30 years after the release of the cult favorite Lovecraft adaptation, the VFX supervisor of THE RESURRECTED is looking back at the making of the film.
Says Todd Masters, the two-time Emmy Award-winning character and makeup artist and founder of MASTERSFX,“’ THE RESURRECTED was Dan O’Bannon’s last film – he was a bit of a Hollywood legend having written the screenplays for Alien and Total Recall, and writing and directing The Return of the Living Dead. I was the Visual Effects Supervisor for [this film] and I created the monsters, miniatures, and animation effects.”
“’THE RESURRECTED was a chance for me to explore the imagery of HP Lovecraft,” adds Masters. “The film featured a fantastic script by Brent V Friedman, was directed by Dan O’Bannon and starred legend, Christopher Sarandon, in dual roles. It was quite the independent movie of its day. We extended our little FX studio’s abilities by creating an array of animatronic monsters and make-up effects, and we also put months of miniatures and visual effects work into that project, which I also supervised. We even won the coveted Fangoria “Chainsaw Award” for FX that year!”
Released theatrically during June of 1991, THE RESURRECTED (also known as “The Ancestor” and “Shatterbrain”) is a 1991 horror film directed by Dan O’Bannon, and starring John Terry, Jane Sibbett, Chris Sarandon, and Robert Romanus. It is an adaptation of the H. P. Lovecraft novella “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” Originally intended for a theatrical release, the film was shown at various film festivals before going direct to video in 1992. Director O’Bannon and screenwriter Brent V. Friedman had developed the Lovecraft property independently of each other. Friedman’s version of the script was titled “Shatterbrain.” While Friedman received sole writing credit, O’Bannon did incorporate some of his own ideas into the project. O’Bannon’s original title for the film was “The Ancestor,” which was later changed after being re-cut and altered by the studio for theatrical release. The film was O’Bannon’s first project as a director after 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead.
Founded in 1987 MASTERSFX (MFX) is a multi-award winning character and makeup FX company. MASTERSFX’s creative teams produce a distinctive blend of practical and digital makeup FX, prosthetics and animatronics, through a process called “dMFX,” for hundreds of hit feature films, TV shows, and commercials, for nearly 35 years.
For more on MASTERSFX, visit the official website.
