11 Nightmarish Makeup Effects – Click if You Dare! Don’t Blame Us for Lost Sleep!
Steve Barton
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We’ve all had those moments… you see something in a movie that haunts you long after the credits have rolled. Right now we have a look at some of the single most nightmare-inducing visages that have ever graced the screen and left you shivering.
In 1981 John Irvin created a fearsome adaptation of Peter Straub’s Ghost Story which starred Alice Krige as the devilishly departed specter Alma/Eva. Dick Smith and company created several looks for this revenge-seeking spirit, two of the most startling of which you can find below.
Before Insidious went on to spawn more chapters, the only image leaked online for the film was the one you see below, and at that time no one even knew what it was for. Pure nightmare fuel.
What more could be said about Dick Smith’s stunning makeup effects in The Exorcist? Never before had a little girl been more frightening thanks to Smith’s wizardry on Linda Blair and Eileen Dietz. Strangely enough, we find Dietz’s makeup a bit more frightening in its simplicity! What say you?
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the blind woman Mrs. Slydes played by Leona Anderson in William Castle’s quintessential ghost story, 1959’s House on Haunted Hill. Somewhere right now in the afterlife, my mom’s ears are still ringing from my screams.
While we’re on the subject of classic chills, a special nod HAS to be given to 1963’s Mario Bava anthology Black Sabbath. The segment “The Drop of Water” is as nightmarish as it gets with a cleverly used corpse with a life all its own. Never steal from the dead, kids! You’ve been warned.
Other than stealing from the dead, another BIG NO NO would be shaming a gypsy. So learned poor Alison Lohman’s character in Sam Raimi’s 2009 chiller Drag Me to Hell. Played masterfully by Lorna Raver, Mrs. Ganush is not to be trifled with.
Sometimes all it takes to inspire a good nightmare is a corpse dressed as a bride making chittering, screeching sounds to the rhythm of voodoo drums. Don’t believe us? Check out Wes Craven’s classic The Serpent and the Rainbow. Dear god… please bury me… dead or not!
From an online short film to the big screen, the spookiness of David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out will no doubt have you screaming, “GET THAT THING THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!”
But is anywhere truly safe? Like, say… your bed? If you’ve seen Drew Daywalt’s Bedfellows, then you’re painfully aware that the answer is a resounding NO FUCKING WAY! Look it up, and prepare yourself for the most frightening few minutes of your life!
So, what did we miss? What scares YOU? Let us know in the comments section below!
