Entertainment Earth

5/22/2015

The 30 Greatest Fangoria Covers of all Time Pt. 3, 10 - 1


10. Fangoria #23 (The Evil Dead)- Sam Raimi's gore drenched classic makes a cover appearance. I wonder if anyone back then imagined just how  massive a classic that this movie would become? Think about it, up to that point it was a low budget, unrated movie made by then unknowns starring then unknowns.







9. Fangoria #29 (The Gates of Hell)- Lucio Fulci's gory zombie classick makes this cover. Also known as City of the Living Dead, the image is of one of one of its classic splatter scenes, this one being where a character gets a power-drill to the noggin.








 
8. Fangoria #317 (Barbara Crampton)- One of the most beautiful women ever to grace the horror genre graces this modern era cover. This image not only proves that she is still a stunner, but has a nice bit of classic influence to it.








7. Fangoria #14 (An American Werewolf in London)- The first ever drawn cover for Fango features the werewolf from the John Landis' classic with a close-up of his face. It's some truly amazing artwork, indeed!









6. Fangoria #307 (Alice Cooper)- There are two drawn covers to this issue, the other, The Howling, is fucking cool, too. However, it is this one of the king of shock rock that makes the grade. Also, I have to add this was the issue where you can find my first published article. I remember seeing both covers and thinking to myself, "Holy shit! My favorite werewolf movie and one of my favortie frontmen (and one of my childhood heroes) made the cover of it!!





 
5. Fangoria #57 (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2)- While, I like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, I am admit ably, not it's biggest fan. I think it's alright, but fell that it has, over the years, gotten a little overrated. However, Savini's makeup FX for the movie is excellent, of course. I LOVE his Leatherface, who is the cover-boy here, of course.






 
4. Fangoria #10 (Scanners)- One of the most memorable gore scenes ever, this being the exploding head in David Cronenberg's classic sci-fi/ horror flick, Scanners, gets the awesome front pic here. The tagline on it is awesome, too!








3. Fangoria #1 (Godzilla)- The very first issue of what is probably the most renown horror mag in the world got the King of the Monsters, himself, Godzilla on its' cover. Based on a poster from the very first film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, AKA, Gojira, this cover will catch the eye of any true monster/ horror fan. And, yes I own a copy of it, and only paid 20 bucks for it. It was/ is in pretty good condition.






2. Fangoria #95 (Total Recall)- One of the goriest (if not THE goriest) Arnold Schwarzenegger movies makes the cover and takes the silver medal. It's more head violence (three of the titles in my top ten have some sort of head violence!), as the lead villain's eyes pop right out! It's such an iconic and wild moment that sums up this action packed and ultra-violent movie, so well! 






1. Fangoria #8 (Zombie)- And, the top spot, gold medal, best Fangoria cover ever goes to this one featuring the one of the most popular and iconic zombies in cinema history. He is, of course, from Fulci's gory classic, Zombie. This dude is just so cool and creepy and kind of stands as one of my favorite zombies ever. The white background really helps him pop out, too!


The 30 Greatest Fangoria Covers of all Time Pt. 2, 20 - 11

The 30 Greatest Fangoria Covers of all Time Pt. 1, 30 - 21

 

 

7/31/2014

In Loving Tribute to Dick Smith, The Godfather of Makeup FX

 
I woke up this morning to some very heartbreaking news: the man known as the godfather of makeup FX, Dick Smith, had passed away. He was 92.

Smith was born Larchmont, NY in 1948. He began his makeup work on TV, and would go to pioneer the world of FX work with the use of small latex pieces on the actor's face, as opposed to one large mask. It gave the actor the ability to show more emotional range in their roles, under the makeup. His work would go on to be be influential. He became a hero to any and all interested in the world of makeup. While, he worked on many films, I'm gonna mention just some of my favorite work of his.

The movie he is most connected to, due to his exemplary work on it, is the film classic, The Exorcist. The fact that his work on this masterpiece still holds up all these years later, is proof that this man was a true master of his craft. The mechanical and makeup work are just extraordinary. This films is one of the reasons why I savagely worshiped what he did.

Having cut his teeth on both Godfather films for Francis Ford Coppola, Smith would work with another master of the crime film, Martin Scorsese in his finest masterpiece the dark and shocking, Taxi Driver. He did the bald cap, as well as the film's ultra-violent climax. His work was so graphic and realistic, that Scorsese had to darken the look of the film to avoid the X-rating.



The Sentinel is an underrated  Satanic horror movie, where Smith got to return to the devil subgenre (he also worked on Exorcist II: The Heretic, by the way), with some impressive gore and old age makeup (a true specialty of his!). I really wish more people would take a look at this creepy and well made film with the beautiful Cristina Raines. The following clip from Bravos' 100 Scariest Movie Moments is truly one of those!


David Cronenberg's Scanners has some of his most jaw dropping work. I actually just picked up the Criterion blu-ray of this sci-fi/ horror classic. The classic exploding head scene and KILLER climax rank among the greatest splatter FX work, ever!!


The final movie, I wanna mention is Ghost Story based on the bestseller by horror author Peter Straub. This one isn't very good despite the solid cast. It is mostly a stupid bore, but two things stand out: the truly beautiful Alice Krige and, of course, Smith's excellent work. He manages to turn this flawless beauty into a truly hideous ghost.


In 2012, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his amazing body of work.


Dick Smith, you were a maekup god and a hero to many, myself included. The world has lost a great artist and amazing talent. God bless, and may he RIP.



3/09/2012

The 10 Best Gore Scenes of All Time


My latest article for best-horror-movies.com has me picking the top 10 gore scenes. And, yes as the graphic says they include video. Very graphic videos! Enjoy it here: http://ossuary.best-horror-movies.com/m/news/view/24277/The-10-Best-Gore-Scenes-of-All-Time