too. You know, a lot of the guys who did
special effects in Hollywood were these
older guys in lab coats and stuff, and Rick
was this younger, upstart-type guy with
long hair. He looked like a rebel.
When you’re an artist like me who works
on a film, you’re always part of a team. And
you’re always executing something that’s
been written in the script. So it’s never 100
percent your baby. Whether it’s the writer or
director, someone came up with a concept,
and they put it in the script, and now it’s my
job to interpret that. Some directors micro-
manage and then there are other directors
that let you fly. Guillermo del Toro is a great
example of that. He’s a guy who has a strong
vision and knows what he wants, but he’s
also really good about unchaining the artist.
I’ve worked with Guillermo on on three
movies now [Hellboy, 2004; Hellboy II: The
Golden Army, 2008; and Scary Stories to Tell
in the Dark]. He’s a number-one fan of this
stuff, too. He loves creatures and makeup
effects, and he grew up a monster kid like I
did. I’ve worked with a lot of other really
great filmmakers, too, but those three
films with Guillermo have been some of
the best movie experiences of my career.T
here are half a dozen differ-
ent ways to approach a design. A
creature can either be a prosthetic
on the person—glued directly
to the face—or it could be a suit or a
mechanical head or a mask, or sometimes
it can be a full puppet. Most of the materi-
als we use are specific to what we do, but
then there are a lot of materials that come
from either the medical field or the den-
tistry field—prosthetics. We also use a lot
of plain old building material that you
would find at a Home Depot. There’s also
radio-controlled stuff, for puppets and
that sort of thing. Sometimes you can do
digital design, Photoshop or ZBrush. It’s
completely dictated by what it has to do
within the context of the script.
A disturbing creature you’ll approach
differently than a creature you feel sympa-
thy for, and that’s usually dictated in the
script. Something can be beautiful but also
kind of scary. I got to design the Angel of
Death for Hellboy II for del Toro, and it
was understood that it was a symbol of
death but also had to have this elegance
and this beauty to it. Guillermo had a
thumbnail sketch of the character and
specifically instructed me to think of everygrim-reaper character that might have
been in a film before, and don’t do that.
He wanted a double set of wings and eyes
on the wings too, so I looked for inspiration
in my books. I found some really wild
statues of angels that are seen in Byzantine
and Medieval Catholic churches. A mon-
ster or a creature is part of the cast in a
movie. So it has to be approached the
way you would approach an actor who’s
performing as a human being.
People are fascinated by monsters and
they’re fascinated by scary, evil, sinister
things. It’s part of how we’re wired; it’s part
of human nature. I think horror trends and
monster trends change depending on the era.
In the ’30s and ’40s, you felt more sympathy
for the monster, like Frankenstein. He
didn’t ask to be brought back to life by a
mad doctor. So there’s this pathos there.
And then in the ’80s all of that was kind of
forgotten when the slashers came onto the
scene. The slasher is a cold-blooded killer
you don’t feel sorry for in any way. He’s
just out to kill. Now, you do see a lot of
blood and guts and gore, and things like
that, because it’s harder to thrill people. I
like atmospheric movies more than out-
and-out gore fests. Though stuff like that
can be done really artfully, if it’s presented
in a really stylized and stylish way.
I’ve been doing this for over 30 years
now. I started in 1984. Most of the people
I work with on a daily basis are people
I’ve known my entire career. But I love
seeing new blood come into the business.
I’m actually working with a guy right
now, Arjen Tuiten, and his stuff is excel-
lent. When people are really, really good,
that’s exciting because you know the craft
is going to keep going forward. The goal
when I take on a project is to deliver a
kick-ass design and a kick-ass creature.
You make these toys for the director, but
it’s up to them to play with them. It’s their
job to deliver a great movie—it’s my job
to deliver a great monster. Norman Cabrerabegan his career in 1984
as part of Rick Baker’s core team of artists,
working on Coming to America(1988),
Gremlins 2: The New Batch(1990), and later
Men in Black 3(2012), among others. His
major works include Planet of the Apes
(2001), Cabin in the Woods (2011), and the
Hellboyfranchise. Kelli Weston is a film and
culture writer who has contributed to Sight &
Sound, Little White Lies, and elsewhere.July-August 2019| FILMCOMMENT| 17You make these toys for the director, but it’s up to them to play with them.
It’s their job to deliver a great movie—it’s my job to deliver a great monster.