Those of you who have seen “Inglourious Basterds” will remember the glorious scalping scenes, where Lt. Aldo Raine’s Jewish-American troops would seamlessly apply the finishing touch to their fallen enemies. But how did it look so good on camera?
To play up the grisly spectacle of scalping Nazi soldiers in Quentin Tarantino’s ” Inglourious Basterds” required some sleight of hand as well as the makeup skill of Gregory Nicotero and the rest of the effects crew at KNB EFX. “The way the gag works, the scalp and the actor’s head are separate,” Nicotero said. “To sell the gag, you have to pretend like you’re really putting effort into the cutting, like the knife is really slicing through skin.” The team made a mold of makeup effects artist Jake Garber’s head and used that as the model to sculpt the scalps to be affixed to the extras’ heads. Then they hand-painted the bloody details onto the piece and covered the whole area in a patented concoction called Ultraslime.
Duly noted. If you’ve got the dough and want to construct the most brutal haunted house in the history of Halloween, call up the KNB EFX crew. Though I usually make an effort to dress in the lamest costume I can think of on the holiday, I might have to acquire some of this Ultraslime and spice things up. On that note, I wonder how popular the “Bear Jew” costume will be this year.
