On Tuesday’s episode of “Face Off,” teams of three had to create a modern take on Frankenstein and his bride, with some super cool results. And a few misses, of course. But this time they mixed up the veterans and the newbies to even things out a bit, although one power team stood out above the rest.
This week the challenge tied to a promotion of the upcoming film, “I, Frankenstein.” The great thing this week, though, was the writer and producer of the movie — who also wrote and created the “Underworld” series — was the guest judge. Better yet, I discovered Kevin Grevioux was also the actor who played the very big, intimidating werewolf in the first film. And best of all, that’s really how his voice sounds.
Who knew? (Well, probably everyone but me, but it was news to me.)
Not surprisingly, the team that seemed to work best together was Team Estrogen, with Laura, Alana, and rookie Laney collaborating. They all seem to have a similar theme in their aesthetics… that sort of glamorous horror. And it served them well here with a “beautiful” bride — by horror standards, anyway — despite dealing with a mold crack.
“Keep calm and fill up that crack” should be the motto of every makeup artist.
Another team that had molding issues was Miranda, Samantha, and Eddie. Miranda wasn’t quite so calm when there were problems with the nose getting stuck in one mold, and was less than thrilled about working with two rookies on her team, but kept her cool with her teammates. But they did get called to task for the obvious “Borg” references by Grevioux, and I thought the bride was sort of reminiscent of an old Bob Fosse number. But not in a good way.
Tate, Lyma, and RJ didn’t get angry with each other despite artistic differences but definitely didn’t work together well. Naturally, newbies want to project confidence and stand up for their work, but when you’re working with someone as insanely talented as Tate, you need to be listening to his advice. When he tells you aren’t painting correctly, you ain’t painting correctly, sister.
But Lyma insisted on doing her very unrealistic airbrush painting. To his credit, Tate was as calm and direct as he could be, especially when she started painting on his Frankenstein cowl.
“Let’s stop that, please. I mean, I love you girl, but I think we got different philosophies about paint.” And when she returned to her own bride cowl, he chimed in a bit later to let her know she was painting too dark, which she immediately brushed off. “My eyes work, it’s dark… it’s black.”
And then he dropped it and let her hear it from the judges later, namely Ve Neill. Sometimes you just have to let people hang themselves and focus on yourself, even in a team effort. Wise decision.
Rookies Scott and Adolfo butted heads, but veteran Roy held the team together, with another strong look, although Glenn Hetrick was pretty tough on them, criticizing Roy’s Frankenstein for being “top heavy,” although it looked pretty good to everyone else. He’s tough, that one.
For top looks tonight, the judges decided only one team qualified: Laura, Alana, and Laney. And since Alana sculpted the bride’s face they loved so much, she was the overall winner.
Samantha made the bottom three for the “bulbous” design of her team’s bride head cowl that “didn’t make any sense, according to Hetrick. Also for not painting the hands correctly or finishing the tubing going into them.
Veteran Eric found himself in the bottom because of the eye sculpting that made him look “bewildered” per Hetrick, and not finishing his part of applying rivets to the forehead.
And Lyma made the bottom for not listening to Tate and doing that off-strip, Vegas-show airbrush job. “Are you primarily a body painter?” asked Neill. “It s very evident in this makeup. It doesn’t look organic, it looks blown on.”
In the end, Samantha had too many mistakes and had to pack up her makeup kit. So far the veterans are still there, but how long will they last? And who do you think will be the first to fall?
“Face Off” airs Tuesday nights on Syfy.
