Tuesday night’s episode of “Face Off” provided a little comic relief, as contestants got to create a scary — but funny — makeup for the spotlight challenge. With only six makeup artists left, competition is getting fierce, and only two rookies started this episode. So was it a veteran or a rookie that went home Tuesday night?
You don’t really think I’m gonna tell you that right at the beginning, now do you?
But before we got to the spotlight challenge, the six remaining had to create a Grim Reaper makeup look for guest judge, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos. Tate and Laura had the top looks, although Eddie had a really interesting original reaper makeup as well. But it was Laura who came out on top again, creating a makeup with pre-made prosthetic pieces that looked seamless and custom. And for her efforts, she won immunity.
So then contestants moved on to the spotlight challenge, where they had to create a scary but funny ghost look inspired by the Laugh Factory, which is supposed to be haunted. Judge Ve Neill, the artist behind the classic “Beetlejuice” makeup, told them she wanted something “creepy and scary, but make him bitchin’ and fun guys.”
Some contestants had an easier time with this challenge than others. Laura struggled a little bit with trying to figure out how to work funny and scary together. Eddie was really struggling with developing a story for his character and ended up starting over from scratch at one point.
Tate, on the other hand, was having no trouble at all. Probably because the horror people usually have a sick sense of humor. Tate created a scalped cowboy character, Bone Cap Bill, complete with skeletal hobby horse.
“He might be the host of the children’s television show in the netherworld.”
Be glad this guy became a makeup artist and didn’t open a day care center. Just sayin’.
Actually, I have to kinda take that back. Because Tate demonstrated another common characteristic among hardcore horror fans that most people don’t realize… they’re big teddy bears. Once again, he saw Laney struggling with her wig to get an electroshock effect for her rock ‘n roll ghost, and the guy just couldn’t help himself… he had to help.
It’s who he is. And why fans love him so much, besides his obvious talent.
For the record, Laney reported on her twitter that she returned the favor by helping Tate with his hair for the judging process. And I mean his hair, not his makeup model’s hair. Do you suppose she’s also the one that painted his fingernails black?
Anyway, Roy absolutely had no trouble whatsoever coming up with the concept for this task.
After being in the bottom two last week, he let it be known at the beginning of the episode that he was coming out with guns a-blazing, and going back to his old method of big fabrication and big looks: Roy had been taken to task by judges for trying to do too much fabrication and not enough makeup in the past, and was tired of toeing the line.
Hell, yes.
Roy and his creation this week on “Face Off.”
And boy, did he deliver. Roy created a Vaudeville-inspired makeup that looked like one small person sitting on the shoulders of another. And the second character was hidden until the model opened the trench coat, like a pervy exhibitionist.
And that’s when things got crazy. Something happened that has never happened before on “Face Off.”
Judge Glenn Hetrick has gone completely bipolar on us as of this episode. The notoriously blunt judge has actually been pretty tame all season, or at least tame for him, given some of the extremely harsh criticisms he’s dished out in the past. Well, tonight we saw him back in his old form of brutal critiques, but we also saw him… laughing.
Yes, you read that right. He not only smiled, he laughed. Out loud. I didn’t even know Hetrick could LOL. But I swear to you, it really happened, and I have the DVR proof.
I don’t know about you, but I say if anyone makes Hetrick laugh, the show is over for the season. That person just wins. Remember Roy, if you don’t take the whole thing, you are the contestant that made the Man of Iron LOL. No one can take that away from you.
Despite struggling a little bit, Laura did another great makeup on her mad scientist (I should just write that in all my recaps in advance) and found herself in the top looks as usual. For reasons mentioned above, I think it’s pretty obvious that Roy was the other top look of the night. Tate and Miranda were safe. So that means that Eddie and Laney, both the rookies, were up for elimination.
And this is where it got a little ugly. To be honest, it wasn’t just Hetrick that went in for the kill, but the other judges, as well. They really took Eddie to task for his baseball-inspired ghost, which was very stylized and had a bat stuck to the back of his indented head.
The judges kept referring to it as an asparagus head. Unless it’s a vegetable challenge, that’s not a good thing. Then Hetrick took him to task when he couldn’t answer where he drew his inspiration from.
“That’s a problem when you can’t tell me that. You see what I’m saying? It’s not funny, it’s not telling the story, and it doesn’t feel at all like a ghost.” Then during deliberations, he hammered on him again. “I really don’t like it. I’ve had enough of back stories that try to make sense out of something that does not fit in with what we asked them to do. You would never be able to pull that off on set.”
Please Glenn, speak your mind. Yikes.
Then he went to work on Laney, who didn’t have one of her best days as far as critiques. While the color of her electrocuted rock guitarist was very monotone and gray, the criticisms thrown at her seemed much harsher than expected.
“It does not tell me the story and how she’s a ghost,” said Hetrick. “I don’t understand why her skull looks like that. You used these very confusing forms to create your head sculpture and it does not make me laugh. It just makes me… confused.”
And Neville Page piled more on.
“I’m pleased with how ambitious you are, but I’m disappointed that you did not satisfy the challenge,” Page told her, then continued in the deliberations with harsh critique. “She’s got to stop infusing every piece with her personality. It has got to be standalone.”
But when push comes to shove, the bottom line is that not only did Laney’s look come out better, but she’s had many top finishes where Eddie has really struggled most the season until the last episode or two. And so, Eddie was sent home this week, while Roy was crowned the winner for edging out Laura in the humor department. Actually, there was a lot more than edging out… that was freakin’ hilarious.
That leaves Laney as the only rookie still standing, and four veterans left. From here on out it’s going to be epic, folks, a real clash of the titans. Laura and Miranda have tons of wins and mad painting skills, but Roy’s and Tate’s makeups are consistent and have huge, insanely-creative ideas that they execute well. Laney has had a lot of top looks, so you can’t count out the rookie.
But for the finale, it can only be three, so we still have to cut two more, painful as that is going to be.
Tune in Tuesday nights to Syfy to catch the latest episode of “Face Off” and check out the video: You’ll see Roy modeling his little man piece. [Insert your own dirty joke here. ]