Tonight’s Episode (Airdate March 12, 2013): Mummy Mayhem

After what has been eight weeks of separating the wheat from the chaff, is anyone really surprised to see Anthony, Kris, Wayne and Eric Fox in the top five? I’m not. House, who’s had a few good ideas but basically avoided winning a challenge or being eliminated by treading the middle ground, could sneak into the Top Four if these other guys with Top Looks and Wins under their belts slack off at all. It’s anyone’s game to lose at this point.

Spotlight Challenge

McKenzie meets the guys at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater, where six stone tablets, each embossed with a different Egyptian figure, are displayed on pedestals. And hey, guess what? There’s a new installment about to be released in the popular Evil Dead film franchise – one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood history! This one spins off from a variation of the Cabin in the Woods theme, where unsuspecting friends inadvertently summon demons from beyond the grave when they start fooling around with the Book of the Dead; an ancient Egyptian Spell Book filled with images of the gods they worshipped. For tonight’s Spotlight Challenge – and it’s a doozy – the artists must choose one of the Gods on the stone tablets in front of them and bring that God to life. The catch (because of course there is one) is that they need to also make their Egyptian God a Mummy that is rising from the tomb after thousands of years of decay.

In a brilliant statement of the obvious, Wayne surmises, “it’s a lot to incorporate.”

Each guy is called up to choose his God, as follows:

Kris chooses Kunum
Anthony picks Anubis
Eric gets Ra (The Sun God!)
Wayne goes for Sobek
House gets Thoth

On a large monitor next to MacKenzie, the handsome face of veteran B-Horror film actor, Bruce Campbell, who is one of the stars of the Evil Dead movies, appears to give the guys some advice before they head off to work on their sketches. He notes that the new movie has a ‘more serious tone’ than the original, so they need to make sure their make ups are very haunting, creepy and scary. Have fun and be original! Bruce Campbell! Woo!

Everyone gets thirty minutes to sketch while being inspired by the drawings and architecture in Egyptian Theater courtyard. There is a small informative paragraph about each God inside of the sketchbooks they’ve chosen. Kunum, chosen by Kris, is a God of Water and Creation and he has a Ram’s head. Anthony’s Anubis is the God of Embalmers and “death and everything.” Wayne’s Sobek is the God of the Crocodiles. Eric explains that Ra is the Sun God, and he plans to make him “very stylized.” Eric enthusiastically confesses to also being a long time fan of the Evil Dead – since childhood! – so he’s “got this.” Thoth is the Egyptian Moon God who is also known as “the Scribe.” House will make his body a kind of tablet that has etchings all over it. He knows he has to redeem himself from last week.

Back at the lab, the guys choose models to begin their five hours of work. Eric chooses a female model because a smaller frame will be easier to make into an emaciated mummy (good thinking). House is juggling three different sculptures at once for his God, a headpiece, the chest and the face sculpt, which will emphasize the rotting and decaying aspects of a Mummy. Kris starts on the body first and makes a giant chest piece. Wayne also decides to sculpt the body first, and then make the head piece, in order to get a better fit. He offers that, at this stage of the game, everyone’s so good that “someone will go home with a really good make up.”

Fan Boy Eric is going for an eighties style zombie corpse make up. He is being very methodical to get the face sculpt and get the body started at the same time to make sure everything’s texturally similar.

Anthony is using foam latex face piece for a Wolfman-esque mummified face. He’ll then add a headdress.

I must say that these are some of the most detailed and interesting character sketches I’ve seen so far on this show.

Eric gets a little bit choked up talking about how long he has been away from him wife and two young children. Everyone, he says, is just exhausted. He remembers that he is doing this for his family and will “work like a mad man” to get this project done. It’s interesting that as freaky as Eric looks, he is just a softhearted family-guy at heart. I’ve really grown to like him.

Kris realizes he can’t finish the body sculpt on day one and decides to finish on day two rather than do a shoddy rush job. Solid and flawless logic, Kris.

Day Two: Wayne has to finish his chest and back piece, get that molded and move to the head piece. Anthony gets his mold open OK and everything looks beautiful. House observes that the mood in the lab, with only five people left, is “nervous quiet.” He knows he has to go big, with no more room for error. Going “big,” he says, is easy, but tonight he strives for greatness.

Here come the Westmores! Michael reveals that he was an Art History major, so he knows all about Egypt and is looking forward to this walk through. Regarding House’s Thoth the Scribe, Michael says to make sure the inscriptions he creates on the body sculpt are deep and clear enough so that they aren’t obscured and can be read through the paint.

Anthony’s concept for Anubis is to make him “Boris Karloff’s Mummy meets Lon Chaney’s Wolfman.” He will paint the skin and do some open latex to give it some texture. Michael Westmore suggests leaving some hanging flesh in spots to give it that rotting flesh look. Nice!

Wayne’s God with a Crocodile head (so awesome) has, of course, a fierce chest and head sculpt. With such ambitious sculpting, Westmore gives Wayne his best ‘time management’ speech, since it was the lack of fluorescent paint on a great sculpt that took points away from his bioluminescent creature in last week’s challenge.

Eric’s Ra, the “God of Gods,” is looking good. He really knows his Evil Dead as he shows Michael how he will extend the jaw and add the traditional arched brow, two characteristics of the Evil Dead make-ups. He is using Make Up Forever sponges (probably from his win in the Foundation Challenge several weeks back) to apply his paint, adding a unique texture. Michael loves his ideas.

Goat headed Kunum is the God of Water and Creation. Kris is using latex to mummify the body and will minimize the use of wrapping so that his work can show through. Michael gives him the advice to blend the creature’s eyelids right into the make up to, “to keep it from looking young.” Because a young looking Mummy is bad news. Westmore says it all comes down to time management, so keep that in mind.

Wayne is using all kinds of tricks, like a plastic bag and blow dryer, to get his chest mold to dry. He gets his mold ready to receive the foam latex, which needs to bake overnight.

Anthony has forty minutes to sculpt his headdress before he has to put it in the molding, otherwise he won’t finish. Everyone is in the same exact boat, except House has started his sculpt with only fifteen minutes left. With everyone so far behind, a lot of important work has to wait until day three.

Back at the big house in the hills, which we haven’t seen much of since the first episode, the guys hang out in the backyard as the red sun sets on the town of LA. They throw a fist bump and do some “I love you, man” guy-bonding. It’s kind of sweet. You can tell this is a genuinely tight group that hasn’t done much, if any, shit-talking behind each other’s backs.

On Day Three, application day, there is no time to waste. Everybody is in the molding room at the same time, cleaning out any excess clay and pouring foam and latex. Also, Eric’s Mohawk is back!

Models come in so that artists can start applications. Anthony’s Anubis head is too small for his model. In order for it to fit he has to rip out a good deal of foam on the inside. Both Eric and Anthony’s chest pieces look remarkably similar. Anthony starts using various brush techniques for his paint applications to give it depth and tonality.

House’s headpiece didn’t come out of its mold cleanly so it will need some doctoring to smooth out jagged edges.

I don’t know how he let this happen, but Wayne’s God is virtually unpainted when everyone else is practically ready to go to Last Looks, which is a huge problem. He says he’s going to have to work, “faster than a Ninja.” No kidding.

At Last looks, in one hour Wayne has to “base out” his entire character, put the face on and work on his wardrobe – a ton of work. Go Ninja Wayne, Go!

House gets the character’s face laid down but feels compelled to add more paint and detailing to add cracks and crevices.

Wayne’s crocodile face sculpt really looks impressive, but does not quite fit his model. It will have to do, because time is up!

Everybody has done some of his best work ever in this challenge! I am excited for the Reveal!

The Reveal

Tonight the judges are joined by . . . no one? With a movie to promote, how could they not recruit The Evil Dead’s Director, Producer, Make Up Guy or even Bruce Campbell (who, from what we saw of him earlier, is looking great!) to sit in with them? That just seems lazy to me.

In the challenge of bringing a Mummified Egyptian God to life, while drawing on inspiration from the Book of the Dead, as seen in the new Evil Dead movie (whew), here’s what we’ve got.

Wayne’s Sobek, the Crocodile-headed Mummy God, came together better than expected. He says that Sobek looks like he just stepped off the tablet. Wayne is excited, because, seriously he dodged a bullet on this one!

House’s Thoth the Scribe has a face-plate that the actor removes to reveal a more decayed, mummified face, which is a nice effect. He hopes he judges will notice all of the hieroglyphics carved into the skin, which is an integral part of the design.

Anthony’s Anubis has a distinctive Dog God headpiece, which helps to identify the character. Anthony thinks the mummy gauze looks “too white” and he feels nervous about the paint job.

Eric’s Ra looks very on-point and he did a good job of incorporating the Evil Dead characteristics into an Egyptian Mummy God look – a tall order for sure. Actually, Ra looks a little like Eddie, the famous mascot of heavy metal band Iron Maiden! He is “Ra-Kin it,” Eric jokes!

Kris’s Kunum is another strong look with great detailing on the goat head and rope-like muscles on the arms and body. Kris says he feels pretty good about his make up and, if this is what sends him home, then he’s OK with it.

Moving in for closer looks, all three judges love Wayne’s creature’s front and back sculpt. Ve calls it “bitchen” and Neville remarks on the great sculpting detail.

Neville does not like the glossy finish on House’s Thoth. He says that it “takes it out of the vibe that it is a dry, dead mummy.” They all like the back, though.

On Anthony’s creation, the judges remark that the nice sculpting goes to waste because of a less than stellar paint job. Glenn say that the use of high yellows do not belong in the color scheme at all. They also didn’t think the facial details near the eyes are well blended. Anthony is afraid that, for him, it could be three strikes and he’s out.

Stroking the arms of Eric’s god, Neville remarks that it “feels like the injection molding of a Todd McFarlane toy, full size,” which is one of the most unique comments I’ve heard any of the judges make. Glenn asks the model to open and close her mouth, but is less than impressed with its expressiveness.

Moving on to Kris, they love the dry texture and the paint job, and the way the face moves. Neville declares it to be “more than camera-ready.”

Judgment Time

McKenzie remarks that this challenge is right up Glenn’s alley and asks him how he thinks they did. He says this was one of his favorite challenges he’s ever seen on the show and thinks – qualifying that he “means this” – that they all did a great job.

The judges will obviously be speaking with each one of the artists tonight. Wayne is up first. He explains that Egyptians used to pray to the God Sobek to protect them from the crocodiles in the Nile River. The God had a human body and a crocodile head, so he wanted to keep the head a different color from the body to maintain that contrast. Glenn compliments Wayne for doing a lot of great things, and says he’s pretty happy with it, though there might have been better ways to handle the transformation from crocodile to human. Ve tells Wayne that she is proud of him for (finally) doing a complete make up job with a head and entire character. She loves the sunken chest cavity and all of the textures. Neither she nor Neville like that he didn’t put any eyes on the character, but Neville admits the fact that the eyes look like they’re missing is his only negative comment.

House is up next to talk about his character, Thoth, the Egyptian God of the Moon, also known as the Scribe. The Scribe characteristic inspired House to make the character’s finger a pen and his body the tablet. Ve says this choice could have been to his detriment, in that it made the character look a little chunky (new ice cream flavor: Chunky Mummy). Glenn feels that the gold color being so unified on the body is a huge issue, because it just blends together. Glenn admonishes him that, this late in the game, those mistakes will cost him. Neville says that the character’s mask feel more Venetian to him. He loves the ideas but the make up feels a little rough.

Kris talks about his god, Kunum, the God of Life and Creation. Neville calls the color palette flat and dead – and appropriately so! He says Kris nailed this one. Again, he calls the character “up close” camera ready. He says it is really quite beautiful before Glenn goes one step further and calls it “really rad.” He did an exceptional job this week and handled the sculptural detail in the face with “exquisite nuance.” Also, the model emotes really well. Ve really thinks he did the perfect job on a mummified body. Well done, Kris! I’ve been a fan since you made that Butterfly.

Anthony is up next as he tells Glenn the concept he used to bring his character to life. Since Anubis is the God of Death and the Patron God of Embalming, he wanted to keep is face well preserved. He also wanted of make him proud and strong. Glenn, however, has huge issues with the angularity of the face sculpt. The proportions are off, in that the head sculpt and shoulders needed to be much wider. He gives him credit for achieving the Evil Dead look on the face, but the proportions are off, and he knows Anthony can do better. Ve says he’s ruined his whole make up with the paint job, which obliterates any sculpting on the chest. Neville likes the sculpture of the chest but, again, cites a crappy paint job that ruins the entire character. Ve says she never would have guessed that this was Anthony’s work if she didn’t know it. Ouch.

As Eric walks up to the podium, Ve says it looks like he had a lot of fun this week! Eric says he did, and that his God, Ra the Sun God, was given “the eighties zombie treatment” to pay homage to the Evil Dead franchise. Ve says he got all of the details right. She loves the make up! Neville says the character feels very “on the mark” considering what he was going for, but cautions him about having the character’s mouth hanging open all the time. Glenn is not a fan of the paint job, as it does not have enough contrast. He does not like the redness, but loves the sculpting style in this particular instance, though it would not have worked in a different challenge. He says, “Show me something super realistic the next time you’re in front of me.”

Top looks this week are Wayne for his cool Crocodile head and his ability to sculpt so much, so well, so fast. (Of course they did not see him going into last looks with zero paint on his model). Neville says the details were perfect. They all love it.

Kris’s “exquisite subtlety” also gets high marks, and he gets kudos for showing the best work from him so far in the competition. Eric is also a top look. Ve calls his work very clean, cohesive and fun. Glenn agrees, but says that everything Eric does looks like the Evil Dead because he is so influenced by that genre.

They aren’t as fond of House’s work tonight. Although he had an awesome concept for Thoth, it was bigger than what he was able to deliver. Neville says it was “too scruffy” and Ve calls it too bulky for a mummy.

They were all disappointed in Anthony this week. Ve says she can’t even believe his did this paint job. Glenn doesn’t get that he was so off in the proportions.

Between Kris and Wayne, the winner of the Mummy God challenge is . . . Kris! He did an exceptional job at handling all of the aspects of this week’s challenge. Kris is floored to receive such high praise from the judges. He, Wayne and Eric head back to the make up room.

And now it’s time for the ax to fall. The judges see a lot of mistakes in House’s work, but with Anthony, between the angular head and the “wretched paint,” the judges don’t know which they hate more. Well, you knew this moment had to come, where everyone watching at home is terrified that Anthony, a fan favorite for weeks now, might be going home. But, House goes home tonight. His good ideas could not overcome the bulkiness and roughness, and there were too many problems up close to overlook. Anthony is safe and ladies and gentlemen, we have our final four!

The episode recaps of SyFy’s Face Off Season 4 were originally written for the website, Redesign Revolution. As that site has gone offline, this article has been added into the historical archive of the Worley Gig for all of our readers to enjoy.

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