Editorials
Master of Monsters: Celebrating the Work of Horror Legend John Carl Buechler
It’s impossible to be an avid horror fan and not be familiar with the work of John Carl Buechler, even if you may not be familiar with the artist behind the work. His passion for genre and the filmmaking process meant that he delivered hundreds of great horror memories over the decades. A special effects and makeup artist that specialized in creature work and design, Buechler also wrote, directed, and acted in movies as well. From the late ‘70s to the present, only a devastating battle with cancer would slow him down from his prolific output in film. A friendly, enthusiastic voice that matched his extensive work ethic in spades, Buechler is gone too soon, but his lengthy filmography has left us with countless movie memories that shaped generations of horror lovers.
If you’re a regular reader of our It Came From the 80s column, then you already are aware of Buechler’s enduring relationship with producer Charles Band, especially during the era of Empire International Pictures. He’s the mind behind the monsters of Ghoulies, TerrorVision, Troll, Cellar Dweller, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, and Dolls. Many of which shaped my own love of horror as a child obsessed with monsters. He also worked on special effects on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Prison, Crawlspace, From Beyond, Re-Animator, Ghost Town, Trancers, and more throughout the years.
While Buechler directed a segment in the anthology The Dungeonmaster in ’84, Troll marked his feature directorial debut followed by Cellar Dweller. Often the productions of these films overlapped, meaning that Buechler was almost always juggling multiple projects at once. He somehow made it seem effortless, despite the insane scope of work involved.
Buechler also brought his expertise to all three major horror franchises in the ‘80s and ‘90s. A special effects artist on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, in which he had a hand on Alice’s aged makeups, the impressive effect of Freddy’s chests of souls, and the humorously grotesque horror soul pizza, this ambitious special effect driven sequel was made all the better by his contributions. He handled the special effects design for Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare with his studio Magical Media Industries, Inc. Then there was Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, made more impressive by Buechler’s role as special makeup effects supervisor and designer. Though Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers has proven divisive, the kills can be downright gory, attributed in part to Buechler.
In Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Buechler stepped into the director’s seat. Having worked with stuntman and stunt coordinator Kane Hodder on previous films like Prison, Buechler wanted Hodder to don the mask of Jason Voorhees, a move that meant Hodder would irrevocably become intertwined with the character. While this sequel has a fun tone overall thanks to the telekinetic protagonist that would battle Voorhees, it was originally much, much bloodier. A lot of the gore and death scenes had to be trimmed to avoid an X-rating. Meaning that while the MPAA dampened Buechler’s vision, it’s clear he understood this series (thankfully a lot of the gore can be found in the deleted scenes of the boxed set).
Hodder and Buechler reteamed again in 2006 in Adam Green’s Hatchet. This time Buechler would be working on the great gore effects and playing the lovable Jack Cracker, while Hodder would assume the role of a modern horror icon in Victor Crowley. The character of Jack Cracker appeared again in Hatchet II, though for a brief, unforgettable scene.
These are just some of the highlights of Buechler’s expansive career. He was a classically trained filmmaker with a degree in fine art, cinema and theater. As much as he loved and gave himself to the art of film, he also gave freely to budding talent in the industry. Many other notable artists working in special effects were given their start by Buechler. All of this to say that Buechler was and is just as important to horror fandom as he is to the people working in horror films. The profound impact he’s had on the genre ripples out so far, and has touched so many, that his presence will forever be embedded in the DNA of horror cinema.
A master of monsters and a genuinely kind person with a contagious sense of humor, John Carl Buechler will be greatly missed.
Steven Spielberg has always been conversant in the cinematic language of the horror genre, despite relatively few credits in the genre. His contributions as a writer and producer on things like Poltergeist are legendary, and films like Duel and Jaws certainly wield the horror genre in remarkable, often chilling ways. He may not be a horror filmmaker, but he knows when he needs to scare us, and he has the tools to make that happen.
I didn’t go into Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s alien epic, expecting outright horror, and indeed the film leans much more into thrilling than frightening. This is not a horror film, but for a few minutes in the middle, much to my surprise, it became one.
Spielberg has filmed more than his fair share of scary scenes over the years, but with Disclosure Day, he directed a new contender for the scariest scene of his entire career.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Disclosure Day!
Josh O’Connor in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Among the various alien secrets laced throughout Disclosure Day are a trio of palm-sized rods, the color of pencil graphite. These rods, originating from another planet, can be used for a number of things, but for the purposes of this scene, the most important is “diving,” gripping the rod in one bare hand and using its power to “dive” into the mind of another person.
The person holding the rod in this scene is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), head of shadowy cybersecurity firm Wordex, who is hellbent on keeping human knowledge of extraterrestrials secret from the general public. Scanlon’s trying to find whistleblower Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), who’s got all of those alien secrets tucked in a backpack while he’s on the run, and while Daniel’s more experienced mind is protected from diving, his girlfriend Jane’s (Eve Hewson) is not. So, monitored by medical personnel at Wordex headquarters (diving is dangerous), Scanlon pushes his way into Jane’s mind to find the location of Daniel’s safe house.
A telepathic invasion is scary enough on its own, but Spielberg doesn’t stop there. When Scanlon dives into Eve’s mind, he appears to her to be sitting across the kitchen table, like he’s in the room. Her bright blue eyes turn Scanlon’s dark brown, and she loses much of her control over her own body, not to mention her mind. Moments before, Daniel finally shared with her the secrets in his backpack, so Jane is shocked, conflicted, deeply vulnerable when Scanlon slips inside her head. This is not just telepathy. This is possession.
Spielberg underscores this not just through the visual language of the scene, as Jane breaks out in a sweat and struggles to sit upright as Scanlon invades her mind, but through Jane’s background. As she revealed to Daniel earlier in the film, Jane is a former novitiate nun who left her convent when she began to question her calling. She still believes firmly in God and, more importantly, believes that perhaps proof of alien life should be kept secret from the public because, in her eyes, it would upset the entire balance of faith in the world. God is a defining factor for humankind, Jane argues, and showing humanity proof of creatures from the stars would undercut that in dangerous ways.
This context, combined with the crucifix necklace Jane’s holding in her hand at the time of the dive, makes this scene the closest thing Spielberg will ever shoot to something out of The Exorcist. It’s not just a battle of wills, but a battle of faith. As an amoral technocrat worms his way into her memories, her beliefs, her faith, Jane turns the crucifix into a weapon, squeezing it until her hand bleeds when she discovers that a pain response can momentarily push Scanlon out of her head.
Of course, when you put a crucifix and a bloody hand together, it conjures images of stigmata. Screenwriter David Koepp pushes the allusion further by having Scanlon quote Christ on the cross to Jane by way of convincing her that she must be the one to stop Daniel by any means necessary.
It’s easy to see why this is scary, right?
On a very basic level, you have a powerful, wealthy man subduing and assaulting an innocent young woman, which is frightening enough. Then, the layers of the scene kick in. Scanlon doesn’t just assault Jane, but possesses her, seizes her memories, her knowledge, and finally her own free will, all while Jane literally clings to her faith in an effort to fight back. Disclosure Day is, among other things, a story about who has a right to the truth, and Scanlon believes that he should be the arbiter of that truth. Not just the truth as he sees it, but the truth as Jane sees it as well. If they don’t see eye to eye, he’ll make her.
But the possession, as it turns out, cuts both ways. Using the rod to dive is, for a normal human being, an intensely strenuous process. Scanlon admits that previous attempts almost killed him, and for some members of his time, so much as touching the rod results in a near-death experience. Even accessing an unprepared mind like Jane’s takes a lot of Scanlon, and when she kicks him out by squeezing the crucifix – again, so much meaning embedded in the details here – his team holds him back and tries to offer medical intervention. But Scanlon persists, pushing them away, and keeps diving back in.
This means that Jane can’t escape him because he just won’t stop pushing back through her defenses, but it also means that each time Scanlon enters her mind, and thus the safe house, he looks more monstrous. By the end, through a combination of lighting and makeup, Firth barely looks human, conjuring up images of the possessed Father Karras at the end of The Exorcist.
Colin Firth (center, standing) in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
On a pure, visceral craft level, all of this is quite frightening, but the real trick to making this scene into Spielberg’s most terrifying lies in the more existential horror surrounding all of this. Disclosure Day is a film about the battle for the truth over extraterrestrials, but it’s also about a fight against an impossibly powerful surveillance state, the devaluing of human and alien lives in favor of some nebulous collection of assets, and the value of the individual in a world that increasingly lumps people into demographic boxes and writes them off.
In this scene, the surveillance state becomes supernatural, a human life is worth less than a piece of information, and an extragovernmental technocrat would rather sacrifice his own humanity than see reason. In 2026, few things could be more terrifying than that. Spielberg knows this and wields it mightily, proving once again that, while he’s not a strictly horror filmmaker, he can direct horror with the best of them.
Disclosure Day is in theaters now.
Eve Hewson (second from left) in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
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