We have lost one of the premiere makeup artist from the movie world. Being one of thousands in the industry, to have your work literally change the face of a specific horror sub-genre, is something pretty damn amazing. Italian makeup and special effects man Giannetto De Rossi was one of them. This talent that showed us what putrefying flesh of the living dead should look like, passed away on Sunday, at the age of 78 years old.
Coming from a family in the industry, with both his father and grandfather working as makeup artist, it didn’t take long for Giannetto to realize that he was pretty good at it as well. He started working on films in his early 20s and never looked back. In 1974, working with Spanish director Jorge Grau, he created some unforgettable zombies, as well as some over-the-top gore effects in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, which remain still impressive almost 50 years later. A few years later, he would create the look for the Italian zombie in Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (1979). Not only were there some incredible gore effects, but De Rossi made the zombies look scary as hell. With dirt packed faces, worms crawling on them, and plenty of the gooey red stuff, he made these creatures a walking nightmare, even before they clenched their teeth into your flesh.
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Norman J. Warren is a perfect example of a filmmaker that does not have a huge filmography but the few films he made are more than enough to be remembered. Warren grew up loving film and started working in the industry before he was 20, and directing his first short film, Fragments in 1965. Three years later, he directed two successful softcore exploitation films, Her Private Hell and Loving Feeling, both in 1968. But it is his horror films that he is best remembered for. In the late 70s, he directed Satan’s Slave (1976), Prey (1977), Terror (1978), and the early 80s, took advantage of the Alien phenomena and directed Inseminoid (1981), and then a nod to the nightmarish slasher sub-genre, gave us Bloody New Year in 1987.
We lost a great hero of independent cinema today, which unfortunately most fans don’t know. John “Bud” Cardos started his career in the film business back in the ’40s with Hal Roach’s Our Gang, and continued on from there, working in just about every part of the industry. He worked in the stunt department, acting, directing, and so much more. As an actor, he worked a lot with Al Adamson, appearing in films like Blood on Dracula’s Castle and Satan’s Sadist (both in 1969), Five Bloody Graves and Horror of the Blood Monsters (both in 1970), and as a director, he gave us Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), The Dark (1979), and Mutant (1984).
This Oscar and Tony winning actor is one of those few talents that not only played some very serious roles, but also could warm your heart with a great performance. Usually known for playing the villain, such as in the 1984 film Dreamscape, he could also be the hero, like when he battled the vampire Klaus Kinski in Vampire in Venice (1988). No matter what production, be brought class. He did appear in quite a few other genre titles, such as Wolf (1994) and even Dracula 2000 (2000), and of course the sci-fi epic Starcrash (1978). 
In my favorite segment, of one of my all time favorite films, Hal Holbrook played one of my favorite characters, brow-beated Henry Northrup, married to the one and only Wilma aka “just call me Billie”, played wonderfully by Adrienne Barbeau. Of course the movie is Creepshow (1982). I knew of Holbrook before that, from John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980), another top favorite of mine, but also from a lot of appearances on television and movies. He was an actor that no matter what he was in, or the role he was portraying, his presence would up the quality of the production. He was always just a treat to watch perform, being one of those actors who could give you that warm smile but with a glare that could chill you to the bone.
Okay 2021… not a good way to start out. Not even a week in and now this? This one stings.
You don’t need to be a filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, or even makeup artist to have an effect on the film industry. When you’re a writer that is constantly waving the flag of cult and obscure, and just plain fun and crazy cinema, you are doing wonders for the genre. And this week, we lost one of those people.
And we lose yet another movie icon. Yesterday, we lost the actor to give physical life to one of cinema’s greatest villains, Darth Vader from the original Star Wars trilogy, David Prowse. Being a huge fan of that series, I had learned all of the main actors’ names, so I knew who Prowse was at the time. But it wasn’t until years later, when I started down my path of the horror genre, that I realized his connection to Hammer Films, as well as the many other things he had worked on.
These posts are always tough to do. It is with great sadness that we have found out that Daria Nicolodi has passed away today, age the age of 70. One cannot be a fan of Italian cinema and not know of her work, both in front of and behind the camera. From her appearance in Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975), Tenebre (1982), to Opera (1987), as well as co-writing Suspiria (1977), one of the best horror films ever committed to film, she has definitely made her mark.
