Archive for Special Effects
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FX Workshop: Double Impalement
Whilst 1980′s Friday the 13th was a melting pot of ideas taken from a variety of recent successful horror films (specifically Carrie and Halloween), Friday the 13th Part 2 would lift a murder wholesale from a cult 1971 thriller called Reazione a catena. Originally distributed in the United States by Hallmark Releasing (who would also […]
FX Workshop: Flying Eyeball
Friday the 13th Part 3 would continue the tradition of the Grand Guignol-style theatrics that fans had grown accustomed to but and would feature some of the most graphic murders of the franchise, although as a combination of both the added 3-D effects and strict MPAA regulations, each set piece would ultimately be relatively blood-free. […]
FX Workshop: Jason’s Final Chapter
When Paramount Pictures announced that they would be bringing their lucrative Friday the 13th franchise to an end with The Final Chapter, the filmmakers were under pressure to deliver a climax that would not disappoint the fans. Throughout the two previous films Jason had impaled two lovers during sex and, perhaps most bizarrely, had crushed […]
FX Workshop: The Split Girl
Following the relatively blood-free restraint of Paramount’s Friday the 13th swan song, 1989′s Jason Takes Manhattan, the franchise would return to its gruesome roots for New Line’s first offering, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. The special effects were handled by KNB EFX, one of the most respected make-up and effects workshops in the […]
F13 Hall of Fame: Tom Savini
One of the names most associated with the slasher genre is not a director or even an actor, but a make-up artist. Tom Savini became synonymous with gory splatter effects in the early 1980s after his groundbreaking work on the likes of Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 […]
F13 Hall of Fame: John Carl Buechler
If anyone has a reason to hate Harry Potter, it’s John Carl Buechler! Back in 1986, a low budget fantasy called Troll was released and enjoyed minor success at the box office. Its protagonist was a young man named Harry Potter Jr., portrayed with wide-eyed innocence by Noah Hathaway, previously known for his roles in […]
Exclusive Interview: Robert Kurtzman
Along with fellow artists Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, Robert Kurtzman founded KNB EFX in 1988, which would become one of the most successful special effects companies in the world. Having first entered the industry at the age of twenty-one with the cult B-movie Night of the Creeps, Kurtzman first joined forces with Nicotero and […]
Exclusive Interview: Tom Savini
Despite having missed out on the opportunity of working on George A. Romero’s seminal zombie classic Night of the Living Dead whilst serving in Vietnam, Tom Savini would become a major star within the horror genre for his work on the sequel, Dawn of the Dead, almost a decade later. Following his groundbreaking special effects […]
Exclusive Interview: John Caglione Jr.
Although the special make-up effects on Friday the 13th Part 2 are often attributed to Carl Fullerton, his assistant on the picture, John Caglione Jr., also played an important role in the creation of the various inventive set pieces (despite sadly being neutered by the MPAA). Following his work during the 1970s on Saturday Night […]
Exclusive Interview: John Carl Buechler
An alumni of both Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and Charles Band’s Empire, special make-up effects artist John Carl Buechler first entered the movie industry in the late 1970s and would soon attract a following for his work on Forbidden World and Deathstalker. But arguably his most successful era came a few years later when […]