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Face Off: Cryptic Creatures

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Face Off Cryptic Creatures

The Face Off contestants make creative cryptids and we get a visit from Doug Jones, acclaimed creature actor.

A foundation challenge starts us off, and it’s one of those fun “transform an entire group in two hours” challenges, like we saw last season with zombies. I love these, it’s very much like what the haunted house make-up artists do. This time it’s orcs! Laura Tyler (last season’s winner, and an avid D&D player) would have been right at home! Each team of two picked a tribe to design one hero orc and nine tribemates. Corinne won immunity with her semi-vampiric nocturnal orc design, chosen by guest judge Howard Berger. I personally liked Chloe’s black-skinned, red-haired tribe.

The main challenge, also in teams of two, is to design a cryptid based on descriptions of the creatures from legends. I like this idea in principle, but it also sort of handcuffs the teams to a specific set of features. On the other hand I liked most of the designs this week, so that sort of restriction brought out the best in some teams.

There was another awesome guest judge this week with Doug Jones, most easily recognizable for his role as Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies. Doug gave everyone some tips on how to keep their creatures expressive, so the actor underneath can still emote. Good stuff! Almost makes up for the lack of Michael Westmore this week.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Daran and Cat’s chupacabra was terrible. And, at least in the segments we were shown, Daran acted like a big jerk, not letting Cat contribute and actually making her hold glue jars at one point, like she was some intern. I suspect the judges don’t see that stuff, and Cat didn’t say much at judging, but even so Daran took full “credit” for the face sculpt, which was an embarrassment. Matt was sent home instead for a jersey devil that was a little plain. I don’t understand the choice here. The wings were a bit sad, the face looked like a mask, and they didn’t really capture what I think of as the jersey devil, but I don’t think it should have sent Matt home.

George and Niko had the vodyanoi, a reptilian creature. They did a pretty great job, giving it glaring red eyes and a nasty looking row of needle teeth. It looked very non-human, and had nice fishlike fins and body lines. That mint green paint job seemed iffy at first, but came together nicely.

Rashaad and Graham make such an awesome team. Did you catch that comment, when Rashaad was painting and mentioned, “Two different colors blending perfectly together,” and Graham said, “Just like you and me!” Adorable. They had the bunyip, which is sort of the platypus of cryptids. I think sightings of this thing come from occasions when someone saw a bird riding a crocodile’s head while the crocodile surfs on a walrus. Go ahead and laugh, that happens more often than you think in Australia. Graham and Rashaad threw all those elements together and because they hold the World Tag Team Make-Up Championship belts, they made it all somehow work.

Chloe and Tyler had a serious challenge with the mapinguari (a cryptid I’d never heard of, and I actually write about cryptids professionally sometimes). One eye. A mouth in the stomach. Fur everywhere. There’s nothing worse than Fun Fur, but what choice did they have? They matted down that fur to make it gross and not look like a pet bunny. The face had great detail, and I honestly have no idea where the model was looking out of. But Tyler’s stomach mouth was a thing of pure disgustingness. That tongue looked so lifelike, and the way it moved. Hilarious and gross and creepy all at once. Here’s something Tyler probably never wants Glenn to say to him ever again: “Your belly-mouth and tongue were really great.”

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Posted by on Tuesday, February 18th, 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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