Exclusive Flesh Crawl SFX Interview

Our friends at Horror-Movies.ca had a chance to sit down with the Special FX guru from FleshCrawl. In Flesh Crawl Five friends venture deep into the woods on a weekend long camping trip. Forced onto a detour by a military roadblock, they find themselves an alternate route to their initial destination. After a night of revelry, four of the campers embark on a morning swim, leaving one of their members alone back at camp.

Q.  How about a little background on you before we get into the film? I know that you have a website where you sell some of your creations including your very creative line of "Chip" zombies that are adorable by the way. How did you get into making those?

I have been doing yard haunts for Halloween for as long as I can remember and I am always trying to outdo myself every year. I simply couldn’t afford to buy the things I wanted, so I started making my own props. My first zombie or corpse was a doctored up plastic skeleton. The "Chip" zombie evolved from that using a number of ideas from the Monster List of Halloween Projects (www.halloweenmonsterlist.info) and my own experimentation.

Q.  I also think it’s pretty obvious that Halloween is a big holiday around your house. It also happens to be my favorite. Why don't you tell us a little about your annual Yard Haunt and how that got going?

My yard haunts are usually very popular with the neighborhood. I moved about two years ago and the first year at my new house we only got about 25 kids. This past year we had over 300 people come through the haunt. No matter how many people come, it is always fun. If you can scare just one, it’s all worth while. My haunt is free and open to whoever stops by. If you live in my area, feel free to visit. You can get directions off my website, www.MLAcreations.com.

Q.  Okay, now on to the meat of the conversation so to speak. You are doing the make up effects for the film Flesh Crawl. How did you get involved with this?

A friend of mine met Dustin and told me he was into zombies and that I should e-mail him. I e-mailed Dustin my site. He seemed to like my work and asked if I could make a couple of zombies for a film he was doing. It sounded pretty cool, so we met and started talking about make-up and he asked if I would be interested in helping. I told him I would be happy to help out and now I’m the primary make-up artist for the film. Who knew?

Q.  You are very talented and inventive. Have you always wanted to work in films?

Thank you! I have been called a lot of things and those words usually aren’t included! I have always been interested in special effects, but never pursued it except as a hobby. I saw the opportunity to work on Flesh Crawl as a great way to gain experience and try out some different make-up techniques. It has really been a blast.

Q.  Are there any films from which you have drawn inspiration for the effects in Flesh Crawl? If so, what are they

Flesh Crawl is all Dustin and Troy. During my first meeting with Dustin, he showed me some examples of "the look" he was going for and I do my best to give that to him. We also have a concept meeting before each shoot so if there is anything special he wants, I can work on it in advance.

Q.  Do you have any heroes in the make up business? Is there someone that you would like to work with given the opportunity in the future?

Tom Savini does really cool stuff. If I ever decided to do this professionally I would like to take his Special Make-up Effects Program. I also like Michael Burnett’s work, but my favorite would have to be Dick Smith. I use many of Dick Smith’s techniques in my work, most of which are very simple and yield dramatic effects.

Q.  Did you enjoy your first film experience? Surely this is more demanding than decorating your front yard. What is it like to be in charge of something so large?

I have really enjoyed it. It has been a lot of work, but I have enjoyed the challenge. The other make-up artist is Robin and she is awesome too, but her schedule has not allowed her to be at all the shoots. I have some "regular" assistants that with a little direction have done some really nice work. I couldn’t have done it without them.

Q.  Did you find that working on a film of this size was more demanding than you expected or were you pretty well prepared for what was in store?

I was pretty well prepared. The first shoot was massive. We started really early each day and people were in and out for make-up and touch ups and "more blood, please." The next shoot was on location and that was more difficult, but after that, I had it down pat.

Q.  Were there any particular hurdles that you had to overcome in regards to any of the effects for the film?

I think Dustin had the biggest hurdle. He wanted an effect of someone shooting themselves in the head, but he knew that was how my husband died, so it took him some time to get up the nerve to ask me about it. It wasn’t a problem for me, but I could tell he was uncomfortable asking me about it. We did the effect and while I haven’t seen it on film, I think it will turn out really well.

You can read the rest of the interview right here