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Face Off: Bloodsuckers

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Face Off Bloodsuckers

This season of Face Off grinds along, with the remaining four contestants creating international vampires this week.

Notice that the remaining four artists are the nicest, most helpful, enthusiastic people on the show? Not that everyone who’s been eliminated was a jerk or anything. Lots of nice, helpful, enthusiastic folks have gone by the wayside. But people with big egos, sour attitudes, or weird agendas never make it to the top. These four guys are all talented, and they all seem like awesome people. In that imaginary future where I somehow end up directing horror films, I’d gladly work with any of them.

The challenge is revealed at a mausoleum, where each artist gets a vampire from a different slice of ethnic folklore. There are some interesting vampire variants, some of them barely recognizable as vampires at all. Because I have the mind of an adolescent, I kept calling Niko’s vampire (the Phillipino Aswang) “ASS-WANG!”

Speaking of the Aswang, I really liked it. Niko made something seriously horrific looking. The huge, gaping, split mouth with all that raw, red flesh was magnificently disgusting. The tail was stupid and showed a lack of imagination, but the judges seem to only vaguely care about the actual parameters of the challenges this season. The overall effect was excellent.

George’s vampire was revealed to be quite good once they stripped away all the bad decision, like the bloody sash and the execrable fingers. Admittedly those fingers were a key part of the folklore, which makes it odd that George left them to the last minute and clearly put minimal effort into them. Was that face sculpt awesome enough to keep George around?

Rashaad won with his Asian vampire, which captures victims with hand vines and drinks their chi. The chest fly trap was inconsequential. Again, the mouth in the chest thing has been done way too many times. That’s like the fifth one just this season. But the face was utterly perfect. In no way did it look like a makeup effect. It was a character. So expressive and intimidating looking, such subtle paint. The hair was a little odd, that could have been done a bit better.

Tyler had this stunted bat creature that he sculpted a huge chest and shoulder piece for, and attempted to give wings. It was more than he could accomplish in the allotted time, and it really suffered. The proportions were really weird, and although I liked the face a lot, guest judge Len Wiseman observed that sculpting the horns into the head was an error. They did look too integral, or like a hairpiece. It was a bit of a mess overall, and I was really afraid Tyler would be going home.

But no. In fact, no one is going home because it’s a two-part challenge. The second half, werewolves, will be next week.

I can’t help but feel like this is dragging the season out unnecessarily. I’ve felt that Face Off was getting stale before, but thought maybe it was just because I’ve been recapping it for five seasons. But I’ve heard similar feelings from other fans. The contestants are doing cool stuff this year, but it is becoming a grind. This may be my last season watching.

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Posted by on Tuesday, April 8th, 2014. Filed under Dark TV, Headline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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