Face Off: In the Shadows
From a shadowy shape, contestants must create a horrifying creature. Some of them will haunt my nightmares. Some of them were made of red solo cups and cling wrap.
In a lonely warehouse, everyone meets McKenzie and Oren Peli, producer of the Paranormal Activity series and other horror films. They’re playing off the idea that it’s better and scarier to hide your monster in the shadows instead of showing it clearly. This is a horror idea I fully subscribe to, but how do you pull that off on Face Off? They did it quite cleverly, displaying a bunch of creature silhouettes for the artists to be inspired by.
Nothing too crazy happened during the build. There was some good comradery, especially considering this was an individual challenge. Tyler did some serious work to help out Niko and Cat with their molds. Corinne bailed on her cowl mold entirely, leaving her with a fairly simplistic goblin face and some pre-made ears.
Watching Tanner work was tough, since it was clear things were not going to work out. Building the horns out of plastic cups wasn’t a terrible idea, but one you try out when you’re workshopping at home. A more tried and true method (probably using foam) would have worked better. That was just Tanner’s inexperience, which also showed in his efforts to texture his model’s torso with plastic wrap. We’ve seen lots of competitors in past seasons do the exact same thing with some brilliant clever method they know about. Tanner just didn’t know. I guess he knows not to use plastic wrap next time. I did like his “giant horns sticking through the chest” idea (I’d have gone through the shoulders though, it makes more anatomical sense).
A lot of the middle looks were very, well…middle looks. Rashaad’s horned demon was striking, though I wish the face had carried some of the beauty I think he was originally aiming for. It came out a bit overbuilt and heavy browed. Tyler’s bug-faced beast was alarming and had a really nice shape with big insect claws. Matt’s blind demon came out better than I expected it to, reminding me a bit of a cenobite.
The bottom looks were pretty bad, and it’s hard to argue with Tanner’s dismissal. Daran’s creature was odd. It was sort of like demonic Weird Al, that wig was just terrible. The mouth thing on the back was weird and not interesting weird, just weird. I didn’t think Cat’s was as bad as the judges said, though it was weaker without those hands she’d been working on.
The top looks were great, and my only disagreement here is George being a middle look. That great bloody demon thing was so incredible looking. All the various horns and spikes and the bony halo matched the silhouette perfectly. It was terrifying and intimidating and just amazing.
I also loved Graham’s…thing. An old man with insect legs/fingers for a mouth/throat? So horrible. It was literally difficult to look at it was so creepy. Congratulations Graham, that was the scariest Face Off project I’ve ever seen.
Niko’s minotaur was very well done. He did such a great job building in fake eyes to really give it a non-human profile. In the end though, it was just a minotaur. Graham and George created brilliant original creatures.
As for Corinne’s goblin, I thought she’d be a bottom look. Yes, the paint job was good, but Oren specifically asked for a full body design and all she did was a very plain face. Corinne should buy that model dinner, because her acting job sold that makeup so well.
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