With films, most people remember the actors in their roles more than anything. Maybe the directors, or composers if it deeply resonates with them. It is the truly dedicated (and perhaps even a little demented) who have to know more about the individuals involved with the project, especially in the case of horror films, and during the 1980s when there seemed to be a new one released into theaters every single week. Timeless classics full of rubber masks, latex, and stop-motion animation that might look dated through the eyes younger moviegoers, but still look more realistic to a viewer whose matured brain rejects the CGI imagery it sees.
The first wave introduced such pioneers like Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, The Funhouse) and Stan Winston (The Terminator, Aliens) who changed the game forever with their groundbreaking effects in the early 1980s. Not only did this create a demand for more of the same techniques when it came to creating monsters, but those designs are what influenced the next wave of artists emerging from out of the darkness, and they are ones who made that decade such a magical period. Creative visionaries such as Rick Bottin (John Carpenter’s The Thing, Legend, RoboCop), Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow, Friday the 13th), and then there’s the man of the hour.
Robert Kurtzman has been in the horror business for over four decades, and he has since built a resume that most up-and-coming artists wouldn’t dare consider aspiring to, even within their deepest, darkest dreams. He was on set creating the hideous looks for all of our favorite fright fests from Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors to Predator, Darkman, Tremors, The People Under The Stairs, Dr. Giggles, John Carpenter’s In The Mouth of Madness, Thirteen Ghosts, Hostel, Tusk — and do I really need to keep going?!?
The VFX wizard attended the Nightmare Weekend convention in Chicago (even though it’s actually the suburb of Rosemont, Illinois) this past weekend for its inaugural outing, and he was kind enough to have a chat with yours truly on Sunday morning. We talked about the past, present, and future of practical effects. The attendance at the convention seemed low for such an all-star lineup of guests, but everyone made the best of it, and still had a good time. Something which I commented about to Mr. Kurtzman, along with making witty remarks about a currently vacated seat at the highest position of Catholicism, and maybe it was a little too soon for such jokes, in retrospect…
Dante Aaricks: Robert Kurtzman! How are you today?
Robert Kurtzman: Doing great, man!
Dante Aaricks: It’s the last day of Nightmare Weekend. Are you ready to leave yet?
Robert Kurtzman: Oh, I’m ready to get home. I’ve got some work to do this week, and I just keep thinking about it.
DA: Right on! What’s up with the low headcount? Not that I’m a fan of large crowds, or anything, but there should still be way more people here.
RK: Oh, I don’t know. It’s their [Nightmare Weekend’s] first year here…
DA: (smirking) Maybe the Pope is in town.
RK: No, he is not.
DA: Aside from the giant CGI elephant in the room, what has changed about doing creature design/special effects on a movie set in 2025 compared to when you first hit the scene, and working on movies such as From Beyond and Night of the Creeps, or maybe even a little later with something like Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary today?
RK: The big thing that’s changed is the really large monsters. Occasionally, you still get to do a big animatronic head, or something to interact with the actors, but most of the time it goes to the realm of CGI. But as far as creature suits, and makeup/prosthetics, there’s a happy medium right now. The big thing is that a lot of newer film makers grew up on the practical stuff, and they want more of that in their movies now, and that’s always good. A lot of TV shows still have prosthetic work in them like The Walking Dead, Game Of Thrones, and stuff like that.
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DA: Most practical effects from the 80s might look archaic by today’s standards, or at least from an aesthetic point of view, but doesn’t it seem like a lot of those monsters in the rubber suits have aged better than the ones that followed with the dawn of CGI?
RK: Oh, definitely the early CGI. Even if you look at my movie, Wishmaster, or From Dusk Til Dawn. The CGI is kinda crude because it was the beginning of it all, and the boutique houses were starting to come up. Unless you could afford ILM [Industrial Light & Magic], or a big digital domain, you weren’t getting the high quality effects. You were getting something more akin to a Sci-Fi Channel production.
DA: I remember those! So watery…
RK: It’s hard when you watch a movie from the 90s and see all the primitive effects.
DA: Back to the 80s for a second, there was obviously no way you could tell that From Beyond and Night of the Creeps would go on to become such big fan favorites within the genre, or that you yourself would follow up with working on countless more afterwards, but how does one go from 0 to 2 celebrated cult classics in a row?
RK: At that time, it was before we started KNB EFX Group, and we weren’t doing our own shows, but we were supervising other artists. It was just the right time. It was the mid 80s, and that’s when it really started to boom. Everyone wanted practical effects in their movies, and there was a lot going on. I was lucky enough to work on Night of the Creeps with Dave [Miller], then on From Beyond with Mark Shostrom, and I got to go to Italy to apply all the makeup, and I was in charge of that over there. So, it was just luck, I guess.
DA: That does seem to be the residual theme with successful people in the film industry.
RK: Yeah! And when I came back from working on From Beyond, I went straight into Evil Dead II. So, a whole bunch of them [cult classics] right there in a row.
DA: In the very beginning, were there any particular movies, designs, or creatures that sparked the creative obsession, and started you down this legendary path?
RK: A ton of them, but the early ones from the 50s would’ve been the first. Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, and stuff like that. I was big into the Hammer movies. The effects were crude, but I read about all those artists and looked at their work all the time in Famous Monsters, and that’s how I gravitated towards it.
DA: Did you read any of the Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror comics from back then?
RK: Yeah, but I was more into Marvel. They had a bunch Monster series, and I was really big into this one called Simon Garth: The Zombie.
DA: Was Marvel censoring the word “Zombie” at this point yet?
RK: No, it was right there on the cover.
DA: Every successful artist has that one crucible in their career (if not, several). What is the most challenging project you’ve ever faced?
RK: It all comes in eras. We were doing horror movies, and gore, and sequels to the movies we all grew up watching. Like Halloween 5, Texas Chainsaw Massacre III, and stuff like that. I think the most challenging is when you have to make stuff look real. Human anatomy, fake heads, etc. There were two big challenges that were like that, and the first was early on. We did a movie called Gross Anatomy, and we had to make all these cadavers that went through various stages of dissection from medical students. That was a challenge because of all the bodies, and the amount of research involved to create the anatomy, skinned bodies, and everything.
DA: Heh. That’s still pretty cool, though.
RK: Interestingly enough, that movie got us Dances With Wolves, and that was the 2nd biggest challenge because we had never done real big things, like sculpting a full-sized buffalo, and then we had to do mechanical buffalos. Animals are the hardest to do. I don’t even think I’ve seen an animatronic cat that looked convincing enough to think it was real.
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DA: If the past few years have shown anything, it’s that there’s a hunger for non-generated, tactile terror onscreen. Do you see a retro renaissance on the horizon, or is it just a fleeting controlled flash in the pan?
RK: The renaissance started a few years ago with the advent of streaming because the large number of shows being created, and there are so many that require prosthetics. Everything changes, but I think it’s here to stay for a while, and there will be a combination of the two, which is the way to do it anyway because CGI is great to use, and I love using digital tools to make designs.
DA: This is probably the billionth time you’ve been asked this, but do you have a favorite director to work with?
RK: Oh, God, I’ve got several. I love working with Sam Raimi, and I loved working with Wes [Craven] when he was still alive. Stuart Gordon, there are so many. Don Coscarelli, I loved working with. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some greats, and it’s impossible to pick just one as a favorite.
DA: What lies ahead for you?
RK: We have a new movie called Marshmallow that was released in theaters last month, and it’s getting a lot of attention. It won Best Picture at Panic Fest, and Best Director. We have a movie called Goons coming out this year, but we don’t know when. They’re finishing post [production] on it. We also have an untitled movie that’s coming out called a “Johnny Rotten Project,” and we’re just waiting.
DA: Is there a particular monster that you’ve always wanted to design for a movie?
RK: Not established. There are some original character designs I have for some of my personal projects. Everyone would probably say, “Well, I would love to redo Creature from the Black Lagoon!” but I don’t really want to.
DA: Why redo perfection?
RK: Well, they’re redoing it with James Wan directing. I’m sure they’ll come up with something cool, but I’m hoping it doesn’t go all CG, but I don’t think he will. He likes the combination of both.
DA: Let’s just hope that the money people at Universal Pictures feel the same way.
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