On this edition of Parallax Views, we’ve got a monster-sized treat of an episode to help you get in the spirit of the spooky season as Halloween approaches.
Have you ever wondered about the movie magic that’s employed to make some of your favorite horror movies? What are the behind-the-scenes secrets of special effects (SFX) and make-up effects (MUFX) in such frightful franchises as HELLRAISER, HALLOWEEN, CANDYMAN, BLADE, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, FEAST, THE EXORCIST, PUMKPKINHEAD, and PIRANHA? Joining us to shed light on that is a legend of the special make-up effects world and a true maestro of the macabre: Gary J. Tunnicliffe. He’s worked on all the above-named properties and much more designing iconic kills and monsters in a massive slew of cinematic scarefests over the years and has many stories to tell in this previously unpublished conversation that run over 2+ hours and, hopefully, is a fascinating, rollicking ride throughout. Gary and I discuss how he got into make-up effects, applying make-up effects on Doug Bradley to bring to life the character of Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies, the trials and tribulations of applying make-up to actors for hours at a time, creating the climatic effects for Stephen Dorff’s demise in BLADE, a gross-out story from Gary’s puppeteering work on PIRANHA 3DD, designing kills in movies like HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (and being brought in for reshoots on already complete movies like the aforementioned film), CGI and deep fakes, designing creatures like PUMPKINHEAD and the cenobite Angelique in HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE, working for colorful producer Bob Weinstein at Dimension Films, the making of a grisly, gory kill in Patrick Lussier’s MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D, Gary’s work on Renny Harlin’s EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING, Gary’s interpretation of Clive Barker’s HELLRAISER, working with David Fincher on GONE GIRL, putting bees on actor Tony Todd in one of the CANDYMAN movies, and much, much more!
