On this week’s Face Off, Universal Studios Hollywood’s “House of Horrors” attraction served as the inspiration for this week’s Spotlight Challenge. The 15 artists were challenged with creating their own Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride, set in the future, with their own back story. The winning couple will be featured in both Universal Hollywood’s and Universal Orlando’s “Halloween Horror Nights” that opens this September 20.
Five teams of three were chosen: Laney, Alana, and Laura; Miranda, Sam, and Eddie; Adolfo, Scott, and Roy; Frank, Eric, and Rick; and, RJ, Lyma, and Tate. After getting advice from actor/writer/producer/incredibly deep-voiced Kevin Grevioux (I, Frankenstein), the teams entered the attraction for inspiration and planning/sketching their designs.
Day One
The five hours were spent choosing their models and sculpting. Team Roy/Scott/Adolfo still needed to come up with a design concept and chose to have the Monster 50 years into the future and the Bride, 120 years into the future. Basically, all of these designs were pretty complicated and many of the artists seemed to struggle getting the concepts because of the technology aspect.
Miranda/Sam/Eddie seemed to struggle the most with this and they ended up not finishing their sculpt on the first day. You could sense their frustration, overall. Oh Eddie, you’re so young but so adorable.
Day Two
The Molding Phase brought some stress when Alana cracked Laura’s mold. Laura held herself and the mold together and manages to mend the potential disaster. Michael Westmore then paid his advice-giving visit. I dug his pink shirt. That’s my critique.
After offering advice especially about exposed brains and airbrushing and patch working, the teams were inspired and got back to work. But then, a nose debacle occurred when Miranda’s mold ate the Monster’s sniffer. Eddie had some answers and kept trying to help but was dismissed. Frank consults and methinks I noticed some of that old Frank attitude coming back. Eddie ultimately saves the nose with a little epoxy magic.
Rick channeled his inner Dr. Frankenstein as he scavenged for parts to make his creatures just fab. We learned a new term ... Electroluminescent Wire. It’s like portable neon, yo!
Sam is feeling indifferent and feels like she lacks creative input in this challenge. You’re going to regret this indifference, my dear, but at least your bangs are really awesome.
Day Three
Application and Last Looks are stressful as usual (I write this observation every episode) and RJ is damned determined to do a kick ass paint job. He’ll be at Parafest in Bethlehem, PA in two weeks so you should come out and meet him.
Lyma is mucking up the paint job on their team’s Bride and Tate orders her to “stop.” She’s a body painter and it’s evident in this challenge. Eddie is scrambling to paint and bring together the looks and Rick is putting together a nice little S and M look for the creatures.
Adolfo throws down his hat thanks to Scott. Temper, temper! At least you didn’t forget to put the bolts into the Monster’s head like Eric!
Reveal
Neville couldn’t join in with the fun tonight so Kevin Grevioux and his magnificent voice helped out. He dug all the looks and was impressed overall.
The five couples were creepily adorable and ranged from bionic to borderline beautiful. The concepts were cool and love permeated. It’s nice to see love transcend wars and decapitations and evil doctors hell bent on mind control and world domination. I guess there’s hope for all of us.
In the end, only one team could have their creatures roam the Universal Studios' parks and that team was Laney, Laura and Alana’s. Their couple survive off of each other as battery and charger and Glenn loved them. Alana was chosen as the ultimate winner because of her work on the Bride’s face.
The bottom three artists were Eric for forgetting the bolts and the sub-par sculpt; Lyma for her harsh and unrealistic paint job; and, Sam for her bulbously bad Bride head.
Unfortunately, bulbous is not good in this case and Sam had to gather up her goodies and head home. The judges said she didn’t appear to have participated enough and they had issues with what they saw. She handled it well and said that merely being a contestant was satisfying to her and she won’t give up on her dreams. You go, girl!
Next week, the remaining 14 will be brought down to 12 in a a double elimination. Watch “Gettin’ Goosed” on Syfy next Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.