break from the usually more depressing fare. This and Sean of the Dead would make a solid double bill viewing session on Halloween night.

 

LOTT D: Pick a Post Sensation 17 Worst Horror Movies

Beware! The members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig six feet deep to uncover their favorite worst movies. Beware!

 

Final Girl goes all ugly over The Cavern!

...You know, if today's movie, The Cavern (2005), had arrived with its other title, WIthIN, plastered on it, I may have skipped watching it on principle and saved myself some pain.

Mad Mad Mad Mad Movies doesn't find pleasure in Goregasm!

...Think of a GWAR video, only without the showmanship, musical proficiency, and insightful social commentary. Think of a Troma movie without the high production values and delightfully cosmopolitan sense of humor. Think of all those dead baby jokes you and your friends used to tell in junior high, but without the rapier wit. Got it? Formed a picture of that movie in your head?

Evil on Two Legs couldn't run fast enough from End of Days!

...the first thing one notices is that this film is dark. i don’t mean se7en dark, like in terms of “mood.” i’m talking doom3 dark without the flashlight mod kind of dark. this is what happens when you let the director be his own dp… (pun alert) in light of this, i’ve taken the liberty of brightening up the screenshots so you can actually make out what’s going on.

Love Train for the Tenebrous Empire wants its time back after Exterminator City!

...Disclaimer: The opinions reflected in this article are mine and mine alone and don't reflect the opinions of the fine, upstanding, and thoroughly delightful gentle people at "Ultra Violent Magazine." Even though those bastards sent me this movie and expected me to review it for their publication without any appropriate warning.

Graphic Book Review: Trick 'r Treat

Zombos Says: Excellent

"I can't believe you would do such a thing. Are you daft? I ask you to read to our son's fifth-grade class and you pick this?" Zimba held up Wildstorm's Trick 'r Treat graphic novel; actually more like waved it violently, really. She paced back and forth in her frustration.

"None of the students wanted to ride the bus home," added Mrs. Crabtree, Zombos Junior's teacher. "Not after you told them about those unwanted children intentionally sunk into a rock quarry by their bus driver. And after that one about the evil kid-killing school principal--what were you thinking?--they scream every time Mr. Whiffle walks past in the hallway. I don't dare send any of them to his office now." Mrs. Crabtree took a deep breadth. "Thank the lord you didn't read them a story about the cafeteria having monster food or something. They're now so frightened of their own shadows because of that horrid comic book you brought."

"Graphic novel," I corrected her. I always love correcting teachers. I enjoy an occasional I-told-you-so, too.

"And then you had to show them all those unpleasant cartoon pictures of dead kids' heads, and blood, and that horrid little misbehaving beast, Sam, running around causing mayhem." Mrs. Crabtree took another breadth and folded her arms tighter. "I don't know why you couldn't just have read It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown or something enjoyable and not so scary. They love those well-behaved Charlie Brown and Linus, and how Linus sucks his thumb like a baby and waits for the Great Pumpkin to bring treats. You could have brought a blanket like Mrs. Zombos does and mimicked Linus sucking his thumb while waiting for the Great Pumpkin. It always gets a laugh. My students are not laughing now." Mrs. Crabtree took a deeper breadth and, this time, waited for penance, contrition, or somesuch from Zombos.

It did seem like a long wait.

LOTT D: Pick a Post Sensation 16 Favorite Horror Movies

Beware! The members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig six feet deep to uncover their favorite terror movies for your Halloween edification pleasure. Boo!

 

Dinner With Max Jenke says Let's Scare Jessica To Death:

No other horror film has given us a heroine as memorably fragile as the title character of director John Hancock's unusually sensitive shocker Let's Scare Jessica To Death (1971) and sadly, it's unlikely that we'll ever see her kind again.

Final Girl beams over The Shining:

It had been some time since I'd seen The Shining, and while I've always enjoyed it (and gotten some good creepy scares out of it), what struck me most while watching it today was the beauty of the whole thing. Visually, The Shining is one of the most stunning films I've ever seen- finding a horror movie to top it in that regard would be no easy task.

Fascination With Fear bites into JAWS:

It is known as the "father of the summer blockbuster", being the first movie to blow the pants off the box office in such a way that people lined streets in front of theaters just to see it.

Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat conjures up The Blair Witch Project:

Let me say right off the bat that I don't expect to change anyone's mind here. This is a movie for which the phrase "you either love it or hate it" was invented. I remember seeing it on opening night in a theatre: Half the audience booed and yelled at the screen as the closing credits rolled, while the other half looked as though they'd just been eyewitnesses to a plane crash.

Book Review: Hammer Glamour Classic Images From Hammer Films

Zombos Says: Very Good

I am reminded of the line Frederick Frankenstein utters in Young Frankenstein after seeing the huge door knockers on the even bigger doors of the ancestral castle: "What knockers!" The comely Inga, poised in his arms as he helps her out of the hay wagon, thinks he is referring to her ample bosom and responds, "Oh, thank you doctor!" The female stars profiled in Hammer Glamour: Classic Images From the Archive of Hammer Films also have ample bosoms; but more than that, they defined Hammer's sensual, supernatural horror mystique, an artistic and commercial blend of Gothic and gore done on a budget, which embellished male stars Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing's good versus evil action.  I do not believe Lee or Cushing ever had to do bikini-clad pin-up sessions, though, or look alluringly into the camera while posing on a bed of furs.

The book highlights fifty Hammer female stars, including the sultry, self-assured, Martine Beswicke (my favorite), statuesque Ursula Andress, and the sultry and statuesque Raquel Welch. Clad in her doeskin bikini, Welch, helped make One Million Years B.C. the "most commercially successful film in Hammer history, and sealed the company's new reputation for 'discovering' glamorous stars."

In an appendix entitled Also Starring, Hearn includes dozens more who starred in Hammer movies but did not achieve much notoriety beyond that. Faces you will recognize include The Devil Rides Out Nike Arrighi (my favorite) and Twins of Evil's Isobel Black. While Hammer horror buffs are more familiar with actresses like Ingrid Pitt (The Vampire Lovers), Valerie Gaunt (Dracula), and Susan Denberg (Frankenstein Created Women) , it may come as a surprise that Stefanie Powers ('Jane Brown's Body'), Judy Geeson (Fear in the Night), and Nastassja Kinski (To the Devil a Daughter) also appeared in the studio's numerous offerings.

In-between the cheesecake photographs, Hearn does a succinct  job of running through the movies each actress appears in while providing background on their careers' trials, tribulations, and triumphs, and, where applicable, their current activities. His style is very British informal and filled with idioms that make reading very enjoyable--but keep a reference source handy, you may need to look up a few definitions. While writing about those naughty Twins of Evil, Mary and Madeleine Collinson (my favorites), he writes "It wasn't long before they were noticed. In the King's Road, Chelsea, two teenage boys came a cropper when they were distracted by the girls." I looked up came a cropper: it means to take a tumble. By the way, Mary and Madeleine get the naughtiest full-page in the book.

More important for the ardent movie buff are the anecdotes and snippets of interviews that Hearn includes. Not all was glamourous for Hazel Court, Hammer's first pin-up girl (The Curse of Frankenstein), as Hearn recounts the time a reporter visited her on the set of The Man Who Could Cheat Death, or for Susan Denberg (my favorite), whose career spiraled downhill after drugs and dissolution took their toll. It is this mixing of glamour with the realities of show biz, and Hearn's earnest, engaging style--and, okay, yes, the photographs--that make Hammer Glamour more than just skin deep reading.

Come to think of it, all the women of Hammer Horror are my favorites.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Lightning Bug's Lair

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, T.L. Bugg of the Lightning Bug's Lair reveals his initial distaste for the fear, his passion for a guy named Bela, and a rich background in horror.

As Bill Cosby once said back when he did standup and was funny, “I started out as a child.” like Mr. Cosby, I also started out as a youngster and a rather fearful one at that. While I was obsessed with images from the Universal horror films of the 1930’s and 40’s, I could not be coerced by anyone to see a modern horror film. I recall one afternoon when a next door neighbor recounted to me the story of C.H.U.D. It was enough to trouble my sleep for at least a week.

My parents fondly recall when they tried to show me the Disney approved horror film, Something Wicked This Way  Comes. I got about five minutes into the film, the kids saw their own heads getting cut off, and I was done. I have not ever attempted to see that movie since. The last early memory of my yellow steak was when Hellraiser came out on videotape. My folks called me in to see the part where Frank’s body rises from the floor and reconstitutes. It took me some time to recover from that as well.

At the same time that I avoided horror in Technicolor, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff were both great favorites of mine, and each year for Halloween I would request to be a vampire. More than being a bloodsucker, I wanted to be like Bela, or Dracula, the two almost inseparable in my young mind. He was intimidating with only a stare, suave yet dangerous, evil but sophisticated about it. It was around this same age that I discovered old time radio due to my love of Abbot and Costello films. (It surely did not hurt that they crossed over with the Universal monsters a few times.) While my tastes ran mostly toward the comedic programs of Fibber McGee and Molly, and Burns & Allen, there were quite a few nights where I clutched my Walkman to my chest in the darkness of my bedroom and listened intently to the horrors of the Inner Sanctum or (Shock Theater).

Movie Review: The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Zombos Says: Classic

"No, that's not it," said Sosumi Jimmy Jango, Zombos' lawyer. He continued to search his memory while pulling yet another paper from his briefcase.

We were sitting in the library, waiting for Jimmy to shuffle through a few more papers before he read Uncle Hiram's will. After twenty years gathering dust in Zombos' Irish tin box, it was time to finally reveal old Hiram's wishes. He passed away while moose hunting. The annoyed moose helped him on his journey. Seated around the table were Zombos, myself, and Zombos' furthest relative from Nova Scotia, Clorinda. Billy Bounce Boukowski and Jeremy Singleton, more distant relatives on this side of the pond, were also in attendance. Glenor Glenda served drinks all around.
"Glad to see everyone could make it," said Jimmy, reaching deeper into his briefcase. "I got it!"
"The will?" asked Zombos with much hope in his voice. He was getting tired of sitting so close to his distant relatives. I never could get him to explain their names or lineage.
"No, the movie this all reminds me of," said Jimmy. "The Cat and the Canary, the 1927 version. It starts off with an old geezer's will being read after twenty years, too."

"I know that one," I said. "The geezer was Cyrus West, and his relatives are summoned to his old dark mansion, overlooking the Hudson River, by the family lawyer Roger Crosby, twenty years after his death for the reading of his will. He and Uncle Hiram must have been twins."

"On a dark and stormy night," added Jimmy, chuckling. "Just like tonight." We looked at the rain drops splashing against the library's windows when he said it.

"So, what happens?" asked Billy Bounce. His gruff voice punctuated the Bounce part of his name really well. He tipped his third Jack Daniel's, daintily held in the baseball glove he had for a hand, over and down in one gulp.

"It is a silent movie directed by Paul Leni, a German Expressionistic director, whose talents included blending humor with his stylish melodramatic horror," said Zombos.

Billy smiled. "Sounds like an oxymoronic, don't it? Funny horror?"

"It does," I replied. "But Leni's movie provided the creative template--hairy arms reaching through secret panels and around doorways, sliding bookcases leading to secret passages, upright bodies stuffed in closets flopping down when you open the door, sinister housekeepers, spooky mansions--stuff like that was recycled in the old dark house movies that followed, and it provided much comedy fodder for Abbott and Costello, too."

"Hold That Ghost!" piped up Jeremy. "I love that movie. Keeping the money in the moose's head. Hilarious."

"Oh, and Laura La Plante is so marvelous in it." Glenor spilled a drink as she spoke. "I wish I'd inherit a vast fortune like hers."

"When you do, let me know so I can send you the dry cleaning bill," said Zombos dryly, grabbing a napkin to daub off the wet stain on his jacket.

"Whose Laura La Plante?" asked Clorinda.

"She plays Cyrus West's most distant relative, Annabelle," answered Jimmy. "Anabelle's the looker who winds up getting all of West's inheritance if she can prove she's sane enough to keep it. Of course, the trick is to make her go loopy during the night so the next in line will get the money. An escaped homicidal lunatic from a nearby asylum--he's called the Cat-- is on the prowl, too, spicing things up."

"So who's the guy who saves the dame?" asked Billy. "There's always some guy around to save rich dames in movies, am I right?"

"Right you are," I said. "That would be Paul, played by Creighton Hale in glasses and with much chagrin. He's not much of a hero type. Skittish from his own shadow, really. Being a woman in a 1920's movie, Annabelle can only be rescued by her potential suitor, of course. I mean, woman weren't expected to be unmarried with vast fortunes pending and all that. Paul provides the comedy relief, but eventually succeeds in subduing the killer and winning the rich dame's hand."

"I'm not sure I'd want to immediately get married if I inherited a fortune," said Clorinda. "I mean, why spoil the fun of all that solitary spenditure."

"I don't know, but so far it doesn't sound too scary," said Billy.

"Well, of course in its day I'm sure it had enough fright per frame to make it the box office success it was, but Leni directed it more for black humor." I took my White Russian from Glenor's serving tray and took a sip before continuing. "Still, his sharp direction keeps the horror elements moving briskly through the cobwebs and gloom. His eye glides past long hallways filled with billowing curtains in front of opened windows, it plays with each relative’s sinister potential for thwarting Annabelle's inheritance with its expressive close-ups, and it goes beyond verisimilitude as emotionally charged superimpositions coalesce into dramatic scenes. I would have loved to see his camerawork unleashed in Browning's Dracula."

Jeremy, Billy Bounce, Jimmy, and Clorinda looked at me.

"Superimpositions," interjected Zombos, "are images put on top of other images."

"Oh, I get it," said Jimmy. "You mean like the towering medicine bottles that slowly turn into the mansion's ominous silhouette, or the image of the grandfather clock's gears striking midnight over the scene of the reading of the will, as everyone is gathered around the table in the library."

"Right," I said. The Hermle Grandfather clock in the west hallway starting chiming the twelfth hour.

"Ooh, that gives me goosebumps," said Glenor shivering.

"Speaking of goosebumps, that creepy housekeeper, Mammy Pleasant--love that name--played intensely by Martha Mattox, provided the role model for sinister butlers and maids in subsequent movies," I said. "She reminds me of that other creepy housekeeper in Robert Wise's The Haunting, trying to scare everybody with talk of ghosts and such. Of course, being the only person in the mansion for twenty years, it's no wonder she's a bit nipped around the buds."

"Now this is odd," said Jimmy, holding up two envelopes. "I only remember one envelope from your Uncle Hiram, not two. That's funny. This is exactly what happened in the movie. The killer slipped in the second envelope into the wall safe just before the reading of the will. It named the next relative in line for the inheritance should Annabelle not last the night."

"Killer?" asked Billy Bounce. Glenore had given up on refilling his glass and just left the bottle of Jack Daniels with him. "What killer?"

"Well, in the movie, the lawyer Roger Crosby is murdered. It's his body that eventually winds up doing a pratfall from Annabelle's closet. So the movie turns into a whodunit when that happens." Jimmy cleared his throat. "Umm...well. I'll figure this out soon enough. Zombos, where's the checklist I left you? I want to see if I recorded this second envelope twenty years ago."

"Over in the Irish tin biscuit box, by the bookcase there," pointed Zombos. Jimmy stood up, stretched, and walked over to the bookcase.

"The intertitles are lots of fun to read, too." I added. "Nice transitions are used for the text to create a spooky effect here and there. The opening title credits appear as a hand wipes away the cobwebs covering them. For a silent movie it all moves pretty briskly as Leni's gliding, ever inquisitive camera keeps the mood gloomy and spooky, and us in the middle of the mystery. It's a testament to the movie's novelty that it's been remade five times."

"Speaking of time, I say, Jimmy, did you find the checklist? Jimmy?" Zombos looked over to the bookcase. We followed his gaze. "Now where the deuce has he gotten to? Did anyone see him leave the room?

"I'll go check the closets," I said jokingly. No one laughed.

Picture courtesy of Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans

Movie Review: The Final Destination (2009)

Zombos Says: Good

"What are you doing?" asked Zombos.

I dog-eared the page I was reading. "I'm sorry?"

"You have not written your review of The Final Destination," he said.

"Death goes a-deathing. People die horribly. What's more to say beyond that?

"You see, there, that is your problem. You are not creative enough. Now, I have been thinking of ways you can add je ne sais quoi to your reviews. They have been rather stale lately."

"Really?" I said, but not with much enthusiasm.

He continued, ignoring my lack of enthusiasm.

"Yes. For instance, why not look at doing a review in a completely different way."

"Way?" I asked.

"Way." He jabbed his right forefinger into his left palm." Take The Final Destination." He rested his forefinger on his chin. "Let me think, yes, I have the perfect answer to creatively review it: Walt Whitman." He waved his forefinger for emphasis.

"Walt Whitman?" I asked.

"Yes, Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass: I hear America Singing. There. Now go, fly with it!"

He flew out of the room, leaving me with one of those conundrums in a peanut shell situation we all face now and then. I seem to get them a lot, though.

If Walt Whitman were a zombie he'd eat me for sure after this.

 

I Hear the Deathly Screaming
in The Final Destination

 

I hear Nick and Lori, Hunt and Janet screaming, and cussing, and breathing heavy and hard, their varied shrieks of fear I hear,

From death's mechanics, each one swung with his scythe wide, as it should be blithe

and strong, whilst whacking heads and limbs akimbo, bone and muscle, and formerly high spirits,

into fallow, shallow ground of McKinley Speedway,

and everywhere else they run

Nick shrieking his premonitions, he measures his chances, nail and coffin width long, as George the security guard runs in fright from his inevitable smackdown, tries hanging himself,

but still no good
Lori hissy-fitting her bewilderment as she makes ready for ignoring death's hooves fastly approaching, or leaves off
salvation by not believing in Nick's foreshadows of graveyard co-ops, for all, coming soon enough,

Hunt bemoaning Charon's dire boatman dirging of what belongs to him in his rotting boat, the pool man cursing the
sticky mess Hunt leaves behind, all suckered innards spouting in fountains of grue, clearing out the pool real fast, as sparking electrical circuits burn bright

Janet screaming as she drives through her car wash, the bristly-brushes whizzing closer as she sticks her head in their way,
but stay the Grand Guignol hand and spoil the girl,
to vain thoughts of
giddily escaping death's plan
until later, when he can dish it out even worse, of course

Lori's song of mistaken relief, the deathboy's not on his way in the morning, or at nooning intermission, or at sundowning, to sharpen his blade 'gainst wet red oozing twitching body parts

The delicious grinding of the escalator, or zinging of the shearing metal flying, or the phat tire splatting, or the
air-compressed canister flattening, all in marvelously punctuated 3D
Each groaning what body parts belong to him or her and to no one else, though it's all mixed up

The day what belongs to death—at night the parade of dead
teens, robustly still dead, or dying, or waiting their turn
Screaming with open mouths,
when left intact,
their strong outcries in stereophonic crescendos, 'gainst awaiting another destination,
'cause it ain't over yet 'til the fat lady gets hers

or the audience stops coming,

but then they'll reimagine,
rework,
rewrite,
rethink,
rekindle
this franchise till no one else remains,
but death grinning over all

Interview: Gino Crognale's Makeup Effects For Sorority Row

by Scott Essman

When you conjure images of the sets of classic horrors such as Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera, Jack Pierce’s The Wolf Man with Lon Chaney, Jr. or Frankenstein’s Monster with Boris Karloff, and Wally Westmore’s Mr. Hyde with Fredric March, you picture the lone makeup artist creating magical character concepts inside a cramped makeup studio, then arriving with his makeup kit to the set of his movie alone to realize the character for film. Such was the case with Gino Crognale on the new horror picture Sorority Row.

Like many in makeup effects, Crognale originally paid his dues in the trenches of makeup effects studios Los Angeles. “I’m originally from Philadelphia and I lived in LA from 1983 to 2001,” he said. “I left for a good place to raise my kids. I had enough years under my belt so that I could leave and do my thing.”

Heading for Pittsburgh, Crognale had a job teaching makeup at Tom Savini’s school for 8-9 months. “It was a good gig to come back to, but I had to get back to what I really love,” Crognale said of creating makeup effects for movies. “We were in Austin shooting Sin City and Greg Nicotero [of KNB EFX Group, who Crognale has known since 1985] said that they were shooting George Romero’s mega-zombie Land of the Dead movie in Pittsburgh. But George couldn’t get Pittsburgh, so George packed up and went to Toronto and shot it there.”

Later, Crognale returned to Pittsburgh to work in the business when he was offered Sorority Row via the producer on another film, Bill Bannerman. “He thought he had a show that I could knock out myself,” said Crognale. “I got the script and did a breakdown and got the gig. Bill knew the town, and I was the guy. I was working for Bob Kurtzman from KNB on this movie that shot in India. I literally wrapped on his show on September 10 and Bill called me on September 11 for Sorority Row.

After doing a rudimentary makeup effects breakdown by circling everything in the script that would be part of his department, Crognale put together a budget and “build list” for all of his makeups and effects gags based on a schedule of when production was shooting his work. “We had to hit the ground running with this,” he said. “I built the whole show out of my garage. It was old school, like [makeup legend] Dick Smith building in his basement. All of the artwork, sculptures, and molding were done here in my garage and some finishing things at Bob Kurtzman’s. It was a wonderful experience for me after years of doing things. We were treating it like we were 19!”

In all, Crognale executed 11 gags – he was hired September 12, 2008 and started shooting October 5. With a short schedule and working all alone, Crognale drew on his years of experience to create makeups and gags that were both impressive on film and delivered in a timely manner. “When you are pressed for time, you don’t have the luxury of time or R&D,” he said. “I had nobody assisting me in the lab or on set. I had a runner that production gave me to do my supply runs. Pittsburgh has a good plaster place and fiberglass place plus chain stores that have the paints we use.”

Diving into the show, first up for Crognale on the Sorority Row schedule was the creation of the fake head and upper torso to resemble Margo Harshman for her death scene playing the character of Chugs. “It was a complete sculpture all the way,” Crognale said for his initial foray into the effects work. “I had three weeks to crank that out in addition to getting everything else ready. I hadn’t seen Margo Harshman to that point. I had a buddy in LA lifecast Margo’s face and it was shipped to me, but it was totally destroyed. The cast wasn’t great, so I had to do a silicone mold on that and reproduce it from the ground up getting photos from production and online. I finally got it done and took it to set.”

Given his limited time on the build, the Chugs head is a remarkable achievement as even in closeup photos, it is identical to Harshman in every way. “It was made out of silicone and heavily plasticized,” said Crognale of a prop which would have a glass bottle stuck into its mouth. “I had sculpted it a little smaller than the bottle. The fiberglass underskull would give it that stretch of the mouth going open, filling that vacancy in the throat.”

On location, Crognale delivered the Chugs head for filming, becoming one of the best gags in the film. “We had that lock on the location on the north side of Pittsburgh and we only had it for two nights in mid-October,” he explained of the shoot. “Everybody was happy with it and we shot it a lot and got everything we needed. Later in the show, we were shooting in this old film lab place where we did a couple more inserts with the Chugs head with the bottle going down her throat.The director Stewart Hendler wanted a couple of different angles. It was fun being put to that test.”

While preparing the Chugs head, Crognale simultaneously had to get the makeup ready for Jamie Chung whose character gets a flare shot into her mouth for another grisly kill. Crognale explained the evolution of the makeup effects on the performers, such as with Chung’s death. “Once I had all of the gags written out, I sat down with Stewart,” he said. “Those are the best meetings. I have a list of stuff to build and he tells me what they need to see. With Jamie, he still wanted to see her eyes – just make her mouth and neck bubbly.”

Unbelievably, because Crognale had no access to Chung until the actress arrived in Pittsburgh, he unconventionally had to build her whole makeup generically. “I pulled an old lifecast of a female, and sculpted it on her; I didn’t know how it was going to lay down on Jamie until the night we shot it,” he said, revealing some makeup tricks. “I tested it the night we shot it, flying by the seat of your paints. Because I have enough years in, I was able to do it. She got a kick out of it. She had the foam latex makeup on her in an hour and fifteen minutes.”

One key to Chung’s makeup was hiding a wire that the practical special effects team needed to rig a gag with the makeup. “We had to conceal this wire along the side of her face and underneath the prosthetic and glue that bubbling skin over the wire,” Crognale described. “It was a big challenge getting that wire to lay down and blend the makeup off over the wire. The makeup was not bloody – just sore and blistery. We shot it that way, then added some black and did a few more takes.”

Another major task on Sorority Row was creating a full body appliance for the death scene of Audrina Patridge. “I had to build a whole fake chest of Audrina that would bleed,” Crognale stated. “The blood was squirting out but they didn’t use [much of] it the movie. How they edit it and cut it wasn’t as good as what we shot. It was a basic rubber body with a nice paint job on the finish which sold it.”

For scenes taking place long after Patridge’s death in the story, Crognale also had to create a full Audrina corpse. “I kept e-mailing Stewart asking how long she had been dead in that well,” Crognale said of the development stages. “He said, ‘anywhere between a year and a year and a half, but you still have to have some skin.’ I thought it would look cool with hair – old school horror stuff. I did a light hair job and hand punched some around the front and kept doing that with her whole body, mixing and matching skin and bone. When I finally had it done, Stewart just lost it. You know when you hit a homer with these guys when they really enjoy it.”

After weeks of development, the finished Audrina corpse was made out of polyfoam and latex and took an 8-10 hour day painting it to make it look “cool and decayed.” Of the finished look of the corpse, Crognale noted that the paint job was essential, as is the case for many special makeup effects. “It all came together in the paint,” he said.

Another memorable gag was Leah Pipes’ death scene by a “pimped-out tire iron” which she gets right in the mouth. “I had to get a teeth cast of Leah and built these upper and lower dentures that only locked into the back of her mouth – an H-shaped solid piece,” Crognale explained. “The top molars were locked in and bottom molars locked in – I made a dental apparatus that opened her mouth wide and the tire iron centered into. She would feel a little bit of pressure of the weight of it. Then, I poured blood in her mouth with this whole thing anchored in her mouth. I also built a piece behind her hair for an exit piece – but you can’t even see it in the movie.”

For the Pipes gag, Crognale noted its simplicity and how he had to figure out the angle of attack. “Stewart would ask me to change it another 1/8 inch,” he said. “While she was acting on another stage, I would ask for her and get it into the right angle. It went really well the night we did it – it was her last shot on the movie – getting stabbed in the mouth, and I pulled it out, and they wrapped her!

Other gags included an apparatus for another tire iron in the head, a pair of legs set to break with appliance of a bone coming out through a pair of pants, and slashed wrists on a character which are so bloody that you can’t even make them out. For Carrie Fisher, Crognale built a bleeding rig harness for the actress that went over her left breast. It had an exit piece of the tire iron and a piece comes through the front of her that she leaned into.

If doing his scheduled work was not enough, Crognale noted that production later “threw a couple of different ones at me. They wanted an actor to get hit in the back of the head with an ax.” With no prep time and a full plate already in place, Crognale improvised. “I dug through my molds and found an old lifecast. I rigged a whole gag where the guy gets an ax in the back of the head and there is this blood explosion, then he is lying there with the ax handle in his head. I rigged it with paint job and wardrobe. We shot it on an insert stage with four-five takes where I would repack the blood bags. I built a fiberglass plate that he wore in the back of his head. It was a nice camera angle that sells it.”

Looking back nearly a year from production schedule to the September 2009 release of the film, Crognale took stock of his achievements on Sorority Row. “Bill [Bannerman] gave me this challenge, and I didn’t want to let him down, but I knew that I couldn’t have made any mistakes,” Crognale summarized. “It’s a great feeling when you see the light at the end of the tunnel and knew that you could pull it off. It was a challenge personally and professionally, and I just wanted to do right by these guys – they put their faith in me. There were nights where I kept working [long into the night], but it was fine. When it’s all on you, you’ve got to come through. I hope we do another one!”

LOTT D: Pick a Post Sensation 15 Jennifer's Body Autopsy

Beware! The members of the League of Tana Tea Drinkers dig six feet deep to bring you the Jennifer's Body autopsy, to share their varied views on this girl-eats-boy horrorfest.

I Love Horror -- "While the plot certainly leaves something to be desired, nearly every problem associated with Jennifer’s Body can be directly contributed to Diablo Cody’s dialogue."

Kindertrauma -- "The trick is to not think of it as a horror film because the horror elements are really just decorative. This is more of a black comedy like HEATHERS with a bit of THE CRAFT thrown in..."

Dinner With Max Jenke -- "It doesn't reinvent the genre but it's distinctly different from its competition and that alone is commendable. The advertising campaign is totally misleading, though."

Day of the Woman -- "I seriously have always wondered what happens if someone sacrifices a girl to Satan and she wasn't a virgin." (And, on a tangential note, DOTW takes on PoppaScotch regarding the reality of feminist horror films.)

TheoFantastique -- "In the discussion Poole notes that Jennifer’s Body includes a subtle attempt ”to sneak a feminist message into the cineplex, subverting the paradigm of horror films in which women are merely the shrieking victims of male violence.”

Zombos' Closet of Horror -- "Jennifer's Body has artistic touches that come from how it uses dialog, its characters, and its story to create a familiar but stylish rhythm scored with traditional horror tropes."

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Groovy Age of Horror

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Curt Purcell of Groovy Age of Horror reveals the influences, from Lovecraft to Eurotrash, that keep him in the groove of horror.

I guess having kids makes some people start going back to church. When my dad went back, pre-millennialist dispensational eschatology sank such deep hooks into him that his idea of a bedtime Bible story was reading me the freakiest prophecies and visions from Daniel, Ezekiel, and the Book of Revelation. Whatever religious lessons he meant to impart were lost on young me, but the frightful, bizarre imagery sure made an impression.  My enduring fascination for the weird and fantastic probably traces back in large part to that.

Two of the first books I chose for myself from the library and struggled through mostly on my own were companion collections of Greek and Norse mythology. They probably should have been way above my reading comprehension level, but they were treasure-troves of grotesque creatures and uncanny figures, and I was determined to mine them for all they had to offer.