Monday, 15 July 2024
Xena: Warrior Princess (1995)
The famed spin-off series to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys similarly had its makeup effects handled by both Weta Workshop (with Richard Taylor acting as makeup designer) and KNB EFX Group. 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' was handled by Weta, who sculpted a prosthetic facial appliance for Anthony Ray Parker to wear as the demon Bacchus.
Weta also designed prosthetics once more for Anthony Ray Parker to wear as the demon Krafstar in 'The Deliverer'.
KNB handled the realization of the 'Destroyer' demon in 'A Family Affair' was realized as a performer in a sculpted bodysuit, with the head mask fitted with animatronics allowing it to emote; the performer also was wearing backward-bent leg extensions in order to tower over the other actors.
Demon prosthetic appliances were made by KNB once again for both Lucy Lawless and Hudson Leick in 'Fallen Angel', worn with prop wings as well.
KNB also realized another demon prosthetic in 'The Haunting of Amphipolis', with a greyish facial appliance and paintjob worn by Anthony Ray Parker as the demon Mephistopheles.
More demon prosthetics were applied on Alex Mendoza as the demon Lucifer in 'Heart of Darkness', with similar prop wings as the ones seen in 'Fallen Angel'.
The episodes 'The Rheingold' and 'The Ring', being homages to Germanic legends, of course had their own take on Grendel, the monster of the poem Beowulf. Grindl (the Grendel homage) is a tree-like creatures realized as performers in elaborate bodysuits, with a head on top of a long neck controlled by the performer inside.
Just like how how Grendel had a monstrous mother, so too is Grindl is the son of Grinhilda, whose true form was realized as a very similar bodysuit distingushed by having 'hair' of roots.
Monday, 8 July 2024
Sliders (1995)
Sliders was fairly sparse on episodes needing elaborate special makeup effects, with each episode that did having no makeup effects credits. The Kromaggs in the episode 'Invasion' are such an example, though as this was filmed in Vancouver, and several Grey masks sculpted by Toby Lindala for The X Files appear in the same episode, could these have been Lindala's work? These Kromagg makeups also bear a similarity to the makeups Lindala devised for the Outer Limits episode 'The Grell' as well, strengthening the case.
The rest of the episodes are harder to place; there are no special makeup effects credits for 'The Last of Eden', so it's unknown who realized the makeups for the episode's vampire-like Morlok pastiches. This was a third series episode, and all the series after the second were filmed in Los Angeles, so there's many contenders.
The makeup effects in the third season's 'This Slide of Paradise', a pastiche of The Island of Dr Moreau, also went uncredited, so again - who realized them? Thomas Surprenant, who did do work on the later LA-filmed episodes confirmed he was not responsible for the makeups in either 'Last of Eden' or 'This Slide of Paradise'. A mystery as of now.
The last two seasons had their special makeup effects supervised by Bernd J. Rantscheff, his team including Thomas Surprenant and James Rohland. Rantscheff's team redesigned the Kromaggs to be more human-like, now with heavy brows, noses and bald heads. I also would like to thank Thomas Surprenant for kindly sending me the behind the scenes photos he took during his time on the series!
Rantscheff's team also realized the cyborg Eddies in the episode 'California Reich', with a silvery facial prosthetic obscuring the performer's mouth, as well as a half-face makeup applied to Carol Huston as an incomplete Eddie.
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