We Need to Talk About Roy Burns's Face

As many fans know, Dick Wieand, who played Roy Burns in Friday the 13th Part 5, used to bring a copy of his face to conventions--believed to be the same face used in the final scene of the film, as seen here.

He had this poor dilapidated face--probably foam latex-- for decades and it was beginning to show its age. He finally gifted it to a fan, who has taken numerous photos of it and even set it in a (not movie mold) David Miller cowl.

There's no question this piece is straight from the set. There were photos David Miller took during production that prove its a face he made, such as this one.

However, it's not the actual face used in the reveal at the end of the film. Check this out.

At first glance, they look like the same face. They are certainly from the same mold. But look closely at the eyebrows. The face in the final reveal had eyebrows set about a half-inch lower, much closer to the eyelids than Dick Wieand's "convention face."

Before you suggest this is just lighting or perspective or something, note there is a clear anchor point. There is a small scar on Wieand's forehead just about one inch above the bridge of the nose. In the face on the left, the left eyebrow is almost touching the scar; in the face on the right, it is at least an inch or more away from it. Just so you can see clearly what I'm talking about:

The eyebrows in the "convention face" are consistent with the behind-the-scenes photo taken at left in 1985, so we can conclude they were never altered. It looks like what we're seeing on the right is actually Dick Wieand laying on the tractor harrow, pretending to be dead, and the face on the left was used only on the dummy that was dropped onto the spikes in the previous scene.

Many people may already know this, but I had always thought we saw that fake face in the final reveal. Evidently it just did the stunt, and its actually Dick we see in the close up. This is corroborated by the fact that we see his cheek exposed and drooping, due to gravity pulling on it because his head is turned slightly toward the ground.

Well. You learn something new every day.

The Part 7 "Makeup-Test" Bust: A Forensic Analysis

I won this beast at a Profiles in History auction back in November. It was auctioned as an old makeup-test maquette made during pre-production of Friday the 13th part 7. The previous owner was evidently Planet Hollywood, who had it on display for many years.

This thing is life-size and heavy. Almost like picking up half of a real person. It is also very fragile and though largely undamaged, it has been sitting and drying out for a few decades and the age is certainly evident in the head.

The maquette is made primarily of foam latex with bone pieces constructed of hard foam over a half-mannequin that seems to be covered in black cloth. The head is also covered in a thick epoxy resin and is painted several different shades of green and yellow browns; the torso and arms are painted a redder brown, almost a maroon color. The foam latex on the head is thin and brittle and the epoxy might be there to protect it; the torso pieces are still spongy and in very good condition.

The maquette is wearing a Dickies brand shirt that was originally a light tan color; they used green and black washes to give the shirt a swampy appearance and evidently beat the hell out of it with a belt sander to create the damage. In very shredded places the threads appear to be melted together. The overall appearance of the paint job appears to be rushed and entirely hand done; no airbrush work is evident. Several different shades of brown can be seen throughout, which gives the impression they were mixing paint crudely as they moved along. The piece is also wearing a plastic chain very similar to the one seen in the film.

Upon unboxing, one of the first things I noticed was the face--though very compressed from years of wearing a hockey mask (I'll show you later), it is clearly the MMI movie sculpt, as you can see in this comparison with my other MMI face, a movie mold piece made by Brad Hardin as a precursor to the SSN New Blood he produced years ago. The neck does not resemble the movie mold appliances, and may have been a quick-and-dirty sculpting job just to get the piece done.

As collectors know, while Hardin used the original face, neck and teeth molds from the film to create his piece, he had to reconstruct the cranium from scratch; this is why there are not only substantial sculpt differences, but a considerable size difference as well. The New Blood master mold piece at left has a cranium that measures about 23 inches; the maquette's cranium measures 25.5 inches, and thats with 30 years of facial compression. When it was fresh, it was probably about 27 inches.

Also evident is the more accurate shape-- the overall shape, machete wound and basic features of the cranium look a lot more like the movie head. There is a lack of crispness in details, and some minor features such as the propeller slashes that seem to be missing or buried. However, as I explain below, this in very likely the movie cranium, and the lack of detail is due to the thick layer of epoxy covering the whole head. This detail masking is also evident in the face (which is definitely movie mold).

When I received the piece, I noticed the left side of the cranium and face were crumbling and in danger of falling off, so I did some LIGHT restoration in the temple and mouth with cabopatch and paint just to hold everything together.

 

The teeth in the head are definitely the original MMI teeth, as you can see with my copy of the original denture appliance sculpt.It looks like they took a straight casting of the denture sculpt, painted it and stuck it right in the face.

Curiously, there is also an peep hole cut out in the rotten remnants of the left eye. It makes me think the same thing might have been done for Kane in the final appliances so he had some depth perception.

The back features a crudely sculpted spine, distinct from the one in the film. As with many aspects of the piece, this was put together quickly. The bones of the back are all made of foam latex, while the sternum in the front is hard foam.

In this photo you can see the effects of hockey mask compression. The face originally came out about an extra inch.

As mentioned, the maquette also came with its own hockey mask. Hard to tell what its made of exactly, most likely resin. It seems to be part of the lineage mold of movie masks used in the films as opposed to a unique sculpt and closely resembles some of the promotional masks made later, though it lacks finer detail such as the vent divots. They used radiator grill to block out the eyes and misted on black and brown spray paint. The straps and strap fasteners seem to be identical to what was used in the film; the straps measure 1 inch in width and 4 mm thick and the fastener is just a hair under a half inch. As you can see, they are actually just manila envelope tabs that are epoxied in.

One interesting little curiosity about this bust--underneath the ribs there is another set of ribs buried deeper in the hole. They probably sculpted in the top set to improve visibility.

This was sold as a "makeup-test" dummy but upon further inquiry, that's not actually what it is. It's a display piece that sat in the MMI shop for many years that was probably made after production of Friday the 13th Part 7.

But here's the kicker. The head and neck were actually appliances worn by Kane Hodder during a promotional shoot for TerrorZone in 1988. You can see it in the distinctive orange skin tone and the yellowish color of the exposed bone, as well as some other subtle weathering around the head. The hero appliances from the film were more of a reddish-brown and the bone was closer to gray.

Here's a quick comparison, slightly enhanced. Note the vertical black streak in the middle of the forehead, the yellow bone, the blacked out area on the left temple and the purplish tone around the axe mark:

This explains why the head is a different color, and covered in resin: it was older, thinner, probably sweat-damaged and more brittle than the rest of the body. The resin was added to preserve it. It also explains why there is an eye hole cut out in the damaged right eye. It would only make sense if it was actually a worn appliance.

You'll notice that in the promotional photo the chin and jawline seem to be very red. You can see in the above shot of the back of the mask that came with this piece that there are spots of fake blood in the mouth area. That suggests that the mouth/chin may have originally been covered in blood (for unknown reasons).

If that's the case, then its the same head piece that Kane wore for his appearance in People magazine, Nov. 7, 1988; this was the same shoot that produced the TerrorZone photos.

This means that the whole apparatus, including the cranium, is likely movie mold. There's even a chance it was a spare makeup appliance that came from the film shoot, possibly even a stunt mask made for the burn scene. I was thinking of selling it, but since these are the only part 7 face/head appliances actually worn by Kane that are known to survive, I will probably hold onto this incredible piece of history.

Ultra-Rare Photo of Movie Mold Part 4, 5 and 6 Pieces

I'm told this grainy shot is from the Guy Thorpe collection and may date to the 1980s or 90s. Clockwise from top left you can see a mask pulled by David Miller for Thorpe off the original part 5 movie buck; the part 6 piece is a recast of a movie mold with an added face. This mask is currently owned by a Japanese collector (you can tell by the distinctive teeth). This is a sister pull to the one owned by Billy Kirkus.

Below that is what appears to be a casting of an actor's face from part 5 (the one who took the meat cleaver)  and the old HSS part 2, made from the screen-used appliances. Three of these are known to still exist. Above that is a (possibly screen used) part 4 mask; this may be the one worn in the final bathroom scene that was ultimately cut from the film. This mask is also owned by the same Japanese collector.

Guy Thorpe was part of a collecting community called the "Halloween Society" decades ago. They seemed to have focused largely on Don Post pieces but many also owned rare production made or movie mold pieces.

This photo was posted in a Facebook group a few months ago.

Enhanced Hockey Mask Timeline

Nathan Stafford made a more elaborate version of an old hockey mask genealogy I did a while back. This shows with a lot more detail the lineage of masks that were recasted from one film to the next through Jason Goes to Hell; After JGTH, they made a fresh sculpt for each new film.

Nathan included most of the promotional masks we've been able to identify in the hands of collectors. There are assuredly MANY more out there we've never seen. If you own one and are looking for a buyer, tell me in the comments or send me an email!

Click photo to enlarge.

The NECA Jason X Mask is Shrunk as Hell

The title says it all. These things go for hundreds of dollars on eBay, purporting to be cast off an actual movie mask. On close inspection, the details are crisp, and seem to be exactly correct to good photos of the movie masks.

So why the hell is it so shrunk?

I found an auction for an original Jason X movie mask that sold some years ago for six thousand pounds (UK). The auctioneers very nicely took a photo with a ruler, and gave us the precise dimensions of the mask as 18 cm x 24 cm x 13 cm (7” x 9 ½” x 5”).

So armed with this knowledge, and the fact that they almost certainly measured the negative space of the mask from the back, given that they evidently used a hard ruler, I measured my supposedly "movie mold" NECA.

It measures 19 cm width x 21 cm height x 10 cm depth (depth is tough, so that's an estimation). First two dimensions measured from the back. So it appears to be slightly wider and way vertically shrunk, which gives it a "child size" look. Having seen one of the Freddy vs. Jason movie masks in person and owned a Vs. NECA for years I was likewise under the impression that the supposedly movie mold mask was very shrunk.

So why is this? No idea. They may have used cheap molding materials that shrunk during the casting process. Some have suggested NECA was given an inferior mold. I can't say. I can say that they are definitely shrunk, even as the details line up perfectly.

Looking at the measurements on the Fiberglassmasks.com version, they appear to be a bit closer at 6 and 15/16 x by 8 and 9/16 inches. Still a little shorter than the movie mask, but at least closer.

UPDATE Dec. 11, 2020: Mario posted that the hero mask is 18x22 cm, almost exactly the same as the Fiberglassmasks version, but about 2 inches shorter than the stunt mask listed above. This makes me think the 24 cm length noted in the auction is probably a transcription error.

Here is Mario's comparison of the NECA with his hero mask. The size difference is pretty obvious.

There is No Forehead Chevron on the Part 5 Mask

I don't know what else to say about this. There just isn't. They say human beings are great at finding patterns in noise, and I think that's basically why mask painters tend to paint a little ghost chevron into the forehead of their Roy masks, even though it makes zero sense to do so. All you're seeing on the left side is brown weathering applied around the eye with a sea sponge. The pattern appears to come to a rather irregular point in the way the old part 4 chevron used to, but its just a coincidence. There is no chevron, or hint of a chevron on the forehead.

Its really just paint.

Tom Savini Finally Releases Secret BTS Video

Courtesy of Jo Nobile, here are some great screen grabs from a VHS video that was recorded while Ted White was in the makeup chair for Part 4. As featured in the new Tom Savini documentary on Chiller.

These are the clearest frames from this video I've ever seen, and some of the best surviving images of the original makeup. You can just make out the pink and blue tones used to create the illusion of depth and translusence as well as some of the mottling and spotting detailing the skin. Nice paint work by Kevin Yagher.

"Voorhees" Final Indiegogo Campaign is Live

The second and final phase of the Voorhees campaign is underway. You can see the new teaser, along with the perks being offered to funders by following this link.

I contributed $30 because I absolutely NEED that t-shirt with the mask and the house. Among other things, they're offering DVD and Blue Ray discs and posters and even the full film script.

Teaser is really short, concise, and tightly edited. Score is also NICE. Check it out.

This will get Cody and team through the (very expensive) post-production process, including paying the composer and sound engineer to do the final mix. This is a vital part of the process to make the film feel more Hollywood-level and less like a bunch of kids running around with cameras.

No word yet on when the final cut is expected to go live, but you never want to rush a great product.

Having seen a tiny sliver of the footage, I can say it really looks interesting. There are some great battles and FX shots and with some of it I was thinking "how the hell did they do this without a budget?"

I think this film might stand as a great example of what you can achieve without big bucks... like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the Blair Witch Project. You can tell a story with tensions, lighting, good camerawork and a great score without all the extras. Drone shots don't hurt either.

After the film has been released, keep an eye on this blog for some additional behind-the-scenes stories, photos and video of the four days I spent on set in 2018 and 2019. I have some photos I've been DYING to release but I'm going to wait until most fans have seen the film at some point next year.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Here's an ultra-rare piece owned by Billy Kirkus, made from the screen-worn appliances from Friday the 13th part 2: The Horror Sanctum Studios "Inbred." This thing is 38 years old and still in pretty good shape, with only a bit of dry rot around the neck.