Study of the Part 6 and 7 Masks

Just a quick comparison between Part 6 movie mold and Fear City Creations blanks. The Part 6 mask (right) is a second generation casting of the back of a Part 6 movie mask by Fiberglassmasks.com. The FCC mask (left) is a second gen casting of a blank by the late mask maker Ken Tarallo believed to have been pulled straight from the Part 7 movie buck.

The similarities are striking, so much so that they almost appear to be from the same buck. The FCC mask measures on the back 21.2 x 24.6 cm. The Part 6 measures 21 x 24.3 cm, not really a meaningful difference considering the slightly different cut of the two blanks.

The masks have all the same curves, the same unevenness in the nose and identical hole placement.

There are some noticeable differences. The FCC mask has a slight flattening on the right side compared to the six; the right cheek and edges appear rounder on the six, which is also more consistent with the Part 6 movie masks. The lower left edge of the Fiberglassmasks Part 6 is also more rounded and consistent with the movie masks, and the far right curve near the right strap hole is a perfect match to the movie masks, the curve on the FCC mask beginning a bit higher.

 

In some ways, the FCC is actually closer to the Part 6 movie masks, including the shape of the left edge near the strap hole as well as the upper ridge of the left eye socket.

Given the remarkable similarities, and the fact that the minor differences could be the result of both copies here being second gen recasts, it is tempting to conclude that the Part 6 and Part 7 movie masks both came off the Part 6 buck. This however seems unlikely, given that the Part 6 buck is known to have split horizontally across the mouth during production, a fact attested to in the photo of Gabe Bartalos with a production blank below, as well as the Part 8 movie masks, themselves recast from a spare Part 6 mask.

There is no visible horizontal mark in the Part 7 masks, but there is a massive vertical split down the middle visible in the rare first-gen blanks, which was filled in before they were pulled. The greatest likelihood is that the Part 7 mask was a recast of the back of a Part 6 movie mask, rather than a pull from the same buck. The slight differences in the Part 7, including the flattening in some parts, could have been the result of a poor fit between the silicone mold and its plaster casing. While we don't know which Part 6 mask it was cast from, it was likely made from a mask pulled early, before the buck fractured.

Old In-Progress Shots

 Here's a few in-progress photos of part 3 and 4 masks I painted on my own blank a couple of years ago. 

 

Part 4 Mask For Sale

 SOLD

Days of Sodom: A Crow Fan Film is Live

 

A film I co-wrote and co-produced with Cody Faulk is finally live on Youtube. This is our take on the Crow franchise, a film that has been more than five years in the making. It premiered last night and so far the fan reviews have been extremely positive. This is an excerpt from what is probably my favorite review:

As someone who’s lived with The Crow for decades someone who has the Crow tattooed on his right hand because the mythology, the tragedy, the poetry of it all actually means something... when I say this fan film carries the soul of the original, I mean it. You can feel the work. You can feel the commitment. You can feel the respect... This film didn’t try to be bigger. It tried to be honest. And it succeeded.

That is enormously meaningful for those of us who put years and thousands of dollars in personal funds into this project. This movie almost didn't get made quite a few times. We struggled with finances, casting changes, creative tensions, genre-shifting, scene cuts and rewrites, location and technical difficulties, among other things. But after five years of development and about two and a half years of shooting, we finally got it out the door. Quite a few fans have said so far they think its the best Crow film after the original and that's extremely humbling.

We certainly learned a lot about film-making, and for me especially, it has been eye opening. First, because I have developed an enormous respect for what professional film-makers are able to accomplish in both a creative and technical sense. Second, because I've learned how micro-budget indie films can make a project feel more professional and expensive than it is. This is especially true in the horror genre, which is more forgiving than most others in that it enables you a lot of leeway to deploy visual creativity to make the film more attention-grabbing--dramatic lighting, atmosphere, suspense, creative prop placement and camera work--that can really lift a scene. Cody really excels at these visual cues, and atmospherically this film owes a debt to films like Seven and The Batman, and perhaps even more to Suspiria. I'm honored the fans seem to like it so far and I hope that someday it inspires some indie film-maker out there to take big chances and pursue a vision--even beyond what they think is possible. You really can make something that fans will love without millions of dollars.  

In our case, this project began with a phone call back in January 2021. When Cody first pitched this idea to me, we went back to the source material-- primarily the comic by James O'Barr and the first couple of films--to get a sense for the emotional grounding of the Crow story. We knew that this idea would be made or broken on emotional sincerity, not on action, big names, camera tricks or anything else. The comic, even more than the early films, makes it clear that The Crow is a meditation on struggling with grief. And so we set out to write a story about grief that was as honest and vulnerable as we possibly could. 

Grief is messy. Many of us will struggle to fit our grief into a narrative that makes it bearable, lash out against the world in harmful ways, block out the darkest parts completely, or repeat cycles of self-destruction. There's no "correct" grief, but it can be expressed constructively or destructively, in ways that strengthen or weaken us and I've always loved how James O'Barr's The Crow navigates those waters so artfully. 

The Crow, in some dark ways, is also a meditation on justice. In our film in particular, justice is a major theme. Our Crow begins his journey as a police detective who dies trying to do the right thing. He comes back from the dead against his own will, forced to face the reality of a horrifying loss he had hoped death would spare him. He also has to grapple with the paradox that it wasn't his own moral failing, but his courage that cost him everything. In "setting the wrong things right," he has to set aside the moral compass that had guided him in life; once anchored by a love through which he defined himself, in death that love has combusted into a raging inferno of despair, driving his will to destroy the lives of others. To pursue justice from beyond the grave, he must become death itself, a choice that can have unforeseeable consequences.  

To me, as co-writer, Days of Sodom is about taking grief head-on, refusing its power to take from us, to make us lesser. Its a love note to the source material, and I think a cautionary reminder that somewhere within the inferno of despair, we have to reach beyond the flames and find love.

 --JF 

Movie Mold Bradley Bust For Sale

For sale! This is a fiberglass copy of the famous Dan Bradley bust. This piece originated as a direct casting of the cowl used in Friday the 13th part 6; sometime in the 1990s FX artist Christ Swift, who worked on the film, cast the film cowl and sculpted a face as an insert; copies were recast with the face, creating the version you see here. Billy Kirkus cast his personal copy and made fiberglass replicas a few years ago and this is one of those copies.

FGM Part 6 Mask for Sale

SOLD 

For sale! This has been my personal keeper part 6 for quite a few years. Painted on a blank by Fiberglassmasks that was made from a production mask made for Friday the 13th Part 6.

My Personal Bloody Ending II For Sale

SOLD 

I've had this piece nearly nine years, but its time to let it go. This is #2 of the run produced by Marshall Bean in 2017 after a 3D-printed enlargement of his re-tool of a re-cast of an original Part 4 stunt mold mask. I painted it myself using a speckled technique I tried to imitate from my old His Unlucky Day bust. This takes a lot of time but gives the skin an eerily lifelike quality compared to airbrushing. This copy is also unique in that I built up part of the jawline to get it a hair closer to the movie sculpt. 

 

 

Part 3 Mask

 

Roundup of Rare Jason Photos

A few BTS photos of Ted White in the mask have surfaced recently, as seen below. Also one from part 2 and a rare fan mag from 1986 with an article by movie prop collector Guy Thorpe including some ultra rare pieces he had at the time, an original Part 3 Winston cowl, a part 6 Bradley bust (first generation to have the built-in face), a part 4 stunt mold mask (possibly used in an out-take?) along with an original hockey mask, possibly from the part 5 mold (or GASP, the part 3 mold?)