BigList
Login / Sign up
The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed (2001)

The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed (2001)

Documentary
Release Date: 2001, December 11
Countries: United States of America
Production: Paramount Home Entertainment
Cast: John Hurt, Mel Brooks

Overview:

This collage of interviews with the producers, John Hurt, and the makeup man comes off as both interesting and informative. Hurt's recollections about the role and the crazy makeup he worked in, are fascinating, as are the stories about the makeup artist using the real remains of John Merrick archived in the London hospital. A shorter bit has the artist explaining the exact construction of his amibitious makup, and he also narrates a slide show that includes color photos of the finished work. There are some mind-boggling stills of the real Merrick's grotesquely contorted skull, where excess bone seems to have grown like tallow dripping from a horrible candle, or a foaming tumor of excess calcification.