ComingSoon spoke with The Exorcist: Believer‘s Special Makeup FX Designer and Department Head Chris Nelson about the fearsome makeup of the new Exorcist sequel. Nelson revealed his favorite look from the film and discussed the various stages of makeup that made for each stage of possession in the movie.
“Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding has raised their daughter, Angela on his own,” reads the film‘s synopsis. “But when Angela and her friend Katherine, disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront the nadir of evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.”
Alyse Wax: Can you talk a little bit about what went into designing the makeup for each girl?
Chris Nelson: Each makeup, obviously, was designed based on their anatomy. Also, based on the context of their character. Some of the earlier drafts of the script picked up on tics that their characters had as they were descending into their demonic possession. They had these little tics, and the Katherine character would pull on her hair a lot and pull her hair out as one of the tics. The character of Angelo would have convulsions, and she would repeatedly bang her head against the wall or bang her head against the desk and things. Although those tics didn’t really make it through into the final draft, it’s something that I picked up on and really responded to because David Gordon Green wanted these makeups to be realistic. He wanted them to be plausible.
He wanted them to be organic and not really fantastical at all. But aside from the contact lenses, which are obviously a sign of possession and slightly walk that line of fantastical, we wanted them to be very organic. So I based each girl’s look on those tics. Hence, Angela’s character with the convulsions and the head beating. I had her face much more swollen, rounded, and puffy. Katherine’s hairline receded, and pores and blood on her hairline and also a little bit of swelling, very pale and pasty, and wanted that look to carry through as they’re descending into their demonic looks.
There were four stages for each girl. Each stage was really based on those tics for me. I wanted to change the look of the girls without taking away what they really looked like. You need to have more sympathy for these girls the worse they look. I still wanted there to be some semblance of themselves within there.
Tell me about the stages of makeup that the girls go through while possessed in The Exorcist: Believer.
So there are four stages for each girl. The first stage starts out as just paint, and it’s just paleness and darkness around the eyes and some discoloration of the skin. Then, starting on stage two, we started getting into prosthetics, minor prosthetics, [and] also dentures to discolor their teeth. We also started utilizing contact lenses for bloodshot, to make that transition from normal eyes to possessed eyes.
I didn’t want it to just be this giant jump that seemed fantastical, so discoloration in eyes and bloodshot and dilated pupils and things like that. So as time goes on, stage three is heavier prosthetics, more discolored dentures, heavier contact lenses, and started taking the rest of the makeup down — the rest of the body onto the neck, onto the hands and onto the feet, until you get to the final stage where they’re completely covered in prosthetics from head to toe, including some wig work as well.
Did you at all try to tie these designs into Regan’s look from the original movie?
Not really, no. As I’m a huge fan of Dick Smith’s work in that film. Dick Smith is an idol to me, and to live up to the work that he did was challenging and daunting. [Laughs]. But myself and my co-designer, Vincent Van Dyke, really wanted to emulate that makeup and wanted it to live in that world, but use modern technology and modern techniques to create our look and have it look very organic. We were very adamant about that. David Gordon Green was very adamant about that. Any similarities are completely coincidental.
Did you have a favorite makeup to apply in The Exorcist: Believer?
Yes, I did. We did a demon for the movie called Lamashtu. It was on an actress called Lize Johnston. It’s full body, from head to toe, demon makeup, utilizing partial suit technology where she’s in a suit that zips up the back with prosthetics, layered over it down her entire limbs. Her entire head is covered in prosthetics. She’s got a harness underneath to mount the wings that she has — these demonic wings and also horns that she has protruding out of her head. I think that was my favorite makeup to do, although you don’t see it very much in the film.
It’s a beautiful full body prosthetic character that I’m excited to show people once the movie comes out. But you do see it in the film a little bit, and it’s just beautiful. Myself and Vince Van Dyke are very proud of it.
