With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
On paper, this underseen ‘80s horror film has a great setup. A Catholic priest is put in charge of a church when the people in charge previously die off in mysterious ways. As the police investigate the mysterious deaths, the priest is tempted by a beautiful young woman, and the body count rises thanks to a lurking demon. The demon, often taking the shape of a scantily clad red headed woman, targets those in the act of sinning. A religious horror movie that avoids the possession tropes in favor of a demonic creature feature should be more exciting than The Unholy really is. But it has a great cast, led by Ben Cross as Father Michael, and an epic special effect driven finale that almost successfully erases a dull, dragging middle. That finale is the best part, but it bears little resemblance to the film’s original ending that was cut and reshot for theatrical release.
A special effects heavy film, especially the climactic battle of good versus evil, meant makeup designer Isabel Harkins needed someone a little savvier with the effects. She pulled in Jerry Macaluso, who she had previously worked with, to handle the makeup effects design and creation. Macaluso, however, was only 18 at the time, still living at home and finishing high school. He had no experience with the type of effects this project demanded. It didn’t help that he wasn’t given much direction or supervision, other than the instruction to make the demon in the finale as epic and huge as the Xenomorph Queen from Aliens. Production on The Unholy ultimately meant being tossed into the deep end of special makeup effects for teen Macaluso and his small crew.
Macaluso learned the hard way, often after a lot of trial and error, the tricks and tools of the trade. Creating a 10-foot demonic creature meant building a massive fiberglass mold, which he and his team built in a soundstage. The fumes from the fiberglass resulted in a lot of complaints. Even worse, though, was that he very nearly caused the actor playing the monstrous demon to suffer chemical burns. Not knowing any better, he put a tube in the actor’s mouth (so he could breathe) and locked him inside the fiberglass mold with only trash bags as a buffer between him and the hot foam that was poured into the mold to create the rubber suit. Macaluso’s thought process was that this method would ensure the suit fit the actor well, but he didn’t realize how toxic the chemicals actually were. Luckily, the actor wasn’t injured.
By the end of five months of labor and nearly $300,000 spent on materials, special effects director John Dykstra (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) wasn’t exactly pleased with Macaluso’s results. Neither was the test audience. There were many issues that the test screening revealed, and one was the finale. Bob Keen, hot off Hellraiser at the time, was brought in as special visual effects director for the reshoots. With him came new crew members, and the entire film’s visual effects were reworked completely. Because of this, John Dykstra asked to have his name removed from the film. As for Macaluso, he never knew he’d been replaced or that there were even reshoots until he saw the theatrical release. Only a single frame of his work can be seen in the final cut, in which his original demon design lunges at the camera.
The theatrical cut of The Unholy is fun, creature heavy, and did have better creature designs. Macaluso took on too big of a responsibility for his youthful inexperience, but the reality is that The Unholy is so dull of a movie that the entire weight of it unfairly sits on the shoulders of the special effects. It’s the special effects and over the top climactic battle set in a church that makes this worth watching, which means Macaluso was almost set up to fail from the beginning. In the end, The Unholy fits the adage that truth is stranger than fiction.
