I Want to See Blood! Horror and Special Effects

By: Mario Ayanami.

Generally, in a movie we always care about who's acting, who's directing, who's doing the music… Rarely do people also ask about the writer. But few people ask about the visual effects artist. Those images that hit us so hard, full of blood, dismemberment, wounds, and other wonders. Those masters of latex, unsung heroes, never getting the credit they deserve from audiences. Even so, some of them even have reality shows for beginners! Let's talk about five masters of special effects who have filled our screens with blood.

Tom Savini

Of course, we had to start with “The Godfather of Gore.” His career began in 1977 with Martin, a film by George A. Romero that would become the first of several collaborations. He then went on to make Dawn of the dead, Friday the 13th,Creepshow and Trauma. His popularity is such that he even appeared in an episode ofThe Simpsons. Away from makeup and effects, he directed his first film in 1990: the remake of Night of the Living Dead. In the link below, you can watch a clip from the documentary about his career, Smoke and mirrors, featuring interviews with Robert Rodríguez, Jerry Only (Misfits), George Romero, and Danny Trejo.

Smoke and Mirrors (abre en nueva pestaña)

Yûichi Matsui

The Japanese artist is responsible for the boom of pale dead girls in Asian cinema. Before the trope was exploited to exhaustion, they had a spine-chilling appearance. You wouldn't want to run into the girl from Ringu under any circumstances. Among his works are Audition, Ju-On and the adaptation of Parasite Eve (yes, the same one that would later spawn the PlayStation game). His work is known in American cinema, thanks to his Tarantino-esque odyssey in Kill Bill vol. 1.

Ringu (abre en nueva pestaña)

Dick Smith

Having passed away last year, Smith only worked on two horror films, but they were impactful enough to leave his mark on the genre: The Exorcist andScanners. We owe this man Regan's characterization and all her transformations. He himself stated that the makeup for Max Von Sydow was more elaborate, since in one scene he had to look 30 years older (the Swedish actor was 44 at the time). For Cronenberg's classic, he created the telepathic duels and the famous opening sequence where a head explodes in the middle of a conference. On this film, he had the help of Chris Walas, who would go on to do the special effects for The Fly andRaiders of the Lost Ark.

Scanners - Explosion (abre en nueva pestaña)

Gianetto De Rossi

The Italian makeup artist began his career on one of the entries in the erotic saga,Emmanuelle, putting his talent to use on the snuff scenes that appear in it, as well as acid burns and a woman's torn breasts. Impressed, director Lucio Fulci recruited him for the second part of Zombi. The result: an extremely gory, grotesque, and violent film; one of the best special effects works in all of film history. De Rossi would go on to collaborate on other Fulci films:The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. He would go on to Hollywood to work alongside David Lynch on Dune. He later did the effects for Rambo III, especially the scenes where he cauterizes his own wound with gunpowder.

Zombie 2 (abre en nueva pestaña)

Rick Baker

Of course, we couldn't leave out the great idol of American makeup. Winner of 7 Oscars, his work has been so varied that it has ranged from the music video for Thriller by Michael Jackson to the fat-suit movies with Eddie Murphy. His true passion has always been horror films and bizarre creatures. He started as Dick Smith's assistant on The Exorcist and since then created the effects for The Incredible Melting Man, An American Werewolf in London,The Howling, Videodrome and The Fury. Thanks to him, Martin Landau had the perfect look to portray Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood.

American Werewolf (abre en nueva pestaña)

By: Mario Valencia for Macabro FICH05