The Devil Inside Special F/X Genius Steve Johnson
Thursday, May 27th, 2010 by Chad Cherry
FAKE BLOOD..SCARE ME LIKE THE REAL THING!
STEVE JOHNSON HAS MADE YOUR LIFE AMAZING AND FUN!!!! He has been inside your imagination and cinematic dreams (or nightmares) for a long time…. And you probably don’t even know who he is. Well that’s about to change rockers and slaves to fashion.
While I should have been doing my homework as a youngster, I found a much better after-school activity instead … No, stop thinkin’ dirty thoughts, freaks … Special F/X!!! You know, an extra leg on the dog, eyeballs that squirt jell-o, a severed finger that won’t stop moving, exploding skulls … etc.
Finding Social Studies and Home-Economics bland, I was too busy trying to learn how the hell to make these horrible creatures from movies that scare the shit out of everyone. I wanted a real education …in BLOOD!!! Ok, fake blood… Where the hell can I find fake blood when it’s nowhere near Halloween? Then I discovered a man who could give me that answer and the education that I needed in life … The school of STEVE JOHNSON!!! He taught me how to make all the blood I needed! And all the ingredients could be found from the shelves of my mom’s kitchen (I didn’t have to try to drain it from the neighbor kids anymore). It was a complete freak-show mess in my house after that! Blood everything!
Award winning F/X designer Steve Johnson was introduced to the Hollywood F/X scene after meeting with make-up artist Rick Baker in Steve’s home state of Texas. (If you don’t know Rick B. read my older ‘Devil Inside’ interviews dang it!) By the time he was 18 Steve moved to Cali and cut his teeth on such productions as ‘Tanya’s Island,’ ‘The Fog’ and ‘The Howling’.
Later, as Baker was assembling his select team in London for the production of ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ he again invited Johnson to join him. This position lead to key supervisory roles on ‘Videodrome’ (Debbie Harry from Blondie yum yum!) and ‘Greystoke’ on which he supervised the animatronic ape shoot in Africa. Robot Apes … Saweet!
By the mid-80s Steve was appointed head of Richard Edlund’s Boss Film Corporation creature shop for productions including ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘Fright Night’, ‘Poltergeist II’ and ‘Big Trouble in Little China’. ( F#@K – YA!) This position not only presented him with the challenge of realizing cutting edge F/X for major studio goodies, it also allowed him to bring larger than life concepts to an F/X work force of up to 80 full time freaks. This led to the formation of his own company XFX, Inc.
Originally based in Sun Valley, CA, Steve’s XFX, Inc. made a huge name for itself with its originality of design, attention to detail and innovative use of materials. Like the demise of Freddy Kreuger in R. Harlin’s ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street IV’ which lead to massive budget projects, like, oh say James Cameron’s ‘The Abyss’.
Steve is the man! He has brought XFX, Inc. to the forefront of the industry and continues to be actively involved with the conceptual development, hands on design and on set application for all his shows. A true leader in his field for sure.
He was awarded his first Emmy for Stephen King’s 8 hour mini-series ‘The Stand’ and continues to produce ass kicking, ground breaking make-up imagery for commercials, TV, theme parks, and film. Oh, and get this…. Emmy number 2 for S.King’s ‘The Shining’ series!
XFX, Inc. has kept very busy creating top-notch make-up and wicked creature F/X for ‘The Outer Limits,’ Stargate SG-1 and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Taken’.
Here is what Steve Johnson has done for you………………
War of the Worlds, The Cat in the Hat, Blade II, Charmed, Wrongfully Accused, Host, The Shining (mini-series), Night Watch, Eraser, Here Come the Munsters, Lord of Illusions, Species I and II, Exquisite Tenderness, Night Of the Demons I and II, The Stand, Brainscan, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Return of the Living Dead III, The Temp, Innocent Blood, Pet Sematary II, Highway to Hell, To Save a Child, A Grande Arte, Monsters (t.v), Howling IV: Original Nightmare, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, Dead Heat, Solarbabies, Big Trouble in Little China, The Clan of the Cave Bear, Howling II: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, Tanya’s Island, Humandoids from the Deep, The Fog, Spiderman 2, Daai Zek lou, The Rundown, Arachnid, Necronomicon, Red Planet, The Dentist, Bad Moon, The General’s Daughter, The Rapture, Suburban Commando, Howing VI : The Freaks, Night Angel, The Abyss, Leviathan, Predator, Virus, The Warlord, Evolver, Amistad, Freaked, Poltergeist II: The Other Side, Fright Night, Ghostbusters, Rose Red, Where the Wild Things Are, Bicentennial Man….. I can keep going!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BOW DOWN CREEPS!!!!
Plus self-produced ‘behind the scenes’ making of kick-ass-ery-ness! All done by himself!
I SAY DOWN DOGS!!!!
Steve and I have been chatting over the months so I thought this would be a great opportunity to let you rock-n-roll freak-a-zoids in on what’s cool.. That’s what I do …
Talking with this master of the Special F/X (and my hero) during his busy schedule via Skype went a li’l something like this …
This interview was really hard for me to do with all the outrageous laughter that was going on the whole time….. So just put it this way… Steve and I are looney tunes and we were both drinking.
Chad Cherry: Steve I know you’ve done a ton of movies and have worked w/ some amazing people. Can you tell me which film you’ve had the most fun working on?
Steve Johnson: The most fun? That’s really easy, and I despise questions like this which I’m sure you do too, but I’ll spin off and answer it anyway cuz I like the sound of my own voice … Clearly … Easily … ‘Ghostbusters’. I mean look, ‘Ghostbusters’ was a comedy and people like me don’t often get the chance to work on a comedy so by virtue of the fact that you’re working on a comedy on set everyone is trying to make ya laugh and have a good time.
It really was a fantastic time and you know that the movie has become an icon, it’s a major, major film and when you look back this year is the 25th anniversary for it comin’ out and the world wide enthusiasm for it is rabid. I’m like fuck, that was an incredible once in a life time experience. So ‘Ghostbusters’… My most fun.
C.C. Well since you hated that question, I’m gonna stick to the program. Which one is the bloodiest? Most sick?
S.J. You are the worst interviewer.
C.C. I’m amazing.
S.J. But yer still gonna go for it. Well that’s a tough one, cuz a lot of those films were independently produced … Let’s see … Which one would the people recognize? … Ya know I really didn’t do a ton of bloody stuff. I tried to veer away from that actually. Maybe ‘Night of the Demons II’. On the first one the producers, director and writer wanted it to be a psychological horror for a low budget movie but on the 2nd one they tried to step it up a lil’ bit. “Just pour more blood on it! I don’t care if it takes 100 gallons, just pour more blood on it”! Spew it from fire extinguishers and we’ll get a reaction from the audience. So ‘Night of the Demons II’ … I just made that up … It’s not really true.
C.C. That’s o.k. … It’s all bullshit anyway. I’m not even gonna put this interview out. The questions that I’ve asked you so far have gone down hill … let’s keep rollin’ like that.
S.J. Ya, these are suckie questions.
C.C. Speakin’ of blood! Now that we are off the subject. Fake blood! Let’s talk about it. A very crucial part of horror or any movie for that matter. You taught me how to make it years ago. Steve can you tell the rest of the creeps of the world your infamous recipe for it? Let’s hear it.
S.J. Go online. Type in fake blood. Then order a gallon of it. That’s the way to go.
C.C. No, no, no, that’s too easy man! We want the kids to get creative here at Lip Service.
S.J. O.K. … Fake blood. Here’s easily how it goes. Caro (clear) syrup (pancake syrup) and food coloring. You used to be able to get it at the store, at least when I was a kid. Put red in it, if it’s too red, use yellow. If you want fresh blood make it brighter and if you want older blood make it darker. And then the way to really have it kick is to make it a tiny bit opaque and the way to do that is to actually use zinc oxide. And you can get that anywhere cuz it’s basically suntan lotion. If you’ve ever seen surfers w/ that white strip on their nose … that’s zinc oxide. So if you want it to be incredibly cool, that’s how ya do it.
C.C. And it’s tasty. I used to put it on my pancakes.
S.J. You made blood pancakes?
C.C. Ya, now I’m hungry so I gotta go … See ya … So what’s up with the story of a very young Steve Johnson in grade school making himself up to look like a bum, beard and all, so he could buy adult beverages for the kiddies. True or false?
S.J. It’s not only true, but I did it on more then one occasion and got away with it.
C.C. You kick ass for that! Hands down one of the most r-n-r stories ever.
S.J. For a 14 year old livin’ in Texas, I was like in 7th grade. Ya, I was the hero of all my friends. It worked. That is a r-n-r story, now we’re cookin’!
C.C. Alright, alright! You have 2, count em’ 2 Emmys. To me this next question sounds like something I would do givin’ the chance. You lost one! Steve, how the fuck did you lose one of yer Emmys?
S.J. It’s true, I did lose one of them. Here’s what happened. I Got fired from ‘Where the Wild things Are’ and from ‘Spiderman III’ from within an 8 hour period. 18 million $ down the drain in 8 hours and what are ya gonna do at this point? So what I decided to do was become a fugitive from the law cuz I saw the digital world comin’, I saw it for years and all the smart people have gone back to M.I.T., they’ve gone back to Pennsylvania to Fine Art. They’re not gonna sit back and make 12$ an hour like a fuckin’ plummer and I run their company. What am I gonna do? And so I thought, o.k. this is just a phase, this digital thing will go away. So I was completely delusional ya know and I’m thinking this is my career for the last 30 years, it will get fixed, it’s fantasy film it will go back to practical F/X.
And then Spike Jones calls me up from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and wants to do everything practical and I’m thinkin’ great! Finally! And on top of that … a 15 million $ paycheck. This is gonna be great! Well, he has one of his minions call me up after I had worked on the show for 8 months right, and then he goes, “Not only are we not gonna give you 15 mill but yer fired … and we are gonna do it all digitally and we’re gonna give the grunt work to the Henson corporation.”
So I’m like well o.k., at least I still have ‘Spiderman III’. I did the first and second so at least I still have the third. Then I get called into a meeting for 20th Century Fox that night and they say “Steve, sorry we are gonna do this all digitally … Yer fired” … So I went home. I just lost 18 million dollars and it will never ever, ever come back again. So literally … I can’t believe I’m giving you the scoop on this Chad, cuz nobody has heard this shit yet! But we are drinkin’ and this is fun so what the hell … So I went into my studio the next day and I talk to all my higher ups, had a big meeting and asked … What are we gonna do?
We just lost 18 mill, we have 15,000 $ monthly bills to run the company and we don’t have a job. We’re out, it’s over. And so my coolest guy, cool as ice all the time says to me, “I’ll tell you what you should do. There’s only one answer. You should rob your own company, take everything you’ve got and become a fugitive in some South American country and live as long as you can.” And as insane as I was, Chad, at that point it sounded reasonable. I was like, he’s right! I’m gonna rob my own company and go south of the border like fuckin’ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. And I did!
Within a month I had left like one cig burnin’ on the table top and I ended up in Costa Rica for a year on an observation platform with no electricity and monkeys hoppin’ in and out of my house.
Ya, so I guess yer getting this breaking story … I knew this would get good. So that’s what happened … Wait I forgot the question…
C.C. It doesn’t matter anymore Steve.
S.J. Wait, here is the saddest part about what I just told you. That as it turned out, no one cared. I was the worlds shittiest fugitive. No one cared. So I came back to L.A. and was just waiting for the F.B.I. but they just looked at my passport and said “O.k. poor bastard, just clean it up” and they let me back in. I was a shitty, shitty fugitive.
C.C. Let me just say that that’s completely fucking insane … But what a great story!
S.J. I’ve looked at it in a bunch of ways and now that I’m back in L.A. People can contact me now, like you. Cuz when I was workin’ with monkeys in Costa Rica no one could get a hold of me. But now that I’m back, who would expect anything less.
C.C. Is there any way I can rent out yer old place with the monkeys? Cuz that sounds pretty good for me right now.
S.J. Absolutely. I’ll point you in the right direction.
C.C. Thank you Steve.
S.J. We should be snorting sea monkeys right now …
C.C. We need to do this high on sea monkeys. This is how we roll Steve.
C.C. Seriously.
S.J. Seriously.
S.J. Back to yer interview.
C.C. Let’s talk about your youtube channel. This is amazing!
S.J. Type in rubberrules or stevejohnsonfx . The intro episode is the real reason why the channel was born, cuz I’ve got 100,000 still photos from my entire 30 year career of every step of every movie I’ve ever done. I’ve got 10,000 hours of behind the scenes video and 20,000 pieces of original art work. I looked at this big piece of stuff when I got back from Costa Rica and said ‘what am I gonna do with all this?’ What does one do with the spoils of movies? I mean I just turned 50, what am I gonna do, come down here to my basement every 5 years and pull out old photos and jerk off, it’s ridiculous. I realized that this stuff needs to be shared. Not a lot of people have done that, documented their careers so specific and complete.
I had to look at it and thought, this is a really serious thing and there are a lot of people really interested in this so what better way to share it then to put it out on youtube for free. And that’s how that came about.
C.C. There is so much hard work that goes into it, the detail, the design, the wicked shit that ends up hitting the cutting room floor. I think this is important. I think people need to see this.
S.J. We have about a year’s worth of episodes so, in about a month or so, the show will be up with fury.
C.C. Do you see younger folks getting into the craft and the art of F/X? Kids wanting to work hands on with foam latex, sculpting creatures, making fake blood. Is this old school now? Is it going toward C.G.I.?
S.J. You know Chad that’s a really good question. You would think that it would, but it’s not the case. In the film industry producers aren’t paying people like me to create characters anymore. They pay digital guys to hit their buttons and that’s where it’s been for a while.
As a result of that, what I’ve found incredibly fascinating within the past years or so, is that there seems to be an innate desire in a huge percentage of our population to want to create physical things of the fantastic. Not the mental things, but physical things.
I just went to a huge convention in L.A. called Monsterpalooza. Oh my god!!! I couldn’t believe it. Since my type of art has kinda been nudged to the side for digital technology, I’ve been so amazed to see not only is the art still there but it’s blossomed in a way it never has before. Since there’s no one paying money for it anymore and it’s just turned into a game and a business, which I know you know what it’s like being in the music biz. What’s happened since the biz aspect has been dissected for monster-makers, the art has risen. It’s bloomed in a way that I couldn’t have imagined.
1st there was 5 times as many people there, 2nd it was mostly people creating for art’s sake. Full body Lon Chaney from the 1931 Wolfman. Lon Chaney! And then a series for his transformation into the Wolf! And it truly was like a M. Angelo sculpture. Ultra-realistic and this guy did it for no reason other then the sake of art. And that was just one example. It seems to me since the film industry has squashed the need for making monsters that the kids in the basement have risen to fight it.
There is a desire to make things and it’s blooming more than I have ever seen.
C.C. So good to hear! When we lose our passion and soul for art, things turn to shit. People can see through it. Some anyway.
S.J. Art creates itself like the sweat through pores. There’s a reason people want to create these thing and remember them. I don’t know, I’m really just happy to see it.
C.C. It’s call being completely nutz!…. Well this is just amazing and a real treat for the fans that love movie magic. Before I wrap this up. I got to do it Steve.
S.J. I knew it….
C.C. Top 5 favorite Rock bands, man?
S.J. I was waiting for this. How can you as a musician, as a writer, ask me this? It’s like asking yer top 5 favorite words in the English language! haha! Come on!!! Ridiculous! I mean, Chad, you know that music is a language! Here is the thing, not only is it a language, it’s a drug. And God knows I like every drug.
C.C. Me too.
S.J. It sounds cavalier and very Hunter S. Thompson but music is a drug. Music comes into yer mind and what it does is it unlocks a certain valve to derail chemicals that make you feel a certain way. I mean it really does. It’s not like you’re putting something foreign into yer body, these chemicals exist and it’s key. It’s a pharmacist that says I want to listen to Chad Cherry’s band and drive really fast down the highway and have a car crash! Or listen to Genesis and want to slow down … Maybe gay out for the night.
C.C. I listen to Depeche Mode when I want to gay out for the evening. I really do. I don’t give a shit.
S.J. I’m being esoteric
C.C. We can be whatever we want.
S.J. I stopped listening to rock music in high school in ’78. Of course Aerosmith, the Nug, Frampton … If ya wanna call him rock. I was listening to all those things but, as time has gone by, I find I try to listen to things that calm me cuz music can tame the savage soul and after 30 years in the film industry … I listen to TLV and I want to drive off a cliff!!! I’m not ready to die … I’m quite certain that I haven’t answered yer question, but that’s all yer gonna get.
C.C. Perfect!
S.J. Come back to L.A. I love yer music! I post it on my wall, you guys rip but I need to see it live, Cherry. It’s the best live!
C.C. We are going to party when I get back.
S.J. This will be a bit dangerous.
C.C. That is how it goes. I can’t wait.
S.J. Awesome. Well maybe you can make sense out of this interview.
C.C. I highly doubt it, but who needs to makes sense anymore anyway. Let’s confuse them with beautiful madness. See you when I rock L.A. again.
S.J. I think we have too much fun! That’s why we are potentially dangerous friends. Skipping hand and hand through the gates of hell.
C.C. Of course. We’re fucked. I can’t wait for you to read this and say “That motherfucker made me sound like a punk!”
S.J. I don’t care if you tell people that I went to Thailand and got a sex change operation … I really don’t care.
C.C. Done.
S.J. There’s yer story …
So check out Mr. Johnson’s youtube channel he has set up to share with all you maniacs. It’s at – stevejohnsonfx’s- This will blow your mind! If you still have one … Take a look at all the madness from its origins and see the craft of a man and his team who actually create the movie monsters and inhuman beasts we love and fear. If you are not into Special F/X, you will be after taking a glimpse at the experience Steve will let you in on.
Oh hell! It looks like I got some blood all over my Lip Service stretch fuck’n jeans … And it’s not Steve’s recipe either … It’s the real McCoy! MMMMmmm that’s good human! Damn, I liked the color of those jeans too, but the red is more suiting for this article, anyway, I guess.
So I’m looking forward to influencing and possibly seducing you into my darkside of rock-n-roll by giving you all ‘On the Road with Stretch Fuck’n Jeans’ blogs Chad Cherry style while I’m prowling around the world with The Last Vegas … Coming soon to a victim like you … Are ya ready?
CHAD CHERRY -crazy rock guy-. XXX www.thelastvegas.com







































































