possessed by the devil presented filmgoers with unprecedented images of horror. Always aiming for realism even with his most fantastical creations, makeup artist Dick Smith’s process for finalizing actress Linda Blair’s transformation into the demonic Regan required weeks of camera tests and multiple application variations. Collaborating with special effects supervisor Marcel Vercoutere, Smith employed his mastery with foam latex to create a life-size body cast of Blair for the iconic, horrifying head-spinning scene and fashioned a hidden, plastic mouthpiece to produce Regan’s projectile vomit. DIRECTED BY: William Friedkin. WRITTEN BY: William Peter Blatty. WITH: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn. 1973. 121 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. DCP.
ALTERED STATES (1980)
SCANNERS (1981)
Altered States Thu, Aug 3 | 7:30pm | TMT
Scanners Thu, Aug 10 | 7:30pm | TMT
For William Hurt’s film acting debut in Ken Russell’s adaptation of Paddy Chayefsky’s novel about a psychopathologist who turns to self-experimentation hoping for higher consciousness, makeup artist Dick Smith metamorphosized Hurt in various innovative ways. For one “altered state,” Hurt was outfitted with a full-body foam latex suit; for another, air bladders were affixed to Hurt’s body to create an unsettling swelling effect. The achievements in Altered States , The Elephant Man , and other films released in 1980 led to the creation of the Makeup category at the Academy Awards, inaugurated at the 1981 ceremony, and renamed Makeup and Hairstyling in 2012. DIRECTED BY: Ken Russell. WRITTEN BY: Paddy Chayefsky. WITH: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid. 1980. 103 min. USA. Color. English. Rated R. DCP.
“10 seconds. The pain begins. 15 seconds. You can’t breathe. 20 seconds. You explode.” Working with special effects supervisor Gary Zeller ( Dawn of the Dead ) and a team of special makeup artists including Stephan Dupuis ( Robocop ), Tom Schwartz ( Galaxy of Terror ), and Chris Walas ( The Fly ), Smith organized, designed, and fabricated makeups for the final scenes in Canadian genre master David Cronenberg’s science-fiction thriller with unnerving realism, again using inflatable bladders to create the bleeding, pulsing veins for the film’s climax and working with the special effects team to create unbelievable on- screen transformations. DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: David Cronenberg. WITH: Jennifer O’Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane. 1981. 103 min. Canada. Color. English. Rated R. DCP.
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