SFX Legend Shaune Harrison on Crafting Cinematic Nightmares

In this must-listen episode, legendary SFX makeup artist Shaune Harrison joins Aran Doyle for a deep dive into a career that’s helped shape some of the most unforgettable creatures and cinematic nightmares in horror and beyond.

From his early days discovering a love for horror through childhood movie memories, to his breakout work on Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, Hardware, Waxwork II, Children of the Corn, and the Hellraiser franchise — Shaun shares the gritty, creative journey of an artist obsessed with the transformative power of special effects.

We explore the chaotic behind-the-scenes world of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, what it’s really like working inside massive Hollywood machines like Harry Potter and Star Wars, and why Shaune always finds himself drawn back to the horror genre with films like Blood Creek, World War Z, Dracula Untold, and most recently, Pan’s: Neverland Nightmare.

Shaune also shares candid insights into:

• Running his acclaimed FX school, The Prosthetics Studio
• The mindset needed to survive and thrive in the world of practical effects
• Why passion still drives him after decades in the industry
• His current work on the ambitious Twisted Childhood Universe
• And, of course, his all-time favourite horror films and pastimes

Whether you’re a horror fan, aspiring artist, or just love hearing stories from the cinematic trenches — this episode is packed with wisdom, wild anecdotes, and bloody good inspiration.

Subscribe, rate, and listen now — and don’t forget to check out more of Shaune’s work and his school at [The Prosthetics Studio]. 

For more of my content - Check out - https://linktr.ee/FirstClassHorror

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/class-horror-cast--4295531/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You can run, but you can't.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Guide From the class hardcast Hunting you from the Emerald Isle,
your host Aaron Doyle takes you on a journey to
the depths of horror with exclusive interviews, horror news, reviews,
and more. Tickets Please you were about you enter the
theater of the mad Enjoy.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
The show, Sean, Welcome to the show. A pleasure to
have you on. How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah? Good? Thanks, thanks Aaron. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I always like to go back to start. And I
know you've probably been asked this a million times already,
but just I guess, in a really brief way of explaining,
how did you first? I guess people see you now
and see the career you've had so far and continue
to have, and you know, they kind of just assumed
this was always the way. But how did you? How

(00:53):
did you get into all of this?

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I mean, I've always been interested in kind of fantasy,
even when I was kind of eight nine, so you know,
I was into dinosaurs. I was into kind of the
Ray Harry House and stuff Jason the Argonauts, and I
started probably around the age of ten eleven, started to
work make things on action men and stuff like that.
At the time, using potting and plaster scene and things

(01:21):
like that, and it just kind of progressed from that.
And then when I was started buying film magazines like
star Bird, I think it was only really like star
Burst Out and star Log and Syney Fantastic. This was
like the early eighties. I just kind of thought, you know,
this is now getting a bit more interesting. And then
I saw a trailer on it was film eighty one

(01:42):
for American Wealth in London, and I completely blew my
mind seeing that transformation. I was thirteen years old and
I had no clue how it was done. I kind
of assumed it was all stop motion because that's kind
of what I knew as growing up, and I just
tried to make it, tried to copy the world wolf
stretching out the face. So then it was just a

(02:02):
case of me sat in my bedroom for years after
years working on stuff, and then starting to get more
elaborate building stuff. And obviously the early eighties you were
getting so many great films coming out. You know, you
had to howl in and America Werewolf the thing. So
I was always popy stuff from the films. Obviously, I
was nowhere near at any levels to anything with chat,

(02:25):
but I just wanted to try and build stuff and
just you know, start working that way with it all really.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So yeah, like I feel like, you know, a lot
of times we see maybe the end product or close
to the end in somebody's you know, behind the scenes
documentaries and special features, but from your point of view,
like how much research. I feel like there's a lot
of research that has to go in from your point
of view before you even put your hand to anything.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean, I think stuff like with special makeup
and prosthetics. I mean, the only the thing I was
thinking is you've got to be really into it. You've
got to have a real passion for it. And it
is hard. I mean, especially in the eighties, it was
really hard to find information out about what the stuff
was and how to get hold of it. I mean,
there was no behind the scenes back then. I think

(03:16):
the first time I'd ever seen it behind the scenes
bit of footage was from Michael Jackson's Thriller, which was
nineteen eighty three. Obviously, I've got the video of that,
and I just watched it over and over again because
Rick Baker had like a fifteen minute making off and
that was kind of like incredible to see behind the scenes.
I mean, nowadays it's so much easier to find stuff,

(03:37):
but then you've got to filter through everything to find
the good quality stuff. You know, there's a lot of
stuff online now you think these people are giving you
the wrong ideas about how to do effects and how
to make stuff. But I mean, you really do need
a massive passion for it, you know, I mean, I
I mean, I love what I do. I've done it
for thirty or thirty six, thirty seven years, and I

(03:58):
still make stuff in my spare time because I just
enjoy making stuff. You know, it's fun.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Do you think sometimes as well, or for the most part,
actually that that's what separates like great work from kind
of good work.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, I think. You know, if you see people in
the industry who you know, like Rick Baker, I mean
Rick seventy five, I think seventy four, you know, and
he's still making stuff. He's still doing art, he's still
painting stuff, he's still sculpting things. You know. I always
push myself to be better than what I've done before,
and usually when I've made something, I kind of get

(04:33):
a bit frustrated with it because obviously a lot of
times when you're working on films, is you know you
want to make it the best you can possibly do,
but sometimes you run out of time, so you'll probably
spend six months on your own personal project so you
can make people go, well, why couldn't you make that
look as good as the film? Where it's like, well,
I had six months to play around with it. You know,

(04:54):
you can really really finesse stuff that way, whereas with
films you've got deadlines. But you know you're chasing that
all the time.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
When you say you do stuff in your spare time
like that, is that obviously to you know, to work
on your craft and you enjoy doing things like that,
But do you is it a case of like, you know,
I would love to have a bust of that thing
from my that movie I love, or you know, I'd
love to have a mask of that thing that I like.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
Yeah, there'll there'll be something that I may see something
on TV or film, or I may see something online.
I think, oh, that's such a cool idea. I might
do a version of it. You know, everyone always wants
to do the greatest Frankenstein creation. You know, whenever a
new film comes out that has a classic creature everyone
is like, oh, what's this going to look like? You know,

(05:43):
so expectations. You're always you want to see the ultimate
coolest creature, and then you know you can see something
that's maybe somebody else couldn't see in it. And we've
had that where I've seen people sculpting stuff and I think, Oh,
it wouldn't it be cool if you change it this
way and try to make you look a little like this.
You know, So we're always I love history of horror

(06:05):
and history of films. So I'll say to someone I
remember in that film in the nineteen seventies. They're like, no,
but you know, so you're always trying to reference things
that you've seen in older films because I think sometimes
they're the best type of creatures.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
Do you think that we're starting to maybe come back
around again, like in a full circle in a way,
Like I see Universal Orlando are opening their new team park,
Epic Universe in May, and they have a land dedicated
to Universal answers. Yeah, and then you have Halloween. Hornitz
are doing their year round thing in Vegas. I think

(06:39):
that's opening in the summer, and they have a house
dediquette to Universal answers. Do you think like that's kind
of shown the star power of some of these older
like Hammer Horror and things like that.

Speaker 3 (06:49):
Oh, absolutely, one hundred percent. I mean, look at ages
of things like Frankenstein, you know, in the early thirties,
you know, you will get up to nearly over ninety
years early, you know, and that's crazy. There's some of
them characters like you know, Carlos Frankenstein is still the
greatest Frankene sign has ever been done because he had
a great face to work from. And I think that's

(07:11):
the case. Everyone wants to see a new version of
something classic. We're from my point view, I'm always scared
that you're going to see something that's cgi. You know,
you want to see a practical suit and practical makeup.
I mean, interestingly, when you mentioned the Florida Universal Theme Park,
we worked on something for them three years ago. It

(07:32):
was a Harry Potter theme park party. Yeah, so we
did something for that.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
For the new one that's yet to open, yeah, that may. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
I think we filmed for a day back in June
twenty twenty two for it, which is a bit crazy.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Will you guys get out there when it opens to
see it?

Speaker 3 (07:53):
I hope So I'd like to. It won't be this year,
but I'd like to go next year and have a
lot and just see, you know, see what the I mean.
It was something I've done before for Harry Potter, so
it was quite nice to kind of go back and
revisit that again. The character and stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Was that just kind of like a I don't want
to say like a given, but is that a case
of you know, they see your work or it's already
like pre baked into it where it's like, well, these
guys have done like all the Harry Potter stuff, so
it's an old brainer.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah. Well, the guy now that runs they do a
lot of theme parks in the UK based through at
the least in all you know, Warner bub Studios, and
he'd called me up and said, we're doing some characters.
You did the characters for Potter five and Potter seven,
do you want to come back and redo them again?
Because you know how it all went together. So when

(08:42):
we went back there and we went to the studio
to find all the original molds, it was all my writing,
it's all my photographs, it's all my continuity images. Yeah,
it was kind of interesting to go back, Oh my God,
that was fifteen years ago and you're rerunning all the
pieces again. Yeah, I mean that's been there will be
three years by the time it comes out.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, which is crazy when you think about it. Speaking
of that, like, you know, you mentioned Harry Potter and
just to kind of I guess people maybe just some
people that are not familiar with some of the stuff
you've worked on, but like I feel like, just to
name a few things, You've got Harry Potter, You've got
Star Wars just out a loan. Do you ever get
a chance to sit back and go, like, you know,

(09:24):
Jesus Christ, I like from sitting in my room looking
at magazines and rewatching the Rick Baker on the Triller
behind the scenes two, having my name you know, on
the crew board, design and things for like these huge
things that can never be I guess they're parts of history.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, I mean, And it's way I still find it
weird to this day that I was this kind of
kid who grew up in you know, it's on the
Council of States near Liverpool, with no kind of help,
no money, and you know, to try and replicate stuff
and meet people. You know, I used to have pictures
of Rick Baker's work on my wall, and then for
me to go to Rick's house and then go out

(10:05):
for a dinner woman is a very weird feeling. You know.
Out of all the big famous people you can ever
meet in film industry, i'd say Rick Bake, it was
Rick Baker and Ray Harry Housing for me. I met
Ray a couple of times. He actually came around Harry
Potter and I was just completely awestruck. You know, I'm like,
this is this is insane. This is like your weirdest

(10:25):
childhood dreams coming alive, if you know what I mean.
And I do. I do kind of sit back and go,
oh god. I worked on that. I think the longer
the films go away from you, you know, like Harry
Potter one twenty five years ago, Wild, which is mad,
you know. You and I actually watched The Philosopher's Stone
recently again, I'm like, god, yeah, and then started I

(10:48):
was like, oh my god, I remember that was a puppet.
I remember that was you know. So suddenly I started
picking it back up again. What we did in the
film and what we never showed because there's so much
stuff on Harry Potter's I'd never get shown because they
just don't get billed or cut out.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Growing up when you know, when you were interested in
this stuff, and maybe as you got older and you
decided this is something I might want to do, and
you mentioned I think it's much like there's a lot
of people that listen to the show, and including myself,
that probably come from similar places, and you kind of
feel like a lot of this stuff is light years
away from you and there's no chance. And maybe maybe

(11:25):
for the quote unquote right reasons, maybe your close family
your friends might be telling you know, just forget about that.
Get a job in tescous. It's a guaranteed job. Just
do that and don't worry about this other you know
dream that you're having. Did you have much of that
as you kind of got up in the years, and
if so, like was it just your love for it
to kind of help you just go No, I'm not

(11:46):
listening to anything else. This is what I'm doing.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yeah, I mean when I was in school, I mean
I used to start when I was making stuff. I
never really showed the friends that much what I was doing.
I had a kind of a tight knit group of friends.
They were all into Star Wars, they were all kind
of geeky. And it was only went towards the end
of school when I was like fifteen, and I started
to stay to my careers teacher. You know, I want

(12:10):
to make monsters, you know, and they're like, well, nobody
here makes monsters. It's all Hollywood, you know. So become
when he liked drawing, so become a draftsman, is what
I was told. And I think because I had a
naive tea about it, I didn't know how hard it
would be to get into an industry. I would find
a film magazine and I remember I found a magazine

(12:31):
on a starbust magazine on company Wool that Christopher Tucker
had done all the creatures and the effects. And I
wrote to Chris Tucker, care of Shepperton's studios, London, England.
You know, very naive. He just sent a letter a
load of pictures, not even realizing the film had been
finished and this magazine was to publicize it. But the
letter got to Christopher Tucker's house in Pangborn and it

(12:55):
took three months and he wrote back to me and
he invited me to come and see him. And I
was such an nervous child. I was fifteen and really nervous,
and I went to see him, spend the day with him,
got terrified by the quality of what he was able
to do. And he just said, you just keep carrying on,
make better photographs. You need to improve this. And I

(13:15):
like that. That kind of is quite brutal on how
he's like, this is not very good show, and this
is awful, but I can see what you've got. You've
got a passion. It's amateur, but you've got a passion there.
Just keep doing it. So that's what I tried to do.
And but I remember my parents were saying, are you
going to get a job though, But you're going to
get a normal job that pays, you know. So then

(13:36):
I think I worked as a glass engraver for six weeks,
and there was rubbish at that because I just didn't
get on with anybody. I worked at a hotel port
who got fired. I worked at Tesco's literally packing shelves,
and then I helped my dad at a factory and
people were just joking at me, going, oh, look, he
wants to beat doctor who and stuff, you know, so
a lot when I was like eighteen, who were really

(13:58):
kind of saying, oh, You're never going to make you
Are you going to make a doll today? When I'm clean?
And I kind of liked that people told me I
couldn't do it, because I thought, Okay, i'll prove one day,
I'll prove them wrong. I mean he did take six years.
I mean I got my job when I was twenty
and that was down to as right into a company,
Cale Image Animation. That was Bob Dean and Jeff Porter's company,

(14:21):
and they've done hell Raiser, hell Raiser two. I had
an interview for them on hell Raiser two, but they
recrued up and then I was offered to work on
Night Breed, which at the time I think was called
Cabal one on the Night Breed one Cabal. But then
it took eight months for that to then kick in,
so I was staying at home just making stuff until

(14:42):
the time came. So it took a long, long patient
and just keep making stuff. Can you know. I ended
up staying on the doll, you know, so it didn't
work back then.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
It's I love when I hear stories like that for us,
as painful as it can be at times when you
know people are doing that and you're being market and
people can't see and it just from want of a
better time, Like it feels like shit and it is,
But then I love hearing the flip side that, like
for me to be sitting here talking to you now
and I even get a degree if I know a
lot of people are like this, but like in the

(15:14):
back of my mind to where I'm like, I'd love
to just give like a little smug smile to those
people then and be like, yeah, how long were you?

Speaker 3 (15:22):
Yeah? Yeah, no, I did. I mean, you know, I
think because I was working by myself and I had
no kind of timeline. It took so long for me
to get into the industry, you know, and I didn't
understand how to get into it. I had no friends
who were in the industry. I lived near Liverpool, so
there was no connections at all. But Christopher Tucker was

(15:44):
great in that he would write to me. But also
I'd written to Rick Baker when I was eighteen. I'd
written to him just your like and magic, you know,
buying magazine and find out, oh, there's the address in
the back of the magazine. So I've just you know,
i'd just be kind of like, I'm going to write
to them that write to all that and pen and
post it with loads of pictures and stuff, and I

(16:04):
got letters back from every company. You know. ILM sent
three letters back to me and I'm still got them,
you know. I mean that's forty years ago now, some
of them letters, and it inspires me to show other people,
you know, this is what I got back.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Then there's there's some stuff that is listed on your
your filmography, and I wanted to just ask. I don't
know how involved in some of the projects you were,
or like what memories or what you contributed to it.
But one of them that stuck out to me was
I see more of the combat annihilation in there? Yes, yeah,

(16:41):
I kind of had a feel I've got to get
that reaction because I had even written I know lots
of people don't like this movie, but I'm one of
those cult followers, and I feel like as the years
go on, it has more and more of like a
cult following. What that was your work on that or
how like how close were you on the production?

Speaker 3 (16:58):
I was in the creature's department, So what happened we'd
moved to Leeds and Studios. I think it was the
second filming at least and after GoldenEye, and we had
started working, so there was a crew of about twelve
of us doing all the creatures. And as we were
just about to pack to go to Thailand to film
out there for nine weeks, George Lucas had started to

(17:19):
move in for Star Wars. So everyone was like, I
don't want to go on to Mortal Kombat. We want
to stay in Star Wars. We're I'll seeing Nick Dodman,
who who was consulting on Mortal Kombat said oh no, no,
as soon as you finished Mortal Kombat, you'll jump straight
onto Star Wars. So we all went out there for
nine I think it was nine or ten weeks to
Thailand to film, and it was it was really hard

(17:40):
because we were doing six D eight weeks and we were
still building stuff, and to be honest, it was pretty
it was. I say, it's the worst film I've ever
worked on as a finished product. I just sort it
was so bad, you know. But we had some I
mean where we were filming in the temples and stuff,
they built some kind of fake temples at all looked

(18:00):
smashed and demolished around real temples, and I always remember
the Thai governments trying to shut them down saying you've
demolished the temples. We're like, no, no, this is all
polst fyrene. But it made the note the local papers.
We did a lot of night shooting and it was
really hard. We were doing Mataro. The cental didn't work

(18:20):
very well. It was a big rubber suits that they
did in the heat out there. It was just melting
off his body. The heat was like forty degrees. So
it wasn't a great experience.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Just like as in just the overall production, because I've
heard that multiple times from a lot of different people
that like the whole thing just kind of was a
little bit of a shit show.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
Yeah, yeah, completely. I mean for me, what I was
really impressed by was that this the dop Matthew Leonetti
had shot Poltergeist. So I was like, oh my god, this,
you know, I was grown up. I was meeting people
who had done films. I grew up, like, you know.
So I think so Matthew had shot that as a
favor to his brother who was directing it. I can't

(19:06):
even remember his first name, the director, but I remember
watching the rushers the dailies and we would go, well,
this is really bad. You know, it was bad and
it was just we had so much stuff to make
all the time on set just ill got a bit
of a nightmare. You know. There was a lot of
kind of language issues because we had obviously a lot

(19:27):
of the tie stunt people and stuff, so there was
a lot of language barriers and stuff like that. And
I remember watching thinking that is the worst one I've
ever watch, And to be honest, even today, I think
it's the worst thing. Any good thing about it is
the opening title music thing about it.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
I think for a lot of people now there was
just like that bit of nostalgia. Maybe it would have
and it kind of became one of those I personally
like it and maybe it's just because of the time
period or something like that. And I was like, oh, yeah,
I remember that movie, but like a lot of people
seem to it's one of those like so bad it's good. Yeah,
yeah movies.

Speaker 3 (20:04):
Yeah, not sure it's even so bad it's good. I
think the CGI was really bad in that as well.
I didn't help it. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
The optical effect rules when when you're on a project
like that, or you're in situations like that, maybe a
particular conversation you're having, you know, about a certain thing
you've been asked to create, or an effect or a
creature or an animatronic or whatever it might be. How
much pushback would you guys give. You know, let's say
somebody tells you, Okay, this is what we're going to do,
and you and maybe your crew go back and going off,

(20:35):
this is not this is not really going to work,
Like do you just have to stand your ground and go, look,
this is gonna look absolutely just garbage.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, And the thing Matara was one of them things
because remember when they spoke about it, they literally was
going to be like a guy in the back holding
onto his waist and the back legs, and you're like,
this is never gonna really you know, unless you shoot
it from certain angles. And I think they when they
realized when they're on setting, like, okay, we can't shoot

(21:03):
it from the angles that we expected. Like but we
told you all that, We told you that it looked
like a dobby horse, you know, is one of them
awful kind of pantomime horses. You're not going to you know,
because whenever the actor moves forward, but the bloke behind
who was a little tie actor, you know, so he
couldn't hear he was muffled inside, and it was sweltering

(21:26):
inside for him, and it sometimes it just stretched out
of shape and you're just you're sitting out going, oh
my god, maybe no one's going to watch this film.
That's you know, kind of what you hope. And when
you're doing stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
How often when you know a project of film, an
idea comes to you and they always quite rigid in
what they envision. Obviously, look, I know with things that
maybe maybe if they're a huge existing ip, it's kind
of already been setting stone what the character might look like.
But let's say something that's a little bit more vague.

(22:01):
Do they kind of leave it in your hands and go, okay,
go away and come back with some concepts and let
me have a look or you know, how does that work?
That process?

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, if you're doing something that's low budget, you've got
a lot more kind of leeway to do your own
thing because they then trust you to do it. They go, okay,
you've done this before. You know what would look good,
what wouldn't look good were to spend the money on.
You'll give some ideas, you'll do designed, you'll do kind
of little maquette, you know, little sculptures to show that.

(22:31):
But I think what happens is a lot of times
people can't see past a sculpt you know, they want
to see it finished. You want to see looking in
silicon or FA. But you have to say to them,
you know, if you go this route, you're going to
shoot yourself in the foot because it's going to need CGI,
You're going to have to replace certain things. But if

(22:52):
we do it this route, it may help you in
the long run. So it's it's a struggle. Obviously, on
bigger budget films, there's so much back and forth dialogue,
as you know, Like I was responsible for doing Mad
Eye Moody and I think we ended up doing sixteen concepts, makeups,

(23:13):
fully finished, silicon hair punched before someone just said, right,
this is we need to make a decision because we're
shooting two weeks. You know, we had me and Barry Gower.
We had six months to work on designing it. You know,
the book had an idea and you do what you know.
I remember me and Barry doing certain versions, were going

(23:34):
this is it and they're like, no, you don't like that, Like,
oh really, I think this is better. And there were designs.
I still think were better than what we actually finished with.
The eye with the strap looked like a watch had
been stuck on his head. But you know what, that
comes a point where you don't have the power, you know,
you just you give your five pennies worth and go

(23:54):
I don't think that's good enough. I think it, but
they're like, no, no, we love it. This is what
we want. Okay, okay, it's not what you know, but
that's the design thing that's you know. Then that's when
you have to go, cal take the money. Then I'll
do it for the money.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
I did actually hear you tell a story on another
podcast about it do when the Red Hood was it
red skull a red skull and yeah, and about having
it in the gray like the just to show the form,
and then the executive being like, I don't understand.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, red school lock gray scho do the color so
without getting I guess too into it. You know.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
I've spoken to a lot of people like behind the
scenes afterwards and stuff, and then mentioned things about executives
and sometimes you get in these rooms and at these
very long tables with lots of people with lots of
titles and the amount of time stuff like that happens
where they're kind of sitting there and they're giving their
you know, they're giving their two cents, but you can
tell that they haven't really got a clue about the

(25:00):
source material or like where any of.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
This isly And it happened on a few of the
Harry Potters. I won't I won't go into who's said
them executive wise, but there's a couple of executives on
Harry Potter that you're like, your set, your suggestions just awful,
you know, And I was like, say, with you know,
obviously you're working with Marvel and you work with the
creative teens, and some of the ideas like okay, this

(25:26):
is quite interesting. And then I mean you literally just
have to bite your lip and just go, okay, I'm
a nobody effectively, I just do what you asked me
to do, and you know, you can ruin the sculp,
like when we had the red skull as the great
you know, the great clay is this stuff here?

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (25:44):
Yeah, And obviously it wasn't red, so we did have
to go and paint it and it ruined the skull,
so it meant starting again. But that was one of
the creatives that we spoke to, you know, via the
monitor by satellite into LA. But you know there's enough
time to knock things back out again and change to things.

(26:04):
That's that's the wonk of thing about big budget films.
There is there is an amount of time you get
money and stuff to test stuff.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Mm hm when you're designing creatures or gore effects and
things like that for a movie. Do you I can't
help a feel like you know, I because I've heard
so many different creators have so many different versions of
like you know, I've heard stories of people they'll have
like I guess, their own look book of like real
life injuries and like all these like mad I guess

(26:33):
places they draw inspiration or creativity from. Is that something
that you actively do and try and like constantly look
at different things.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
If you're trying to do something that has to look
anatomically real, you know, like a burn or something, then
you will have to look a real burn reference. And
there are books out there that you can buy, and
we've got some burn books. They never I mean, it's
not something I look at unless I have to look at.
And if I'm working on stuff, I'll away put a
piece of paper over it. Anything gore wise again, unless

(27:08):
it's a medical it's not a medical show where you
have to open up a body and show things. You
will just make it kind of look cool, if you
know what I mean. It's you're trying to. I remember
when we were doing Sleepy Hollow, you know, the Tim
Burton won, and there was so many seven heads. I
think there was eighteen seven heads that were done for
that film. I always remember Tim Burton saying, just please

(27:30):
don't look a decapitated reference, because you don't need to.
I'm like, oh, absolutely not. You know, to be honest,
nineteen nine percent of the public probably would know what
it would look like real. So all you have to
do is make the head look as real as the
actor and make it just look cool so that you know,
some actors on that film loved seeing their heads. Some
actors were really like taken away from me, and that's

(27:52):
I don't like it. So that was It's fascinating when
you you know, I try. I'm quite squeamish in turn
of realistic stuff like seeing images of things, but I'm
not squeamish at all on set. I mean I could
be pumping blood left, right and center, and you know,
you want to see the reaction of the actors on set,
which is great. That's the thing I love is when

(28:14):
you're doing a killing of some sort on a film
set people are getting freaked out by It's like, Okay,
it's working there, they're not laughing, you know.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, do you feel like there's a little bit of
a I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this
one that people maybe now we're kind of maybe crossing
over again into another stage where people are starting to
appreciate like actual special effects again and like prosthetics and
stuff like that, rather than I feel like sometimes look,

(28:43):
they're fantastic and lots of people like them, but even
something like Avatar, it becomes so like it's like uncanny value.
Like I look at it and I'm like, I'm so
taken out of it because every single thing and now
I can't distinguish between one thing and the other. Yeah,
you think we're coming back around or because I feel like,
at least in the horror community, everybody's like, oh, I

(29:03):
love I love when it's even a tiny budget movie
now that really goes for it and you can tell
everyone caring about what they're doing, And I love that.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Yeah, and I think, you know, I mean, we've been
working with Scott and reasonly doing the you know, the
twisted Child's you know, so we did Poo too, Peter Pan,
Neverland Nightmare, and we did Pinocchio when we're about to
start on Pooniverse, And each time we do one we
uppit a bit more. You know. We now know them
so well, Scott and Reese. We know their styles and

(29:33):
what they like. So I know with Peter Pan, Scott
was very much like, it's going to be brutal realism' sure,
we don't want to be fantasy. You know. We were
doing some kind of scalpings and some pretty nasty stuff,
you know, but we'll always watch on the film. You know,
if you watched Terrifier films, the stuff on Terror, I mean,
especially Terrifier three, the opening Secret in the House, I mean,

(29:57):
it's absolutely brutal, but it's all I mean, there are
a little bits of see and I think when CG
can tweak things, you know, they can split ahead us
the real actor's head for that split second into the
fake head. I think stuff like that really helps him
sells it. But I think it should be those type
of films should be prosthetic based, you know, lead, you know,

(30:20):
so maybe eighty percent prosthetic and twenty percent tweak and stuff.
But I love, I mean, I love trying to create
something that's kind of like this hasn't been done before,
you know. And the great thing with Scott and Reese
is they say to us, what do you think? How
to think we can achieve this? How far can you
push it? To make it as graphic as possible? So

(30:40):
we're always trying to work out trying to make the
most violent killings on film, because you know, you want
people to say, oh my god, you remember that killing
and I feel is disgusting. You're like, Okay, that worked.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Then It's funny because last night I watched Stitches from
twenty twelve and like I couldn't like the entire time,
I was like, wow, my cheek's hurt from smiling. And
then I was thinking about it afterwards and I was like,
you know, there's nothing particularly spectacular anybody. I was like,
I love the fact that I can tell here that
they had a small budget, but they really went through

(31:12):
like a very very very little CG and like everything
was was practical, and I just I don't know, it
felt like how I want movies to feel.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yeah, and I do. And you know, whenever we're doing stuff,
you know, if we like I think Peter Pan was
like three hundred thousand pounds, I mean, it's a tiny
amount of money to make a movie. So you've got
to be very clever. And you know, we'll say, look,
we can't you can't afford to build this, but we
can make you this, this and this. You know, if
you shoot the angles right, this is what we can

(31:44):
get something really cool looking from it. Yeah, and then
we upped at a bit for Pinocchio with practical effects
and stuff and the doll the Todd Masters have made.
It's a fully practical figure and it's beautiful. It's great.
I mean there's green screen shots and stuff like that
that have to replace things, but the majority of it,
it's all it's an all practical thing. And we you know,
we were making things that we hadn't done before. We

(32:07):
were making kind of set dressing stuff. We were making
tree vines and trees and stuff on there. So that
was really cool to kind of work on. So you're
always getting pushed and it's it's one of them things
we always never say no when we get the sprit.
We'll go, yes, we can do it, right, how do
we do it? You know they sit down and you
really go, okay, this you could do something very very

(32:29):
cool and practical with you know, with some gags and
you just you know. But then I'll always reference older films,
you know, I'll go into the Tom Sabini times, you know.
I mean I'll show people stuff from daya Dead and
so how did he do that? You know, I had
no idea, and it's like that was forty years ago
and it's all on set. But Tom was a magician

(32:49):
in a way. You know, he knew how to do
magic tricks with effects and some of the stuff on
Day of Dead. I still think of some of the
best stuff it's ever been done. You know. I'll always
go and watch that, maybe once or twice a month. Yeah,
I love it.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, it really is when you when you watch a
movie or you know, if you go to the cinema
or something like that, is it hard to come out
of their professional brain? No?

Speaker 3 (33:11):
I mean I will always watch you know, when I
watch certain I think, God, that's a really hard effect
to do that In my head, I'll be thinking, bloody hell,
that would have been really hard to do on set,
especially if it's really bright rooms where you've got no
chance of hiding anything at all. But I'll try and
watch it first without thinking about it, and then I'll

(33:31):
think about it afterwards, and then I'll watch I want
to watch it again, maybe on TV, and then watch
it for the effects side of it. Well, as you
say things like Avatar, I mean, they are technically incredible films,
but you know they're not real, even though they're photo reel.
And that's the weird thing. You just know there's not
a nine foot blue person walking around. Yeah, you know,

(33:53):
and it's I mean, it's stunning stuff, but he doesn't
grab me the way he used to grab me stuff
like that anymore. Not that interested in it.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Yeah, likewise, and it's funny. Have you seen the substance? Yes, yeah, yeah,
And my point is right, Like I know, obviously sitting there,
I know none of this is real, but because of
the effects and how it's done, it's not all CG
and it's not all computer generated. I'm looking at it
kind of going christ like, that's grotesque, even though I

(34:23):
know this has not happening. But I guess is that
a good thing? For the industry. The fact that in
a movie like that is getting recognized at that level.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Absolutely, and I think it's really the first time since
probably even like The Fly Cronenberg's a Fly, that body
horror stuff is getting into Oscars. I mean, when Pierre
had been nominated, I'd known Pierre Olivia Possen for probably
twenty years and I'd worked with the World Wars a
and he's a lovely guy. And when he got nominated,

(34:53):
I was like, please win, But I thought you won't
win because the Academy won't give it to that film. Yeah,
think you know it's going to be nos Forto. Even
though I wasn't a massive fan of the design of
the Vampire, I kind of I was hoping Pierre was
going to win, for he won't win it. He won't
win it. And when he won, I was like, Yes,

(35:14):
they finally has given it to something, because so over
the top. I was really shocked that, you know, with
that whole end sequence. I thought they won't give it
because of that end sequence. But I'm so pleased they
did give the award to him, and the and the
and the makeup.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Department, just just out of curiosity. You mentioned Naspa too,
and you weren't really a huge fan of the design.
What were some of the glearing things that stuck out
for you? I'll be interested to see doesn't match up
with like the general consensus of people.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
I mean, I I wasn't keen on his actual facial look.
I thought he didn't look as creepy as why I
thought he could have looked. I mean, I generally found
the film quite dull. Yeah, I mean I kept referring
when like, well, I watched it to Bram Stoker's Dracula,
which I just I mean, I love that film. There's
something about that film I just loved. And I just thought,

(36:03):
I'm not sure why I don't like the makeup. I mean,
technically it's beautiful. It's a beautiful makeup. I just I
just thought it looked it wasn't like you know, Max
Shrek or Klaus Kinsky. I thought they had a really
creepy look to him. I just it just didn't grab me.
And I kind of got a bit like, is that
it I've been waiting and waiting all this time?

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Yeah, I thought, is that what they've come up with?
That's not what I'd expect. But that's me. It's a
personal opinion from me, and you know, technically it's a
beautifully made makeup. I just didn't think it looked creepy enough.
But that's me, is there?

Speaker 1 (36:40):
You know, as somebody who's worked on so many big titles,
like I mean, we've only barely scratched the surface of
some of them. Do you are you still in that
like headspace where I think I had heard you mentioned before,
you know, you and your wife had said about the
idea of maybe kind of parking this kind of work
and maybe just teaching only. Do you still have though

(37:01):
like that thing in her how we were like, you know,
I'd really love to give like my version of Freddie,
or I'd really love to do my version of this
thing or that thing. Does that still happen?

Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah? Weirdly, about about ten eleven years ago, I did
do that whole thing where I stopped working on I'm Going.
I moved away from London and I moved back up North,
and I thought, right, I'll just teach teaching them being
much easier, being easy like, and I started to miss
the industry. And I think it's that thing. It kind
of drags you want to go back into it again,

(37:33):
and we did. We were teaching. We've got and we've
got a successful prosthetic school. You know that we teach people.
But then film started coming in more and more, and
I thought, how what are we doing? How we can't
do both fifty to fifty. You know. The idea was
that teaching was taking over everything, and we were turning jobs,
and I did turn stuff down in the first couple

(37:54):
of years. When jobs are being offered to me in London,
I was like, no, I can't not going back there.
I'm going to stay up here. But now I've got
this passion again to work in films, you know. I mean,
I'd loved if someone said to me or were recreating
Nightmare Elm Street as you said, Freddie, I'd absolutely die
to do that. I'd love to do a Freddy Krueer
make up and you know it's a burn makeup Bridge

(38:16):
Nightmare Elm Street. You know, if those iconic jobs come in,
I think, you know, I don't think I'll ever grow
out of making monsters and creatures, and I love just
kind of coming up with something just different and a
bit you know, you want people to see. There's always
that fear that you make something and people are going
to go, oh, that's a horrible that's a horrible thing.

(38:37):
You've ruined my childhood, you know. And we had that
a little bit when we were doing Winnie the Pooh Too.
You know, people can't do it. I'm like, well, it's
just a film. It's not real, you know, it's a
it's a crazy horror movie. You know. I loved Winnie
the Pooh Too. I think, you know, it was very
ambitious for the budget we had, you know, and I
think Scott and Reese are very very ambitious people. They

(39:00):
both direct and they both produce. So I think the
brilliant and kind of right, we're going to do a
Pinocchio one now, and it's like, wow, okay. You know
when the script comes in, you think that's really clever
because you just think, oh, you could just go down
one route with it, but they twist everything to a
really clever way. And I think Pooniverse. You know, people
keep going about the name, but I think the name
is hilarious. That's the same. It's bring people in. And

(39:23):
the idea is that Scott Reese have got a fantastic
I mean, it's going to be really cool. Pooniverse it's
going to up everything, you know.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Yeah, I love that, and I love the creativity, and
I feel like projects like that only breed more creativity
because I feel like only the really passionate and creative
people want to get into something like that and really
make it what it is. I mean, I'm not saying
anybody could come up with the idea to do that,
but like, you know, someone could just say, oh, we're
going to do like a I don't know what a

(39:52):
scary scary we need to put a movie right, And
just to say that as one thing, but then to
actually make it something that's like viable is a completely
different thing.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, absolutely, you know. And again the story wise, they
I think the first one was a complete fluke in
their eyes. He said, you know, they made it and
never to be kind of out on the cinema, and
then it just got picked up and went viral and
you know, all of a sudden it made millions of
the box office, which is insane for something like it
was like thirtieth grand I think it cost originally to shoot,

(40:24):
and they put a bit more money in for all
the end stuff. So when they came to the second
one and it was like, right, we're going to go up,
you know. And that's why I notice with spots they
go up and up each time, like what can we
go ten times bigger now? And that's what I think
pouniverse is going to be insane. It's going to be insane.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Yeah, you mentioned, you know, something like Freddy. There's other
ones that are coming to mind, like people are waiting
for another Friday at thirteen, let her face all this
sort of stuff, and you know, and you mentioned the
idea of love and the idea of getting a chance
to do something like that, not saying that you the
time even to do this, but is there anything I
guess if you were really like crazy after a particular project,

(41:06):
is there anything you can do from your point of
view to I don't know. Let's say somebody says, okay,
we're making a new nightmare at the street. Would it
be would it be out of the realm of possibility
for you to be like, okay, should I maybe put
together a few things and like send some images off
and see like can I?

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Yeah? I mean, I think if if you hear something
like they want to make something iconic again, you may
kind of start sculpting something. You know, you can knock
a sculpt out pretty quickly to a standard that you go,
you know, I'm going to send this to a producer.
I'm going to send them what we've done, say this
is how I think it could love this to be
really cool because I think the remake of Night Menel

(41:46):
Street was such a mess, you know, and the design
of the makeup, with the CG kind of movements in
the face. I just thought, what, they've completely missed them all.
And I think that becomes a issue with all, you know,
like with the text has changedaw remakes and the sequels,
and they'll never catch that original one. And I think

(42:07):
that's what always happens, like with I think with Friday
the thirteenth, you know, I think it is literally part
thirteen would be next. If they're doing it, should just
call it Friday Part thirteen, you know, because I mean,
sometimes they miss something so brilliant, but they one they'll
go back to kind of a reboot, and then they'll

(42:29):
change how the original one. You know, people always forget,
you know, Jason didn't kill anyone in the first film,
but in the remakes they have to have Jason killing people.
And I just think, you know, Jason as a character
is amazing, you know, he's and you can read you
some lovely prosthetic disfigurement him and stuff nowadays, you know.
And that's when when we did Peter Pan we wanted

(42:50):
to do something you know, that was all turned around
in about three days. That makeup is a very quick process.
And the mask I made literally sculptured on about two hours.
Someone else had made one and we didn't like it
another person, And so I said to Scott, like, can
I just do something quickly to show you? I think

(43:11):
putting that on our makeup made the tract from it.
And I don't think he looks very good. It's very
hard to quiticize other people's works, but I was worried
that if you're going to see that for maybe fifty
percents of the movie, you wanted to look quite nice. Yeah,
I'm not now very quickly in Clay and he's like,
oh I love that, right? Can we have six of them?
But Bookay, So he was the case of right, I've

(43:31):
got to make done very quickly. So you're always, you know,
I'm always referencing icons, you know. So when we did
Martin's makeup for Peter panan I would use certain images
from things I'd seen in the past and thought, well,
that'd look really cool if I did that, you know,
I'm then thinking about the coolness of how it would
look on camera, you know, and then also how the

(43:53):
speed we can do it and the ease have we
can do it, because sometimes if you don't want to
do a makeup that is so technically hard on a load,
but you filmed that, you you kind of corner yourself
a little bit where it's a really hard makeup to maintain.
So whenever you're sculpting a character, you're representing your head. Right,
We've got to make sure this will work for twenty

(44:14):
five days with ease if possible.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
You know, does it ever come into question? Like I
feel like the guys are like really clever with how
how they're playing all this thing. It's like, okay, well,
obviously it starts off with a you know, a good idea,
a good concept. It's not just done for the sake
of But then I feel like they're also quite good
in the sense of they have their finger on the
pulse to like what people like and where people want,
Like I seen, I actually asked Martin. I was like,

(44:39):
I asked them that he have the mask I mentioned
earlier it's over your shoulder, and he was like yeah,
And I was like, I feel like that's something that
like fans of this would want to get a copy of,
and he was like, oh, who knows. And then I
had seen something about there being copies that you can
purchase now, and it's like, does that ever get brought
up in conversation beforehand or anything? Like I said, I

(45:00):
feel like you're in a line of work where the
horror community, especially, like I feel like we're all collectors
of some form and we're like die hard or if
we like something that's like, oh, if there's ten versions
of the one mask, I'll take all ten.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean I know when when we
were sculpting it, it was one of them things like, oh,
maybe people are Halloween may want these masks. You know.
We spoke to Scott about that, and in fact, we
are making masks out of the original mole, so it's
a kind of a you know, to order type of thing,
so we are you know, it's not me kind of
go right, I'm going to fake up cheap ones. I'm

(45:35):
actually doing it. So in fact, we'll probably put a
bit more time and energy into the people sending them
off to and we sent them to the US at
the moments and stuff, because I think when you do
the film ones, you're doing in such a speed and
they break. You know, we've got ones. I mean these
ones here, they're snapped, they're cracked here because they've been

(45:55):
used and abused and smashed around. You know, you'd get
thrown across. So we made latex ones. The idea was
the stunt people fighting the latex ones, but then we
realized they would wobble a bit, so we had to
go back to putting on the hard shell versions and
then they would get shattered and break. So yeah, you're
always aware of stuff to you know, think, oh, this

(46:17):
would be really cool as a kind of a selling
point for people. You know, people will want Peter Pan masks,
and you know, I think a lot really nice.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
It kind of has that the kind of look I
feel like when I seen it the other day, I
was like, you know what, I think I have a
really nice spot around here or something. You mentioned some
movies before, you know, you watch kind of I don't
want to say I repeat, but like you watch often.
Do you have any comfort movies or movies that you
find maybe if you're working on something or whatever you're

(46:46):
stick in the background, or that you go back to
time and time again.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yeah, I mean they there dead. I watch a lot
Return the Living Dead, creep Show. I love creep Show.
I can just put. I mean I literally watched that
two days ago. It's usual the eighties from The Thing.
I will always watch The Thing and American Werewolf for howling.
You know, they're the type of films, and then I
watch them kind of in different eyes all the time.

(47:12):
I'll sit and watch American Whirlwolf for just I'm still
blown away by that transformation. I always thought, what was
Rick Baker thinking on set when they were shooting it
and they were watching the footage, thinking this is groundbreaking?
You know, I don't think not many. I think people
just assume, oh, it's all digital that you know, or

(47:33):
it made look, you know, there's certain little shots were
like the hand stretching. I still think technically it is beautiful,
but people go, well, it's just a hand stretching. The
fingers don't move. But I just think the way they
thought that out, and for me, that transformation is still
the best transformation because it's a transformation where someone's in
absolute pain. Because I always saying, if someone's face is stretching,

(47:56):
but your bones are literally stretching, you know. With CG
people just run and then he change as he run.
I'm thinking, your whole body is breaking to pieces and
realigning into another creature. And I much prefer to see
stuff like that where someone's in absolute agony when they're transforming.
But you know, it's like, I don't know, I just

(48:18):
I find it. Those type of films are such of
a time, I think, if I mean, I remember watching
The Thing when I was fourteen. I think I was fifteen,
and I remember the first time I watched I was
a little bit like nothing's happening because nothing really happened
until things started happening. And I watch them again now

(48:39):
and I'm thinking, God, it flies by now and I
watch it and I just that Spiderhead sequence, and you know,
is just insanity. How they got away and shot all that.
I just wish there was tons more behind the scenes
of that film. But you know, Rob Boutine is so
secretive about his work. I would love to see behind
the scenes footage of how all that was shot and

(49:01):
puppetat and things. You know, it's a shame that there
isn't that much around up from the thing.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Yeah it is, isn't it. And I feel like people
are screaming out for that more and more now, yeah
that you know, they want to see behind the scenes,
they want to hear commentaries, they want to hear and
I think that's why some of these physical media companies
that are re releasing movies are trying to I know,
maybe they can't pull much from back then, but you'll
see a lot of like maybe the special effects guys

(49:28):
and the producers might sit down and do an audio commentary,
and then the director and the lead actor might do
one just to kind of I don't know, I suppose
you know, oh we tried to do this here and
here's a funny story about that, and people I think
by those special editions. Now, Okay, I've seen a movie
a million times. I can't see any better quality. But
I'm nearly buying the disc two.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that's where I did
when I worked on Star Wars A Phantom Menace. That
was kind of the first time where it was an
absolute lockdown film that no one could take photos and
you went alloud. And there were certain creatures I worked
on I didn't take, but I was worked on a
character called Bib for Tuna, and I remember we did
the first shoot, first day shoot with him, and we

(50:14):
were told absolutely no photography, and I went, I'm like, right,
I'm going to take and I took loads of photos
of makeup heaven walking around in the makeup room. Took loads.
And years later I remember my boss Nick saying to me,
did you get any photos show? And I went, I
took loads, and he was like, can we have them
because I've not seen them, you know, And I was like,

(50:35):
you know what, I just think it's a shame if
things aren't filmed, even just for yourself to have something,
and people will never get to see it, you know.
I mean everyone was so scared of taking photographs because
they were you know, they were like, you're going to
get fired if you take photographs. But if no one
else was taking photographs of the time, you've kind of

(50:56):
lost all that behind the scenes. Yeah, no, and it's
such a shame. So we do as much as possible
when we're doing these like Peter Pan films and stuff,
and I mean we're all filming stuff, but you know,
we never show it to anyone until the release, but
we'll always you know, let's get some really cold behind
the scenes footage. I mean, I got great footage of
Scott watching one of the the Go killings and I

(51:16):
turn the camera onto Scott to film him, and his
reaction is brilliant because he's like, oh, he's doing all.
You know, he's terrified because he's watching it. Why and
what filming him watching it to see his reaction, which
was really you know, good fun.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Yeah, and I think there are all the stuff as
time goes on and people want to look back at
that and see that different perspective.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
Yeah, is there.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Something that you haven't had a chance to work on
that sticks out? As I know that's probably like asking, like,
you know, what's your favorite child or something like that,
But you know, is there I don't know, an ip
an idea, a character, a version of a character that,
like you would say, if I can only you know,
if I could give something one shot, it'll be it'll
be that person or that character or that creature.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
I mean, I'd love to work kind of another version
of the thing, you know, another updated version, maybe a
sequel to the original one with the creatures and with
you know, obviously Kurt Russell's the girl getting on now.
But doing if someone to me we're doing a sequel
to the thing, not the prequel, the sequel, that I'd
be like, oh my god, you know, because you mind

(52:19):
could just go crazy trying to design creatures and stuff like.
I mean, I'm not interested in doing Star Wars stuff anymore,
or Harry Potter another new TV shows coming and it's
not interesting me at all. You know, I spent ten
years on Harry Potter. I'm not sure I could do
another tenures on the set of the same type of
stuff really, you know, And I don't know how well

(52:40):
that would work. But I mean a Frankenstein film, but
then Geml del Toro's just on Frankenstein, you know, he's
kind of ticking off the things a well. Oh doing
Frankenstein or in the Mouth of Madness, you know, and
trying the Mountains of Madness. You think would that, you know,
HP Lovecraft project would be amazing to do. I just

(53:00):
think Hollywood are very nervous taking on big monster movies
that are a big budget. You know, I'm not sure
horror movies should be sixty seventy million dollar movies. They
shouldn't be. I think it kind of spoils it in
a way by making them too big. Yeah you want
to that, you know, three million if you can four
or five million, and just go outlandish with it, and

(53:23):
you know they're going to make money back. I mean,
horror I still think is the most profitable genre in
the industry.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Which is just crazy to me because I feel like,
for a want of a better time, I always use
this is you know, still treated like the red headed
step child. But then at the same time, I think
executives and studios sit down and go, okay, we want
to make a few pounds. You know what we'll do,
We'll make a horror movie. And it's like yeah, okay,
So you're thinking about it like that, but then you're
also treating it like it's you know, no, don't talk
about horots.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah yeah, yeah, it's all you know you we do
have people we speak and you go, oh, you must sick.
Why would you want to work on horror movies. It's
like you will watch them, yeah, but it's weird thing
that people watch horror movies, but they'll go I would
not sick to work on that. It's really disturbing. It's
like it's not it's just part of filmmaking.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
And it has become a very are you found even
in like some of like maybe outside of my close
little circle, you know, people that I know or people
that would have been in college with things like that,
And it's like, I remember, I've always been interesting stuff
and people would be like, oh, you know, why are
you going to study film and TV? Why are you're
doing this? Why you're doing that? And now it's like

(54:31):
the cool thing. It's like, oh yeah, just see that
cool movie that came out. It's like called The Substance
or something, and I'm like, this is the exact shit
that I have liked for the last twenty years. And
everybody be like, no, this garbage Shado wouldn't watch that.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, And I think that's it. You know.
I wish there were more films like The Substance. Yeah,
you know, you know you mentioned The Fly. It's like
forty years ago, The Fly. It was done. It's incredible
how long ago. And The Substance is kind of the
really biggest you know, known horror body horror film since then. Really,
you know, I mean I was massive. I mean I

(55:04):
didn't know what to make of it. When if you're
a saying, oh, I'm not sure about this, I saw
it's insane, brilliant, absolutely brilliant, and I wish she'd won
the Oscar for the director as well. I thought she
was amazing, you know what she'd may and denymore.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Very very good, I have to say, it was very good.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Where's the best place for people to support you and
kind of follow along? Here goes journey.

Speaker 3 (55:26):
So we're on Instagram as the Prosthetics Studio Facebook. I
mean we mostly use Instagram. Now. We have used TikTok,
but to be honest, I haven't got time for TikTok
so sell personally, so we just mostly go on to
If you go onto the Prosthetics Studio, I mean we
try and post every couple of days updates stuff. We
have our website which is Prosthetics Studio dot theprosthetics Studio

(55:49):
dot com. But yeah, just go on our Instagram page.
You know, we're always kind of updata stuff all the time.

Speaker 1 (55:55):
Yeah, for everybody listen or whether you're watching this or
listen on any podcast platform, the links to all the
stuff will be down below in the description what's next
for you guys, then you mentioned you're working on the
the the Punavarse at the minute, and then and then
I guess not to look past that, but is there
things that are already kind of maybe in the pipeline
scorn past that.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Well, we've just finished we worked on a sky TV
thriller show, so kind of a normal fo project, a
six part series, and we were making prosthetics and bodied
things for that and we were basically supplying stuff. We
never went on set with that one, so that was
three months work. So we finished Pinocchio December. We were
then finished all this stuff that it's called under Salt Marsh.

(56:36):
I think it comes out the end of this year.
And Cooneyverse. We're just starting the design side of it now.
It's very early stages. We don't start filming until September,
so we've got about five months to make everything, so
that'll go. I think it's around a sixty day shoot
September October filming some here, some in Europe, this time abroad,

(57:00):
and so the budget's bigger for them. This is our
biggest budget and after October. To be honest, I never
think before it I couldn't tell you. You know, we
every so often a job will pop up, yeah, and
they'll go and you give us a quote on it.
You know, last year we had four films that we
were quoting on and they just never happened. You know,

(57:23):
we did Pinocchio and then yeah, go straight on to Punaverse.
I'd say probably end of this month will be kind
of full on into the Puniverse. So yeah, which exciting.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
Before I asked the last question that I always like
to finish these on, I did have something like you
mentioned about, you know, working on the Epic Universe thing
for universe and stuff like that. Is that ever something
that you entertained as an idea or as a project,
like I don't know, working on a Halloween Horror Nights
or on some design concepts or something like that. I
feel like it's it's kind of a weird, kind of

(57:56):
a nicheoush kind of unique thing to do.

Speaker 4 (57:58):
Book.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
I'd love to do stuff like that. I'd love to
do kind of realistic silicon masks for shows like that,
because I know, when you're doing the Hollywood Horror Nights,
it's Halloween wants. They're hard because you've got to do
it every day, you know you want it. Some people
won't want to spend the money on making it look
really realistic, but you can get some very cool bodies
and you know creatures and stuff like that. I mean, yeah,

(58:22):
you know. The thing is our work kind of goes
into every media. To be honest, you know, we can
you can kind of put into you know, fantasy stuff
and into you know, entertainment things and all sorts of
people want, you know, props for people's hotels and stuff.
We've been asked in the past to make. You know,
it's all the same process. It's just not on film.

(58:43):
It's just you know. But yeah, our universal studio thing
would be pretty good. I mean we've got stuff there
from Harry Potter anyway. Yeah, I love.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
That, like, and I love the idea of what you do.
Like you said, it can kind of cross us over
into a lot of different that you don't think about.
It's like, you know, I feel like these hard attractions
and Halloween interactions and even in the UK now are
becoming bigger and bigger and bigger every year. Like I've
been to a few in the UK now over the
last couple of years, and like didn't realize like even
I done Horror Park at the end of last year,

(59:13):
and I kind of wasn't expecting because I was so
used to going to the States for Halloween. Yeah, then
when I went there, I was like, Wow, I didn't
actually expect this to be to the level Yeah that
they've gotten now, which kind of shows obviously the money
is there because there's a huge audience. Yeah, and it's
entire and I think they're able to every year kind
of up the effects.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Yes, yeah, no, absolutely, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Final question then, and you can kind of I suppose
Taylor this to however everyone, Yeah, I always ask why horror?
But you know, I feel like you've not obviously haven't
just done horror, but there's a lot of either horror
or horror adjacent or kind of maybe a little bit
more fantastical there, Like why do you think that you're
drawn to that more than anything? And I suppose what

(59:56):
does it mean to you?

Speaker 3 (59:58):
I think because I've grown up were you know, with
fantasy stuff first, you know, the Ray Harry Howses, I've
always been interested in things that weren't real, and then
as he obviously got older, then I started hitting into
the horror side of it, and I just love horror film.
I love. What I want is to watch a film
I think, okay, please make me scared watching this and
our watch and go that's actually really creepy. You know,

(01:00:20):
if it can creep me out, I'm really happy if
it makes me creepy. I mean, I still think The
Exorcist is the scare of his film still gets me
every time. It's just the sound effects on the Exorcist,
and I love, you know, I'm not I'm not going
to go out to Cinneamon go right and to see
Bridgard Jones for you know. That's I'd rather go and see,
you know, a really cool, classy horror movie. You know,

(01:00:44):
there's just something about the atmosphere of horror, you know.
I mean, I think when someone gets the money to
do Nosfratu, I mean it looked beauty. I mean it
did look beautiful. The sets and you know, the design
and the cinematography was stunning. I mean, you know, I say,
the makeup technically is stunning. It's just design. But there's
just something about horror films. I'll always watch horror more

(01:01:04):
than anything else because I'm a horror kid. That's me.
You know, I'm fifty seven, but I'm still I still
think themselves a horror kid growing up and going I'm
gonna watch Poltageist tomorrows. In fact, I'll probably what end
up watching Politiceist. You know, when I think about them,
I just want to go and watch them again. I
just think a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
These films saying like someone might bring up a movie
like you've You've mentioned a couple of things there, and
I'm like, oh, I'm read you at watching the thing
again or whatever it would be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And
it's fun and it's I think it's fun to be
a fan, and it must be from your point of view.
It's like you're an audience member and you're also the
one creating it as well, so it's like you're the

(01:01:43):
best of the quarrels.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Yeah, it's exciting to watch a movie knowing your effect
is coming up, thinking oh, please, hopefully everyone just scream
at that point, and when they do and they go,
oh perfect, everyone got the sequence.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Yeah, yeah, Sean has been a place. Sure I could.
I feel like I could probably keep this conversation going
for multiple hours, but I won't take up the rest
of your Friday afternoon. But I definitely would love to
keep in touch and I would love to do this
again at some point in the future.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Absolutely. I'd love to thank.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Like I said, for everybody listening. All the links of
the stuff will be down below in the descriptions, and yeah,
I wish you all the best and let's stay in touch.

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:02:22):
Thanks Aaron, fantastic, Thank you, thank you, take care you,
Thanks bye bye.

Speaker 2 (01:02:33):
Thanks for listening to another episode of Class Hardcast. Stop
the CHC podcast at Class horror cast dot com, at
first Class Horror, on Instagram, to jog in YouTube, or
on Twitter and Class Underscore Horror. The CC podcast is
hosted and produced by Aaron Doyle and is an fch production.