Rick Baker: That’s Not My Work in Wes Craven’s “Cursed”

Someone just on my Instagram just posted a picture of a tattoo, a beautiful tattoo of the werewolf. Oh yeah? So many people have him. One guy did a cover-up tattoo that was incredible, the werewolf. It's funny, I mean, I have the werewolf, I have Harry on people, I've got the Grinch, and some of the stuff. Harry and the Henderson's Harry? Yeah, yeah. That's another one. One of the films I think still, I mean, when people ask me what my favorite one is, I say Harry because I can look at that film today and I think it holds up perfectly fine. The only thing I think I would change is that I would make his teeth a little more translucent, you know, in the ends. But that was a challenging movie because he had to communicate just by his visual expressions and carry the movie, you know. And I think he did, and I think it worked quite well. Is there a movie that stands out as being the most frustrating, like the end result? You know, I mean, they're all frustrating to a degree, you know. I don't know if there's one particular one. I mean, I did, and I don't consider this my film, I was approached by Bob Weinstein to do a werewolf movie called Cursed that Wes Craiglin was going to direct, and I basically turned it down, and there wasn't a lot of time. And Bob used my own words against me apparently on a DVD of American werewolf. I said, I'd love to have the opportunity to do a transformation again and do it knowing what I know now and with the crew that I have now. Right. And he goes, I'm giving you that. You said that, you know. So I said to him, the only way I would do this is if you don't have an opinion and Wes doesn't have an opinion, you just let me make what I think is best for this film. That's the only way I can make it cool in the time that you have. I can't play the change this, change that game. Absolutely. Of course, that's not the case. No. They say that. Yeah, they say that, and it was like change this, change that, change this, change that. And it was just like, you know. You almost have to have a clause in the contract that if they do fuck with you at all, you can just leave and get paid. I've done that in one contract. But yeah, it turned out that they started the film before they really had a script and it was a... Oh, well, what an idea. Yeah, and it happens all the time. And it was just a mess. I haven't even heard of it. First, yeah, what's good. You didn't hear about it. I'm surprised I'm even mentioning it because it did, they shut the film down and I went, okay. And I said, but we were doing some really cool transformation stuff and it wasn't quite done. And I said, listen, if you ever think the film's going to pick up again, if you can keep a number of my people on for another month, we can have this transformation stuff. We'll put it in a box, it'll be ready to go. So if they disperse now, it's going to be like starting again because nobody's going to necessarily get the same people. Right. Just put everything in a box, ship it to us. If we start up again, we'll figure it out. They started up again. I didn't do it. I was on something else. Someone else took over. They changed everything that I made. I didn't use a lot of what I made, but the film has a single card opening credit, says Rick Baker on it. And I spoke with Weinstein and go, I don't want credit for this film. It's not my film. This isn't my work anymore. But it would help them to have you on it. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I found that frustrating, you know, but you know, again, I have no right to complain about this stuff. They don't do a lot of monster movies anymore. And the number of werewolf movies, you can kind of count them on one hand. Right? I mean, you got the howling, one stretchy hand. You have the howling. Of course you have American werewolf. You have the earlier films, but this, it's, you know, and then you have those, I don't consider them werewolf movies. Those were the ones with the lady, the real, the world. Yeah. Yeah. Those are kind of, but they're fun to watch Kate Beckinsale in a latex suit. Yeah. It's pretty fucking hot, but they're just kind of whack. The movies are kind of whack. The vampires are whack. It's like, I don't buy any what you're selling. I don't think these are real vampires. I'm not scared. I don't think that's a werewolf. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah. Well, I'm more old school horror movie guy and I'm not a big slasher movie guy. You know what I mean? No. Again, I don't like, I mean, I can't, I can't watch those fights that you're, you know what I mean? UFC fights? Really? No, I have a, one of my crew, Eddie Yang, a great guy. Eddie was the, he studied with one of the Gracie's. And he was saying, Hey, you got to watch this, Rick. And I mean, these guys hit each other in the face with their elbow and I think, no, it's not for me. You know, and people will send me because they think I like this stuff. Pictures. Oh, look, fell down and cut my head. You know, it's, I don't want to see that. Oh, God. I pass out when I cut myself. You know, really? Do you? Yeah. I mean, fake gore is one thing, you know, but I think it's bad that, you know, a movie, you know, when, you know, Halloween and Friday the 13th and it just became, what's the most graphic way we can kill a teenager? And people become, when you see, you know, a guy with a knife shoved in his eye and the people in his eye is like cheer. That seems wrong to me, you know? Yeah. The desensitization. Yeah. You should be repulsed by this stuff. Right. And I mean, you know, it's, I don't know. But it's so, I mean, people would think it's funny and kind of ironic coming from someone like you who's made these insane monster films like American World from London. We're just ripping guys' heads off and Piccadilly Circus. But it's monster gore, you know? I understand. And it's the same thing like, you know, if it's a zombie killing, you know, you're killing a zombie, that's okay. You know, that's not real, you know? But just killing a person, another person killing a person in a graphic way, I'm not fond of, you know? So, I don't like, you know, I mean, I like, well, I call them monster movies more than the others, you know what I mean? Me too. And you know, I mean, Charles Lottman, Quasimodo, I mean, it's a brilliant film. Yes. It's a brilliant makeup. Yeah. 1939. Right. And, you know, it's a perfect makeup and a perfect actor, you know? Charles Lottman was great in that movie. And you feel for him, you know? You feel for the Frankenstein's monster, you know? Those movies just don't, there's so few and far between today. I got to see a real Frankenstein-type movie.