NEWS

Halloween came early this season with the gala October 13th opening reception of Creature Features’ second annual “October Shadows” art exhibition featuring over 70 prestigious artists from the fields of fine art, animation, comics, make-up and visual effects and more.

This year’s event was hosted by six-time Academy Award winning make-up artist Rick Baker (“An American Werewolf in London,” “Men In Black,” “The Nutty Profesor”), who opened the doors to his private studio to showcase more than 200 individual works of Halloween-themed art. Each artist utilized their own preferred medium to conjure a dizzying array of tricks and treat, ranging from traditional paint on canvas to state-of the-art digital art and 3-D modeling.

Baker led the collection by contributing thirteen of his own exclusive original digitally-created prints varying in subject matter from wicked witches and bloodthirsty dolls to eerie portraits and moody Gothic landscapes.

Other highlights included the premiere unveiling of “Machiniato!” an exquisitely produced, eerily life-like working automaton created exclusively for the show by noted illustrator and dollmaker Bill Nelson and kinetic sculptor extraordinaire Steve Stackpole, a meticulously constructed haunted dollhouse -- 20 years in the making -- created by Pollyanne Hornbeck, and a colorful series of vintage-style latex masks produced by make-up FX artist and illustrator Bruce Spaulding Fuller.

The evening also saw the official unveiling of displays from two highly anticipated Halloween-themed film projects, Warner Bros’ “Trick ‘R Treat,” written and directed by Mike Dougherty, and Norman Cabrera’s own vision titled “Billy Bones and the Jack O’Lantern.”

A stellar list of notables joined in the celebration, including noted genre directors Joe Dante, William Dear, Tom McLoughlin, Tim Sullivan and Tobe Hooper, Roy & Sheri Disney, Oscar winners Bill Condon, writer/director of “Dreamgirls” and actress Anna Paquin, TV favorites Ray Romano, James Spader, Loni Anderson and Markie Post, Playboy’s Bridget Marquardt and her co-stars from “The Girls Next Door,” Children’s book illustrator Gris Grimly, lowbrow art mainstays Todd & Kathy Shorr, Coop and Ragnar, Don & Estelle Shay from Cinefex Magazine, stop-motion luminaries Jim Danforth, Ernie Farino, Ted Rae and Chris Endicott, veteran TV director and co-creator of “Hannah Montana,” Rich Correll, noted credit stylist Kyle Cooper and many more.

As a special bonus, visitors thrilled to a unique guided tour of Baker’s private museum showcasing full-size replicas of many of his most significant contributions, including “An American Werewolf in London,” “Harry and The Hendersons,” “Men in Black,” “Ed Wood,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Mighty Joe Young,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Ring.”