The Beastmaster (1982)

Don Coscarelli, fresh off the success of Phantasm and helming the loose adaptation of Andre Norton's The Beast Master, approached Michael McCracken to design Beastmaster's makeup effects, but McCracken's work was cut short by production problems. According to Michael Shawn McCracken on an Instagram post, ''At some point during preproduction the producers ran out of money, everything was put on hold until they could raise more cash. My dad ended up leaving the film and went on to something else. The other stuff he built though was used in the film'.

Below are some of the concept maquettes that McCracken sculpted for the film's infamous 'Birdmen' or 'Winged Devourers', though McCracken Jr. just calls it a 'Bat Creature' in the Instagram post - I'll just say Birdmen for brevity's sake. McCracken's initial maquettes were left behind to be used by whoever replaced him.

William Munns was hired after McCracken left, and had the extra burden of having to fabricate the unfinished effects in a short time frame. Munns stated in an interview with Cool Ass Cinema, 'I replaced Michael McCracken, Jr. three weeks before shooting started. It was all I could do to simply finish the effects they needed. So I didn't go into it with any visions of what I wanted to do, but rather just took their list of things they needed finished and worked from that.'

Throught the film, Rip Torn's cult leader is aided by three witches, realized as actresses in disfiguring, almost decaying prosthetics. It's unknown whether this was Munns' original design, or following from McCracken's designs before he left the project.

Munns, in the three weeks he was given to finish the effects before filming, sculpted and fabricated the Birdmen suits, using McCracken's maquettes as a basis. Assisting Munns throughout the film were Katrin & Ailen Derderian, Michelle Triscario and Jaklin Munns. David B. Miller was also credited as 'make-up effects artist'.

Sources:

- Cool Ass Cinema, 'An Interview with Makeup Effects Artist and Author, William Munns' 2015