Facepaint In Film: A Gallery Through the Decades

Now, this may seem like a bit of an odd choice to talk about here; after all, it's not actually costumes, real tangible objects that exist and remain after filming is done. But really, I feel makeup in movies is adjacent to costume design as it is also about establishing a look for a character, and often the costume designer has a hand in designing the look of the facial makeup; this happens with special makeup effects as well, where the special effects teams will follow from the costume designer's sketches.

This is going to be mostly focused on cult and exploitation film; the characters donning facepaint usually tend to be evil occultists or violent punks, with some exceptions. The inspiration tends to come mostly from either various indigenous cultures - Native American, African, Pacific Islander, Maori, etc - or from more contemporary sources such as musicians (Arthur Brown, Peter Gabriel or KISS come to mind) or wrestlers, though how much the latter takes inspiration from the former is up for debate!

For the sake of my own time, not *every* bit of facial makeup in a movie will be included; anything as minimal as the makeup worn by Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange will not be included, and clown/mime makeup will also not be included due to redundancy. Additionally, riffs on such bands as KISS are not included, nor are movies with 'tribal' characters, as they're often copies of real-world tribal facepaint.

Also, one or two really famous bits of face makeup, such as Mel Gibson's blue facepaint in Braveheart or the Darth Maul makeup in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, will not be included due to redundancy.

Kamen Rider (1971)

Organizing this by date somehow puts this at the top of the list! Agents of the villainous 'Shocker' organization wear green and red wavy facepaint, even when performing medical duties.

Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1973)

Skirts the line between facepaint and beauty makeup, but it's elaborate and striking enough to count on here; love that there's silver *and* gold inside the red lining.

The Burning Hell (1974)

None other than Satan himself wears this elaborate facial makeup in the infamous Christian propaganda 'classic'.

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Brian De Palma's seminal satire of the music industry has a parodic take on Alice Cooper et al in the form of 'The Undeads' wearing stylized black and white facepaint, before KISS made it cool (or uncool, depending on your opinion on KISS); and of course, who can forget Gerrit Graham's silvery bodypaint?

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Some very mime-inspired facial makeups in the iconic cult classic, though I also included an image from the original stage play!

The Tomorrow People 'Worlds Away' (1975)

Two forest dwellers of the planet Pyrie wear multicoloured facial makeups utilizing woodland colours.

Doctor Who 'The Brain of Morbius' (1976)

Members of the flame-worshipping Sisterhood of Karn sport gold facial makeup with detailed flame markings around the eyes.

Doctor Who 'The Robots of Death' (1977)

David Bailie sports this shiny makeup in his turn as the robot supremacist Taren Capel; does this read as being a little inspired by Peter Gabriel to you as well?

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)

A half-face patterned makeup was applied to Duke Butler and H.B. Haggerty in their turns as the 'Tigerman'.

Ring of Darkness (1979)

A hexagram facepaint pattern adorns the coven's leader in this schlocky Italian ripoff of Rosemary's Baby and The Omen; sublime Stelvia Cipriani soundtrack though!

The Warriors (1979)

One of the most iconic images from Walter Hill's larger-than-life cult classic; the facepaint was the idea of costume designer Bobbie Mannix, who denied any inspiration from A Clockwork Orange or KISS; I can see it, the facepaint looks much more inspired by indigenous facepaint, fitting with the 'tribalism' theme of the film.

Crazy Thunder Road (1980)

Sogo Ishii's directorial debut revolving around a biker gang; one of them sports this very elaborate technicolour face makeup.

Blake's 7 'Stardrive' (1981)

The 'Space Rats' are a futuristic spin on biker gangs and punks, so of course they sport garish makeup, especially the yellow and black design sported by Damien Thomas; only one of his underlings has their facepaint clearly visible.

Liquid Sky (1982)

Several bold and garish facial makeup jobs were applied on various performers in this arthouse send-up of New Wave makeup and fashion.

The Last Horror Film (1982)

A lovely blue and white makeup pattern was sported by Joe Spinell in this meta spoof on the horror genre.

Blade Runner (1982)

A rather colourful wheel-shaped makeup is sported by a dancer in the Snake Pit scene, though only seen clearly in one promotional photo, sadly.

1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982)

The 'Iron Man' tapdancing gang, taking some cues from the Baseball Furies of The Warriors, sport flame-patterned warpaint.

Endgame: Bronx Lotta Finale (1983)

The fighters of the titular deathsport, as well as some other extras, sport rather New Wave inspired facepaint; special mention to George Eastman's red, silver and black design.

Warrior of the Lost World (1983)

Another cheap Italian post-apocalypse film, with more garish makeups; the highlight is the black and white checkerboard pattern sported by one of the wasteland thugs, though of course there's the usual New Wave eye makeups!

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

A sadly unused facial makeup was designed for Molly Ringwald's turn in the Star Wars/Mad Max hybrid oddity, sadly only seen in these promotional photos.

The Boxer's Omen (1983)

The evil magician in this Hong Kong cult classic sports facepaint that seems a little inspired by Papa New Guinea traditional makeup.

The Toxic Avenger (1984)

One hoodlum sports this rather fetching half-face black and red makeup, with accentuated lipstick on the unpainted side - rather glam!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Infamously racist for yknow, demeaning an entire religion's deity as some sub-Satanist cult, but the Thuggee cultists so sport some great outfits complemented with facial makeup; the priests wear corpsepaint (inspired by Baron Samedi?) while the warriors sport a red pattern.

The Midnight Hour (1985)

A bold, geometrically patterned blue and white face makeup is sported by a Halloween partygoer in this family oriented horror special.

Vamp (1986)

The iconic Grace Jones stars as a vampire queen in this cult classic, sporting a bodypaint job designed and applied by none other than Keith Haring; Haring and Jones had collaborated previously before, which can be read about more in this article from Artland Magazine. For the Vamp assignment however, Haring's bodypaint is completed with a mime-like white face makeup.

Unmasking the Idol (1986)

Janet Nease sports a red, blue and gold glitter facial makeup in this rather unfunny James Bond/Indiana Jones b-movie spoof; it's better than Order of the Black Eagle, at least.

Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986)

The 'Cretins' gang in Troma's delightfully trashy entry in the punksploitation trend sport some very elaborate facial makeups.

Terminus (1987)

Arthouse-influenced French scifi thriller where the protagonists are harassed by soldiers sporting ornate facial makeup; Enki Bilal was involved on the film and this may have been his influence, due to similar facepainted fascists being present in his Nikopol comics trilogy. The black and white half-face pattern has cropped up many times over the years, such as the Star Trek episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' or the villain's makeup in The Equalizer 'Blood & Wine' two-parter, so I'm ignoring them to save time.

The Barbarians (1987)

Various tribesmen in the schlocky Ruggero Deodato Conan the Barbarian ripoff sport colourful facial makeup jobs.

The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

Ken Russell's deliciously kinky gothic horror has Amanda Donohoe sporting this full bodypaint, with dark blue detailing around her face with streaks along the hair; more complex makeup design was applied to the male extras during one hallucination sequence. I think at least some of these designs were inspired by Nuba facepaint but in a blue tone.

The Toxic Avenger Part III (1989)

One thug sports this ornate half-face makeup depicting waves and rain drops; the actor's hair's been shaved for this no less.

Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)

A circus freakshow themed entry in the tired Howling series, among its number is a circus jester and bird-biting geek who sports this elaborate red, white and black facepaint design.

TC 2000 (1993)

Various wasteland thugs sport elaborate facial makeup; Jalal Merhi sports to distinctive designs, one a colourful wavy pattern and the other a half-face yellow and black design.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 'Rules of Acquisition' (1993)

The 'Dosi' aliens sport a variety of red and white face patterns, with blue dots and streaks going down to the chest; Brian Thompson and Emilia Crow get the most screentime, but many more patterns were made for the various extras, most of them never being seen properly on-screen.

Death Machine (1994)

Martin McDougall sports this red half-face makeup, slightly makes me think of a 'target' motif, fitting the character's warrior nature.

No Escape (1994)

A few of the extras playing the feral inmates of the 'Absolon' island prison sport tribal-inspired makeups, in particular the blue pattern that feels indebted to Maori tattoos.

Lunarcop (1995)

Billy Drago dons a colourful warpaint makeup during the final battle in this forgotten Michael Pare post-apocalyptic action vehicle.

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Slightly more minimalistic black facial makeup markings were applied to the various 'Lo Tek' extras.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

One or two makeup jobs are worn by extras in this maligned fantasy film; I have no idea if it's meant to be tribal facepaint or even meant to be some sort of non-human character, but still, it counts. Notice that the green paintjob changes on the same performer!

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Various 'tribal' and corpsepaint-a-like makeups are worn by the possessed maniacs in Carpenter's scifi actioner. Almost all of these, barring the last shot, were taken from behind the scenes material; none of them are properly visible in the film itself.

The Wicker Man (2006)

A particularly loathed remake, but I do find these makeup designs worn by the cultists to be kinda charming, especially the alternating blue and white design sported by Ellen Burstyn, which even has the lipstick split in two colours!

Doomsday (2008)

An ornate face makeup is sported by Lee-Anne Liebenberg as the warrior 'Viper' in Neil Marshall's schlocky Scotch tribute to 1980s action films; the design feels like a combination of Maori tattoos and New Wave eyelining makeups.

Recycled Movie Costume Mysteries: Where Did Cyborg's Costumes Come From?

The late Albert Pyun was a director adept at working within the confines of a low budget; this made him a mainstay for Menahem Golan's Cannon Group, the company behind 1989's Jean Claud Van-Damme vehicle Cyborg, made during the company's twilight years. Golan's attempts to break into the 'respectable' Hollywood market only resulted in hastening the company's decline, thanks to a series of expensive (by Cannon standards) flops such as Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe.

The genesis of Cyborg was Pyun being hired to direct two movies that ultimately that never were made; the prospected Spider-Man movie, and a sequel to Masters of the Universe; judging from Pyun's interviews and leaked scripts, it seems that the former would have been the more expensive movie. Filming took place at Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, as it would be cheaper to film outside of Los Angeles; this required the construction of elaborate 'New York' street sets for Peter Parker's life in Spider Man. These sets were to be also used for Masters of the Universe II which like the first it would have been mostly set on Earth; Pyun's plan was to shoot the two movies back-to-back, using one set for both pictures and saving Cannon money.

Disaster struck when both Marvel and Mattel revoked their deals with Cannon; several million dollars had been spent constructing the New York sets in Wilmington, and now it was all for nothing; Pyun ultimately made the best of it by deciding to repurpose the sets for an original post-apocalyptic action script he had; some work still had to be done transforming the New York set into a dilapidated war-zone, with of course extra location shooting at various abandoned industrial locations to help sell that this all took place after an apocalypse.

What has always baffled me though, is that Pyun has regularly said that costumes were also constructed for the Spider-Man and MOTU II that never were, and this has gone on to become an oft-repeated fact about Cyborg; yet the leaked scripts for Spider-Man and MOTU II don't really make it seem like costumes would have been made for either production. The former would have only required costumes for Spidey himself; the latter production would have been almost entirely set on Earth with Skeletor possessing a human industrialist, and what few scenes on Eternia surely would have just reused the first film's costumes?

Adding more doubt is that none of Cyborg's costumes feel like they came from or belong in any superhero or fantasy movies; the bulk of the cast are all clad in the usual post-apocalyptic trampy gear. Dirtied up shirts, leather jackets, sweatpants, sports armor, combat fatigues, and so on; nothing akin to the DIY brilliance of Norma Moriceau's work on the Mad Max films.

What few costumes in Cyborg weren't just dirtied up contemporary gear? First would be the outfit worn by Vincent Klyn as the film's antagonist, wasteland bandit Fender Tremolo; his shirt with its puffy, doublet-like sleeves, wide collar lapels and a streaked fabric has an anachronistic feeling. It could have been bespoke made by Cyborg's costume designer Heidi Kaczenski, but it could also have been a thrifted bit of obnoxious 80s fashion that was altered to appear ragged. And perhaps, it could have been reused from another production, but if so from what?

One thing is for sure; the chainmail vest and wristguards were not made for Vincent Klyn; they were reused from the costume designed by Julie Weiss to be worn by Anthony De Longis as Blade in the first Masters of the Universe, with the Skeletor crest removed. Additionally, some armor pieces made for one of Skeletor's soldiers in that film also turned up in Cyborg, worn by one of Fender's goons over dirtied up contemporary clothing. This lends credence that MOTU II would not have had costumes made for it, as the original film's costumes were still ready to go!

Some minor parts also break the film's general costume design sense; Ralf Moller wears a leather harness fitted with chains, Dayle Haddon wears a tattered tan robe, and two of Fender's bandits wear stitched leather tops; however, these don't resemble anything from either the Masters of the Universe film or the original toyline. The real origin for can be inferred from the vest worn by the unnamed bartender Van Damme talks to in one brief scene; it was originally made by Ann & John Bloomfield for 1984's Conan the Destroyer, worn by Tracey Walter.

Conan the Destroyer, and Conan the Barbarian before it, had dozens of costumes made for background performers; the drab fabrics and leather of the reused outfits below feel like they would have originated in either film; given one costume definitely was reused from Conan, why not the few other anachronistic costumes? Italian post-apocalyptic films in particular were notorious for reusing costumes from the peplum wardrobe; Cyborg was a rare example of an American production doing this trick.

However, Cyborg had a few costumes leaning more to the 'futuristic' angle; sticking out among the hordes of tramps is the silvery plastic vest worn by Jean Claude Van-Damme himself, the same material coating the football armor worn by one of Fender's bandits. This again doesn't feel like a reuse of any potential MOTU II costumes; more likely costume designer Heidi Kaczenski thought to add some futuristic detail to Van Damme's costume, and thought to use some of the leftover material on a bit-part player.

In addition, several soldiers wear what are clearly off-the-shelf jumpsuits minimally altered with strips of shiny black dotted rubber - NOT the same material used for the silvery plastic vests above - with their officer wearing over his jumpsuit a black sheet cut to be a gown. His jumpsuit has seemingly been altered to have a panel of the rubber material over the chest - this is very, very cheap costume design, and doesn't indicate that they had costumes to reuse from a more expensive production.

The only strong contenders for a Cyborg costume possibly originating from MOTU II are the helmets that are only seen very briefly in Cyborg; looking remniscient of knight armor, I could imagine them being worn by Eternian characters; but this could also just be a coincidence. Again, several suits of armor and uniforms were made for the first Masters of the Universe, so there would have been no need to make more for a sequel mostly taking place on Earth.

The helmets very brief usage in the final film is also bizarre as usually when it comes to low budget films you show off everything you've got. But perhaps they were shown more in a scene that ended up on the cutting room floor? Or maybe most of the cast could not wear the helmets due to size limits; it's hard to say. Nothing confirms that these were definitely reused or not.

But maybe the real answer is that nothing actually was reused from either Spider Man or MOTU II as no costumes worth reusing were made for either film , due to being contemporary, lower budget productions. Perhaps the reality of reusing the expensive Spider Man sets, and Heidi Kaczenski's reuse of costumes from fantasy films like Masters of the Universe and Conan the Destroyer, blurred in Pyun's memory.

Cyborg's near-future, apocalyptic setting would have limited what sort of costumes could have been reused for the production, hence why only very few costumes in the final film are reused from other productions. This would still have been hard work for the costume department, as all the utilitarian, contemporary clothing they bought would have needed to be severely weathered to transform into wasteland garb.

The shooting of Cyborg was a harrowing experience for Pyun; the miniscule budget, urgent redressing of existing sets and extra location shooting, Van Damme's bad behaviour on-set (resulting in a cast member losing an eye!), and the usual pressures of working under Golan & Globus (the latter throwing a stapler at Pyun as a way to show disapproval for his ideas); of course the finer details would be lost.

Unless any costume polaroids showing the costume tests for Pyun's Spider-Man and MOTU II ever materialize, or Fender's jacket is auctioned showing how many performers wore the costume, we'll never truly know. But it can be safe to assume that, for the most part, no costumes in Cyborg were reused from other films, and what few were did not originate from either of these cancelled projects.