The Endangered Art of Makeup FX

EDMONTON — Perusing through her Facebook photo albums you will find a sequence of images of Charlen Middendorf slowly transforming into an animated skeleton. In the first photo she appears as herself with a cap over her head that gives her the appearance of having gone completely bald. The next shot shows Middendorf smiling a vivacious smile as a white base-coat and black shading around the eyes are added. The skeleton design comes full circle in the next few shots as cheek and jaw shading are added, and finally a gaunt mouth of teeth is painted on over her real lips. Voila! A living, breathing, bright blue-eyed skeleton stares back from the mirror as Middendorf congratulates her classmate on her work.
Middendorf’s portfolio features photos of herself, friends and former classmates made over as grotesque ghouls, macabre monsters and trauma victims with facial wounds so realistic that you would think they were severely assaulted.

Rest assured, these outlandish beings are make-believe; they are the products of several tedious hours of makeup, prosthetics and faux flesh application, just as Middendorf was while sitting in as the guinea pig for her fellow classmate’s skeleton face design. These are the creations of a skilled makeup effects artist — a profession that is slowly becoming endangered in the realm of motion picture arts.

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #28 - The Ghosts of Interview Past

As we close out the year, Kevin introduces some of the interviews from the earlier days of the podcast.

Kevin interviews the director, writer and star of the cult hit The Room, Tommy Wiseau.

Lacey Paige interviews Hanger director Ryan Nicholson and Maniac Director Bill Lustig.

Jeff interviews three cult legends: Mink Stole, Kitten Natividad and Lance Henriksen.

Click here to listen or right click and choose "Save Link As..." to download.

Click on any of the links above to listen to the entire original episodes!

Movie Review: The Pig Farm (2011)

Call it morbid obsession or just a keen interest in true crime, as a Canadian citizen I’ve been waiting a long time to see a documentary about Canada’s most infamous and established serial killer.

The first documentary ever to be made on notorious Canadian pig farmer/serial killer Robert “Willie” Pickton, The Pig Farm is as informative as it is downright disturbing. Featuring re-enactments of the events surrounding Pickton’s arrest, and heart-wrenching interviews with former employees of his farm and a few of the surviving women who had first-hand encounters with him, The Pig Farm, like Pickton himself, lures you in and binds you to your seat for what will likely be the most unsettling docu-viewing experience of a lifetime.

Buy The Pig Farm on DVD

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #8 presents Review Mania

It's late, but it's finally here! Damned technology!

Kevin Moyers and Jeff Dolniak get together via phone for a review filled evening. They discuss movies, television and enchiladas. They also get into this month's Trade-off, in which Jeff had to listen to one of Kevin's favorite podcasts, and Kevin had to watch a terrible porn parody.

Lacey Paige also shares her thoughts on the latest addition to the Scream franchise.

Click here to listen or right click and choose "Save Link As..." to download.

Independent Shops Survive Video Rental Holocaust

As a follow up to Kevin's editorial on the death of video rental shops (read it here), I just wanted to share my hatred for the corporate ones and spread the love and liveliness of independent ones. Keep in mind that I live in the western part of Canada's prairie provinces in Deadmonton, Hellberta and I'm speaking primarily of the awesome independent shops we have here.

With the internet skyrocketing over the past decade—and things like vinyl albums and VHS tapes being long-outdated—new entertainment mediums are being integrated into western civilization. However, there are still people who prefer the “obsolete” over “new-age”. These are the people who will actually pay money for an album or a movie rather than downloading it for free on the internet.

The companies and services that provide people with their entertainment have also changed drastically. According to a review of the video rental industry featured on Business.highbeam.com, alternative entertainment media is under assault by pay-per-view television and video-on-demand. Services like Netflix and Red Box vendors, as well as an increased amount of video-viewing services offered through regular cable providers.

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #7 featuring Ryan Nicholson and Ron Ford

Kevin Moyers and Jeff Dolniak sit down for a talk about their first movie trade-off. Kevin made Jeff watch the Karate Kid remake, while Jeff had Kevin watch Hanger. They also discuss a Swedish exploitation book, rape in movies and whatever else comes to mind.

Our Canadian correspondent Lacey Paige got a quick phone interview with director Ryan Nicholson of Hanger and Gutterballs.

Also in this episode, Kevin and Jeff talk to director and CHC contributor Ron Ford in the first ever edition of Know Your Cheese.

Click here to listen or right click and choose "Save Link As..." to download.

Find Ryan Nicholson and Ron Ford on Amazon.com.

Support Ron's next movie, Man Without a Saddle, on IndieGoGo.

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #6 featuring William Lustig

Recently, our Canadian correspondent Lacey Paige interviewed director William Lustig at SplatterFest in Calgary. Bill is known for such films as Maniac and Maniac Cop.

Also in this episode, Kevin Moyers shares news about Angry Birds and tells you how brilliant Scrubs is.

Click here to listen or right click and choose "Save Link As..." to download.

Find Bill Lustig on Amazon.com.

Interview: Viscera Film Fest's Heidi Martinuzzi and Shannon Lark

Women in Horror month has officially wrapped for 2011, and although I like to think that everyone will keep celebrating the lovely women who contribute to the genre all throughout the year (regardless of it being February or not), I'd like to thank the fabulous females behind The Viscera Film Festival (an independent film festival held in Los Angeles every year that specifically focuses on horror shorts made by women) Shannon Lark and Heidi Martinuzzi.As a follow up to my Women in Horror month feature that I posted earlier in February, here are full interviews with Lark and Martinuzzi.

Movie Review: Drive Angry 3D (2011)

Blood, boobs and brutal violence—the three key ingredients to your typical Hollywood “guy flick”—and in the case of Drive Angry 3D, one hell of an action-packed thrill ride. Todd farmer and Patrick Lussier have come together to create one of the best 3D-enhanced movies since the explosion of the latest triple-dimensional trend in cinema. 

Buy Drive Angry on DVD or Blu-ray

Every year, moviegoers are force-fed an unnecessary dose of that extra dimension. Sure it’s cool to be looking down the larger-than-life barrel of a shotgun, or have the debris from a massive explosion come flying within centimeters of your face, but in some movies it just isn’t necessary. Lussier did it right, utilizing the 3D element to amplify every mindlessly awesome visual aspect of the film. 

Interview: Jovanka Vuckovic in Honour of Women in Horror Month

In honour of Women in Horror Month, one of the most respected women in the worlds of horror and fanzines took some time to answer a few questions for CHC. Boys & ghouls...Miss Jovanka Vuckovic. Writer, filmmaker, madam of the macabre and former editor-in-chief of Canada's number one source of horror culture news.

Lacey Paige: Who are you and what role do you play in the horror biz?

Juvonka Vuckovic: My name is Jovanka Vuckovic and I am a published author, director and editor. I edited Rue Morgue Magazine for six and a half years and have recently moved on to filmmaking. My first short film, The Captured Bird, goes into production this spring. My book, Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead, comes out next week from St. Martin’s Press.

LP: What drew you into the genre and at what age to you remember it first having an impact on you?

JV: I always attribute my exposure to horror as a result of my chronic childhood insomnia. My parents used to let me stay up late watching television because I would eventually fall asleep on the couch. It was during those late and lonely nights that I became aquainted with Vincent Price in the Roger Corman Poe adaptations – not to mention the Canadian children’s show he appeared in – The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Canadian broadcasters weren’t censoring anything after 11pm so it wasn’t long before my little eyes were traumatized by all kinds of horror films including The Exorcist, which I saw for the first time when I was only 8 years old. It left a permanent wrinkle in my psyche and certainly didn’t help my sleep problems. But, like a junkie, I was hooked before I even knew it and I’ve been an addict ever since.

Movie Review: Adam Green's Frozen (2010)

The man behind the hideous face of new-school American horror has stepped far from the world of deformed mongoloid-maniacs into the much more realistic and terrifying world of nature vs. human-kind horror. Adam Green, director of Hatchet and its highly anticipated sequel, Hatcher II, has really stepped up his game and reached frighteningly unimaginable heights—quite literally. Although Frozen is a movie very much like Jaws in a sense of man fighting to survive against the wrath of nature, the gags and campiness are blatantly absent. This winter vacation gone horribly awry will crawl up your spine like a brisk snowy chill and sting your skin like frostbite.


Buy Frozen on Blu-ray!

A friend of mine who organizes monthly screenings at an awesome little independent theatre in Calgary, Alberta (Canada) showed this last year around the time that it was making theatrical rounds at festivals across North America. I wasn’t able to catch it, and sadly it faded away in my mind along with the countless other DVD titles that I just had to see and try to remember until I could get my hands on a copy. I finally got around to seeing what has been one of the best movies that I’ve seen in the past couple years… and one that actually scared the hell out of me.

Interview: Chainsaw Sally in Honour of Women in Horror Month

In honour of Women in Horror month, I took it upon myself to interview some of the most important women currently working in the business. April Monique Burril plays one of the feistiest and foxiest villainous' in modern horror. Conservative sexy librarian by day, scantily clad chainsaw-wielding freak by night...It's CHAINSAW SALLY!

Lacey Paige: Who are you and what role do you play in the horror biz?

April Burril: My name is April Monique Burril. I am primarily an actress, sometimes a prop mistress, sometimes a set dresser. Like many in the world of micro-budget filmmaking, I pitch in and help wherever is needed at the time. I guess if I'm "known" for anything right now, it would be for the character I portray more than any other—Chainsaw Sally.

Find April Burril on Amazon.com

Celebrating Females of Fright in February

It may have started when writer/producer Debra Hill joined forces with John Carpenter to pen what has, over 30 years, become one of the most recognized and appreciated horror films of all time—one that paved the bloody path for a generation of pseudo-copies—Halloween. Or maybe it was Jamie Lee Curtis’ break-out role as the mousy heroine, Laurie Strode. At some juncture on the road of horror pop-culture—one that for decades men were only thought to have trodden—women began to rise above the bare-breasted, axe-wound victim that they had always been portrayed as in cinematic tales of the macabre.

But the up-rise of women in the horror genre actually happened years before Halloween was released. In 1954, a very scary lady dressed in all black began broadcasting live, haunting airwaves throughout the Los Angeles area—her name, was Vampira. Based on the personalities of silent film actresses Gloria Swanson and Theda Bara, as well as the evil Queen from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, with an image that was inspired by the drawings that Charles Addams had done during his employment with The New Yorker, the show was cancelled after a brief two-year run on television, and Vampira later became the inspiration for Morticia Addams of The Addams Family

In 1981, a new horror hostess took over the airwaves. Since, she has become an iconic female figure of all things frightening—Elvira. The real woman under all that black is a singer-performer-actress Cassandra Peterson. She made her big break on to Hollywood screens as the beloved mistress of the macabre, and is still to this very day as popular as ever. She has since produced and starred in two Elvira movies, as well as taking roles in a variety of other films, and transforming the Elvira character into a wo

Movie Review: Dear Mr. Gacy (2010)

Have you ever wanted to see inside of the mind of a serial killer? Well in the case of Jason Moss, an audacious university law student who chose homosexual pedophile-child killer John Wayne Gacy as the topic of his thesis paper, it is possible. It takes a certain type of individual who possesses an extraordinary amount of conviction to do what Moss did, and do it as well as he did.

Buy Dear Mr. Gacy on DVD and Blu-ray

Yugoslavian director Svetozar Ristovski’s Dear Mr. Gacy chronicles the events that transpired within the six-month period of Moss’ relationship with Gacy. What starts out as a simple handwritten letter spirals out of control into the abyss of neurosis, manipulation and obsession. What we are seeing here is a glimpse into the deepest, darkest corners of the human psyche. A kid determined to get the story of a notorious killer from an angle that hasn’t yet been covered, a notorious killer living out the last six months of his life in solitary confinement. Each possesses what the other wants… one can only imagine what this particularly twisted game of cat and mouse will lead to.

Interview: William Lustig

Lacey Paige sat down with director William Lustig to discuss his career. The Blue Underground president and director of such influential cult classics as Maniac, Vigilante and the Maniac Cop trilogy talks a little about his adult film career, the state of genre DVD and of course his classic features.

Find William Lustig on Amazon.com

Movie Review: Black Swan (2010)

By Lacey Paige

Pursuing ballet is something that every little girl and her mother fantasize about at some point or another. For the seemingly luckiest of little girls, that fantasy becomes a reality upon years of what turns out to be back-breaking, toe-splitting, body-depraving hours of self-discipline, excruciatingly hard work, and essentially—the insatiable craving for perfection. I’m incredibly grateful for the fact that I never had much of a desire to be one of those self-sacrificing perfectionists…or to learn how to dance. It took years but my mom eventually came to accept the eccentric, imaginative horror-movie freak of a woman that I’ve become. After seeing what I’d call one of my most anticipated films of the year, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, I’m more grateful for these things now that I ever have been.

Buy Black Swan on DVD

Like beauty, horror is truly in the eye of the beholder and director Aronofsky has proven himself to be a master of the unconventional genre film with his earlier work, particularly in Requiem for a Dream and his debut film, Pi. His fifth and arguably one of his best films yet, Black Swan is a phenomenal nightmare vision with jaw-dropping impact, veiled by lace and the sickeningly sweet scent of perfume.

Interview: Israel Luna

By Lacey Paige

Independent filmmaker and proud member of the gay film community Israel Luna recently stirred up controversy with the 2010 release of his latest film—a throwback to ‘70s grindhouse/

exploitation/revenge flicks titled, Ticked-off Trannies with Knives. With several successful screenings across the States, Luna’s latest proved him to be the type of guy who takes no slack when it comes to his openness about his sexuality. A strong believer and supporter of homosexual rights, his films and audacious personality have helped him build a strong reputation in Dallas’ independent-gay film community. Breaking Glass Pictures recently released news of an official DVD release of his 2008 Slasher film, Fright Flick. Upon having recently returned from scouting for locations for his upcoming zombie film project, Luna took some time to share a bit about himself and his experiences with Cinesploitation.

Buy Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives on DVD!
Buy The Deadbeat Club on DVD!
Buy Fright Flick on DVD!
Buy R U Invited on DVD!

Lacey Paige

Lacey Paige is a Canadian journalism student and freelance underground/alternative entertainment writer/reporter/photographer. She is also a poetry and short fiction scribe, having penned numerous poems, short stories, and even a script or two in the decade that she has been hunching over the notepad and paper (or typewriter, computer…whatever). She is passionate about horror—an avid reader, film viewer, and collector of all things horror. She began writing film reviews in 2006 after first having discovered the most heavenly (and hellish) place on earth…well…here in Deadmonton anyway. That is, The Lobby DVD shop. Her first experiences with the genre were around the age of five or six when she would take trips with her dad to the neighbourhood Five Star video—terrified and not even tall enough to see over the rental shelves, she would stare in awe and frightened fascination at the covers of 80s and 90s horror. She specifically remembers the VHS slips for Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive and Wes Craven’s Shocker. She slept with the light on until the age of 11, and is still happily a traumatized horror headcase to this very day.

She started writing for Cinema Head Cheese recently, and is now contributing reviews and interviews with film industry figures via audio every month for the CHC podcast (she hopes you like them and is always open to constructive criticism!) She is now working through her first draft of her first official “movie” script titled, Blow Dryer Brainwashed Bimbos Attack! (a homage to movies like Street Trash, The Stuff, and Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste and Dead Alive). She also writes for affiliate site Cinesploitation.com, as well as Absolute Underground Magazine, Fangoria magazine (tentatively?), the Grant MacEwan University student newspaper, and interviews bands for Dead City Press. She is also trying to keep up her blog! AbsoluteCinephilia.wordpress.com As the Beastie Boys would say, Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check it out—www.absolutecinephilia.wordpress.com.

Lacey likes long walks in dark eerie basements, blood guts and gore, cemetery photography, gazing into the aftermath of extreme car wrecks, advocating coat hanger abortions, and finger painting with the insane.