Greasepaint and Gore (2004)
Directed by Russell Wall

Tom Savini. Rick Baker. Rob Bottin. Steve Johnson. All of these names are pretty well known to most horror fans. What about Phil Leakey and Roy Ashton? I’m sure you’re familiar with the films put out by Hammer Studios throughout the 50’s to the 70’s, right? If so, then even if you might not know their names, you know the work of Leakey and Ashton.

Phil Leakey was man responsible for the early films Hammer Studios was creating and when they moved into the sci-fi/horror genre, Leakey was there creating the effects for it. He was the man responsible for giving the new look to Frankenstein’s creature, which was no easy task, since there were lawsuits hovering over the studio if they copies the Universal films. Not to mention doing some other great work on the X – The Unknown (1956) and the first two Quatermass films.

When Leakey left Hammer after Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), Roy Ashton took over, and gave audiences some more memorable creatures. Ashton created the title terror in The Reptile (1966), the living dead in Plague of the Zombies (1966), The Mummy (1959), and probably one of his best jobs, turning Oliver Reed into one hairy monster in Curse of the Werewolf (1961).

In 1998, Bruce Sachs and Russell Wall published a book called Greasepaint and Gore: The Hammer Monsters of Roy Ashton. But they didn’t just stop there. They continued gathering information, along with info on Ashton’s predecessor, Leakey, which is a wonderful double-documentary DVD, covering the years of work they both did for Hammer Films.

The Leakey documentary has Leakey himself discussing how many of his effects were created and worked. Even some of those that never made it to the screen since they were too gruesome. There’s even a couple of parts where Leakey is showing that he still knows how to do the work, as he’s making up a burn effect on someone’s arm. Leakey even still has the glass contact lenses that he used for Lee in the creature makeup from Curse of Frankenstein! He goes over quite a lot about working for Hammer back in those days, with a limited amount of time and money, but was still able to come up with some incredible stuff. There’s also interviews with Hazel Court, Val Guest, Jimmy Sangster, and Christopher Lee (who just can’t seemed to not complain about something).

The Ashton documentary is unfortunately lacking in actual video interviews with Ashton, though there is some footage of him but with no sound. But Ashton had made several audio recordings of his working with Hammer and on some of the different creations that he had come up with. Ashton was always sketching things out, trying to work out the different ideas, which a lot of those sketches are shown here in the documentary in a still gallery. There is more interviews with Barbara Shelley & Eddie Powell as well more from Lee, Sangster, and the others. Some of Ashton’s notes and recollections are read by his wife.

All in all, for fans of Hammer Films, this DVD really is a must for your collection. There is a lot of history here, and these two guys were a huge part of what made Hammer Films what they are.  Even if you are just a beginning makeup artist, this can really give you a great insight to the job ahead.

Tomahawk Films produced and released this DVD in a region-free NTSC DVD. You can order it directly from them at their website here (http://tomahawkpress.com/greasepaint-and-gore-the-dvd/) but you will pay a bit for overseas shipping. It is a bit pricey for a single DVD, but if you figure you’re getting over 2 1/2 hours of interviews with some of Hammer’s key people, it’s worth every penny.