From last night’s Eyegore Awards
Universal Hollywood kicked off the opening night of their Halloween Horror Nights attraction with their annual Eyegore Awards last night. And at the ceremony, special FX make-up legend Rick Baker was honored with the Jack Pierce Lifetime Achievement Award.
We chatted briefly with Baker right before the ceremonies kicked off to get his thoughts in retrospect on some of his most well regarded work.
Naturally, with a brand new Blu-Ray out of John Landis’s An American Werewolf In London, the infamous transformation scene has never looked better and still stands up to the test of time. We asked Baker how it feels to have that film arguably be his crowning achievement with monster make-up in the genre.
“I think itâs just cool to have a crowning achievement!” he laughs. “Iâm a monster movie fan and I wish I did more of them. That one was a landmark horror film because it was a combination of comedy and horror. It set the standard for what came after, so itâs just cool to be a part of that.”
When asked what he considers one of his favorite pieces of work over the course of his career, Baker doesn’t even hesitate with his answer. “One of my favorite characters Iâve ever done was Harry from Harry and The Hendersons,” the artist confesses. “Itâs obviously not a monster per se but I think it holds up pretty well still. Bob Burns has the head of Harry. He’s actually got a lot of my stuff!”
Lastly, we asked what the most exciting aspect of working on the new Wolfman movie has been for him. “Iâm just excited theyâre making gothic horror movies again,” he says. “It’s what got me into horror. Itâs very cool that theyâre doing a movie called The Wolfman! It is very much an old school gothic horror movie and I hope it does well enough to bring those types of movies back.”
Source: Robert Galluzzo
