Best Make-Up Effects in Films

[InformationGeek]

What films do you think have some of the best make-up effects?  Having worked on my movie powerpoint, I had section on it and I started thinking about these effects.  Some of the best make-up effects I have seen were with How the Grinch Stole Christmas and in Dick Tracy.  Everything looked so great!  What do you think are some of the best effects?

[God the Worms]

The Fly (David Cronenberg's)

[claws]

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. Hard to believe they didn't use CGI. Very cool old school effects.

[Jim H]

All the practical creatures in Hellboy 2 are pretty damn amazing, and many of them are HEAVILY made-up actors.  

I think we should distinguish the difference here between "special effects" and "make-up effects".

Make-up effects generally refers to when a living actor is "made-up" to look different in someway.  So, say, Jabba the Hut is not really a make-up effect, he's a puppet.  

Salieri in Amadeus is a more subtle example of pretty great old-age makeup.



The film won Dick Smith the Make-up effects Oscar, something he'd deserved for a long time - he also did most of the effects on The Exorcist, The Godfather, and Scanners.  Those films also have some pretty great make-up effects, ranging from subtle (Don Corleone in The Godfather) to the not-so-subtle (the crazy effects in the Exorcist).  

Amongst the best ever created are the werewolf transformation sequences in An American Werewolf in London.

Edit to add: one more thing to note.  Guilermo Del Toro of Hellboy 2 was in part trained by Dick Smith, and Rick Baker of An American Werewolf in London is a Dick Smith protege..  So yeah, Dick Smith is the man.

[Hammock Rider]

  I think Planet of the Apes and the remake both had outstanding make-up. The older movie's make-up wouldn't hold up too well today but as a kid I was blown away by it. It's interesting to see how far Ape Realizations have progressed over several years.

[Flick James]

And...

[Flick James]

Oh, and I don't care what anybody says, the "old" makeup in A League of Their Own was very well done.

[Doggett]

Tim Curry in Legend.

[Mr. DS]

Lets not forget that classic known as "The Wizard Of Oz".  I really feel that makeup/costumes were beyond their time, even now.

[316zombie]

the same goes for the 1914(i think) version,and for metropolis.
definitely makeup that was truly intriguing,and also effects that worked WITH the makeup,amazing stuff!
i was also quite impressed with the aging makeup for david bowie in the hunger,it was very well done.

[Leah]

The Wolfman (1941)- The transformation took Hours!

[Raffine]

Christopher Tucker's work on John Hurt for THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980)

I remember reading an interview with Tucker at the time the film was released where he commented he regretted he couldn't exactly reproduce Merrick's appearance on Hurt, but that would have required breaking and rearranging all the bones in Hurt's face, and Tucker thought he might not go for that.  Feeling Merrick's actual appearance was too 'horrific' for the film Tucker decided to go with a more stylized appearance, giving Merrick a subtle sad expression.

Tucker's makeup did cause something of a scandal: The Oscars didn't have a makeup category at the time and they refused to give Tucker a 'special' award (like they did Chambers for PLANET OF THE APES). There was such vocal protests the next year they did create a regular makeup award. Tucker has never won it.

FUN FACT! Tucker also created 'Mr. Creosote' from MONTY PYTHON'S THE MEANING OF LIFE.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Probably very dated by today's standards, but I always gave a big hand for Frankenstein Conquers The World.  The makeup on Frankenstein prior to his gigantic transformation was quite a job.

The scene where he steals the necklace off of Kumi Mizuno (after throwing the TV out the window) really showed some good use of face makeup.

The look was very good-a hybrid, warm-blooded living creature that reminded you just enough of The Monster while also retaining a very human quality. Probably way better examples out there, but me and my one-track mind came up with this one.