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A new feature from S&MAN and THE BURROWERS’ J.T. Petty is always an exciting event, and we’re very much looking forward to his new take on the possession subgenre, HELLBENDERS. Fango spoke to the film’s makeup FX artist, Brian Spears (pictured), who dropped some hints about what to expect from the flick.
“It’s about rogue priests who fight evil and do exorcisms—sort of like THE HANGOVER meets THE EXORCIST,” Spears, who previously contributed FX to Petty’s on-line BURROWERS prequel BLOOD RED EARTH, tells us. “I guess you would call it a horror/comedy; when I read the script, it read straight, but it’s definitely funny and off-kilter. When the horror comes, it’ll be horrific, but there are also lighter moments.”
Variety reported this morning that Clancy Brown (from THE BURROWERS), Clifton Collins Jr. and Dan Fogler are starring in the film, so that definitely suggests a mix of seriousness and silliness. As for the contributions of Spears, who’ll be working on HELLBENDERS’ special makeup with G & S Effects partner Peter Gerner, he says, “We’re doing very stylized possession makeups. It’s not going to be like THE EXORCIST, or a lot of the other movies of that type; there’s a specific look that I can’t really talk about right now. It’s definitely different; we’re going for something that’s a little bit iconic, but not in-your-face.”
Not figuratively, at least, but it will be literally—HELLBENDERS is being filmed in 3D, a first for Spears. “We’ve started to test [with the dimensional cameras], and we’ll see how that works,” he says. “Considering that I rarely go to movie theaters, this is one of the first times I’ve seen 3D. I did see AVATAR on the big screen, but this is obviously a smaller film—in the Glass Eye Pix range, where it’s more about story than it is about what I’m doing. But although what I’m doing is not at the forefront of the movie, I think it’s going to be fun.”
Spears, whose upcoming features also include THE SUPER and GALLERY OF FEAR, is certainly familiar with the Glass Eye form, having taken part in several of that company’s films, including the April release STAKE LAND. Look for a full story (with exclusive pics) on his contributions to those movies in Fango #303, on sale next month.
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