PROFESSIONAL MAKEUP & SPECIAL EFFECTS

Gene Mazza

An Essay by Gene Mazza aka DedKid published in the "Hacker's Source"

July 23, 2002

        A couple months ago, a friend of mine called me up to tell me he had auditioned for an indie horror flick up in Lake Peekskill, NY.  “Cool”, I said.  “I told them about you.”  My eyes lit up, “No fuckin’ shit?” I asked.  “Yeah, the director’s gonna call you.” VERY cool.  FYI, I’ve been messing around with FX for years, something I got into when, no joke, I was in the fifth grade and wanted to be Jason for Halloween.  Since the only consumer grade hockey masks available at the time sucked and looked nothing like Jason, I opted to drill extra holes in mine and paint it to the best of my ability.  I went as far as shredding up some old clothes (this was 1988, I was 11 years old and Part VII, The New Blood had just come out and had such a profound effect on my young psyche), I got a plastic machete and painted it to give the illusion that it was all rusty and bloody.  Since then, I’ve had the bug.  Now, here was an opportunity I had been craving.  Smack me upside the head. 

A few nights later, as I sat in the smoke-hazed studio space I set up for myself in the garage, the phone rang.  “Thrill me” I intoned.  Prophetic words when viewed in hindsight.  MAJOR fucking thrill.

“Gene?”

“Yup.”

“This is Glen Baisley, of Light & Dark Productions.  You were referred to me by someone I just cast in my upcoming film.”

“Oh really?!”

“Yeah.  Listen, I heard you do FX.”

“I do.”

“Good, I need an FX man.”

And so it began. 

You see, up until now, the limit of my experience with films had been props.  Tombstones, skulls, limbs, etc., I was never even required to be on set.  It was always, “This is what I need, what’s it gonna cost me?”  I’d give them the figures, do the work, drop it off (a couple of them picked the stuff up or sent their PA’s to do it) and that was the extent of it.  Over the course of this initial conversation we had, Glen informed me of stabbings, guttings, beatings, psychos, werewolves, beheadings and other things that got the little fan boy inside me all geeky.  It was clear my presence would be required and that I would be doing actual FX work as opposed to just making shit in my garage that I’d hand off and never see in person again.  No, I was actually going to be INVOLVED in the creative process.  I crossed my fingers and hoped I didn’t make too much of an ass out of myself during that conversation. 

I sent him the link to my website and we arranged a meeting so I could show him some props and masks I had laying around.  I hung up the phone, glowing with morbid glee at the prospect of engineering the brutal deaths of total strangers.  At least I was being considered.  It beats the hell out of flat out rejection.  We met in a diner, hit it off, and to ice the cake, he dug my work.  I was in.  I drove home in a state of disbelief.

Fast forward to April, 2002.  Glen called together myself, Brian Spears and Peter Gerner (two amazingly talented gents also providing the gore on the project) to take a life cast of Fangoria’s managing editor, Mike Gingold, who would be portraying diabolical fictitious filmmaker, Winston Korman.  My first thought - “Holy shit!”  I mean, this is the number two guy at the only major publication that caters to our small contingent.  Pleasant and good-humored, the casting went off without any of the hitches typically associated with the process.  He was a good patient and the cast came out PERFECT.  Props to Brian and Peter for sculpting a really brutal looking appliance on top of it, these guys have been truly awesome to work with.  While we were casting on it, in my head, like a mantra, was the refrain, “This is really happening.”  Small indie flick or not, I was finally at the gateway of my wet dreams.

The events following as production ramped up will forever be etched in my mind like a scar from a white-hot chainsaw blade.  I learned firsthand all the boring and stressful parts of filmmaking that “the guys on the side” deal with, like waiting around for hours for take after take after take, only to spring into action at breakneck speed to get an effect applied before the sun moves too far west, which could’ve ruined the continuity of where shadows fell.  Or sitting around an incredibly hot, humid hayloft at one in the morning, constantly reapplying blood because the heat was making the Caro runny (and it was mixed with a thickening agent too), with the smell of fresh horseshit wafting up through the floor.  And of course, how could one forget working in a condemned farmhouse that was home to birds that would periodically dive bomb and crap all over everything throughout the course of the day? 

Suffer as we may have for our art, I have no complaints because some of the stuff that’s happened was just too ludicrous to take seriously.  No matter how taxing the situation, we were all able to find the humor in it.  Even the time I volunteered to do a stunt bit as a slasher in a gas mask.  I wound up getting whacked but good with a steel chair (all I’m saying is that better look awesome on film).  Now, I felt, I had really lived both spectrums of the dream.  This time, not only did I get to slop gore on people and rend heads from bodies, but I also got suited up in front of the camera to chase a scantily clad babe of an actress around with an axe.  I was so pumped up when we did that, I asked the director if he’d be able to work something in that would allow me to walk through a glass door.  Everyone else on hand was too uneasy with the idea and determined that I had finally lost my gourd.  The clothes I had on were protective enough, I reasoned.  But, no dice.  Maybe one of these days.  As I’ve said, I have no complaints.

The Tenement is an anthology a la Creepshow/Tales From The Darkside.  Four stories, plus a wraparound narrative.  The first segment (which stars Gingold and Seduction Cinema starlet Suzi Leigh) is the origin story of “The Black Rose Killer”, a slasher introduced in Light & Dark’s first feature (award winning feature to be precise), Fear of The Dark.  This budding stalker, Ethan (played by my friend, Joe Lauria, who referred me), is in a situation reminiscent to that of the late, great Norman Bates, and after a humiliating series of events, this milquetoast horror fan snaps.  Throughout the story, Ethan watches the films of B-Movie master and all around prick, Winston Korman.  Creating the Korman films that Ethan so adores has certainly been the highlight of working on this.  It was within that context that I got to play slasher myself and just recently, perform a gutting with a tripe (a cow’s stomach in case you don’t know, but I’m sure most of you do) in a hot, cramped basement that was overtaken by the stench of spoiling innards.  Glen told me he just cut that scene together and ‘disturbing’ is the word that came to mind when he watched it and that he doesn’t trust me around sharp objects anymore.  Call me happy as the proverbial pig in shit, but to me, that’s just an amazing compliment, one that I’m still taken aback over.

Next story, certainly my favorite concept of the whole film, centers on a rather neurotic fellow who starts becoming a werewolf.  Or does he?  It’s in the vein (pun intended) of Romero’s masterwork, Martin.  This one’s also got a really wicked sense of humor and a great actor named Mike Lane filling the lead.  He’s got a knack for spur of the moment improv, having spat out some really clever lines right there on the spot that I think will help this tale stand apart from the others.  Have I mentioned how much I love the concept itself?

Third, we have a tale of a psycho cab driver picking up and even more psychotic female fare (which also features some fine G & S corpse bits that were used in Midnight Mass).  This installment also yielded one of the funniest moments of the shoot that I can’t reveal because it’d be a huge spoiler, but it involved someone “taking a shot in the mouth” and a rectal syringe.  Use your imagination (insert sinister cackle here).

And lastly, is the story of an odd mute girl, being terrorized by the local voyeur, but there’s someone - - or something - - watching after her.  This is probably the most twisted story out of them all, very ethereal in tone and cruel at heart.          

My first two major responsibilities on the project were to make a shovel that we could safely beat Mike Gingold with and create a mask for a character called Rellik, who appears in one of the Korman films.  The shovel, while safer than a real one, wound up bruising Mike up a bit (I’m bad, or was the overzealous Ethan to blame?), but he was a good sport about it.  Though he did vow revenge on Glen in some way, shape or form.  I told him I’d help him devise a spectacular chainsaw death by way of bisection from crotch to throat.  He grinned and Glen looked worried for a minute.  This one’s going to be held over his head for a while.  Rellik was a different story.  As I touched on earlier, I have a deep fascination with masked slashers (Jason, Myers, Leatherface, The Prowler, etc.).  Now having the chance to create my own, I immediately set to the task of producing an armload of sketches.  We selected one and from there I developed a prototype.  I handed it off and Glen took it down to the Chiller convention.  He told me the mask had received kudos from Tom Savini.  Someone stab me so I know if I’m tripping or not.

The night Rellik went into action, I reached the Frankenstein moment.  Watching this very large (and by large, I mean built) mountain of a guy in the outfit terrorize a half naked babe on a cross, I felt like I was watching my firstborn.  Fortunately, this incredibly large, intimidating guy happened to be incredibly polite and good natured, because he had on a thick leather trench coat, black shirt, black jeans, boots, leather gloves, spiked gauntlets and the mask.  He easily could’ve beaten all of us had the discomfort driven him to do so.    

Being so involved in the creation of this mini-opus has given me the opportunity to do more than I’d ever dared to hope (up to and including the directing of a pivotal scene) and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, even if I’m not smiling in the behind-the-scenes pictures I wound up in.  I realize that this is still small scale and that I may wind up back in the garage when all is said and done with it, but it’s given me a taste of what it’d be like to be doing this for real.  And what can I say?  I want more.

What’s the relevance to all this?  Nothing really, just one fan boy to a few hundred more relating a positive experience, one that I’d like to have again, and certainly would LOVE to have in an even more professional capacity.  If that happens, I might die of shock, because I never thought I’d get out of the garage, even if only for a brief while.  I’m enjoying it while I can and learning never to say “never” again.  And by all means, if you’re ever afforded a chance to pitch in on a production, no matter how small, I say grab that bull by the balls.  So what if it’s only an epic to you?  Being in the company of like minds, watching and doing the things that are done in turn to provide us with the horror we cherish, is an experience that I feel can be appreciated by blood-buffs the world around.

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