The horror genre is so vast, it's hard to keep track of the countless people who populate its shady corner of the cinema world. From a renowned special effects icon to one of the original survivors of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," here are some horror legends whose deaths deserved more attention.
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00:00 "The horror genre is so vast, it's hard to keep track of the countless people who populate
00:04 its shady corner of the cinema world. From a renowned special effects icon to one of
00:09 the original survivors of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, here are some horror legends whose
00:14 deaths deserved more attention."
00:18 Prolific producer Charles W. Freese was responsible for many horror gems from the '70s and '80s
00:24 that are finally finding new fans thanks to streaming. During a 25-year span through the
00:28 latter half of the 20th century, Freese, who was also known as the "Godfather of the TV
00:34 Movie," was constantly churning out quick-fire films and juicy after-school specials for
00:38 the small screen.
00:40 He shaped productions that would become cult television hits, including a pre-Euphoria
00:45 1973 teen drama adaptation of Go Ask Alice and hazing horror The Initiation of Sarah,
00:51 which hits like carry with its telekinetic teen outcast. All told, he produced or supervised
00:57 more than 275 hours of telefilms, miniseries, and series before his death in April of 2021
01:04 at the age of 92.
01:06 On the big screen, Freese was behind everything from the 1982 gem Cat People to the 1995 sci-fi
01:13 horror Screamers. Those looking for an introduction need look no further than the pre-Creep Show
01:19 1970s amicus anthologies Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. Picture a killer
01:24 Santa dishing out comeuppance to a gold-digging housewife, or a magic rope getting revenge
01:29 on behalf of its owner, and that's what kind of ride you're in for with just one of Freese's
01:34 enchanting contributions to the genre.
01:37 "Hello, hello, kitties."
01:42 Special effects makeup artist Cleve "Monster Man" Hall was both a staple in FX and a Northern
01:47 star in goth subculture. On any given day in L.A., you might catch him cruising around
01:52 in his cherished 1961 Cadillac S&S Victoria Hearse, inspired by his lifelong love of Hal
01:59 Ashby's 1971 cult classic Harold and Maude.
02:03 Born on June 22, 1959, Hall developed an intense interest in the horror genre, leading to an
02:09 extensive career in practical effects work. He worked on way too many movies to list in
02:14 this one video, but the grim highlights include operating the titular sewage creatures in
02:19 1985's Ghoulies, the nose-picking cousin of Gremlins. He followed that up with a hat trick
02:24 of low-budget, high-entertainment horror and sci-fi hits Re-Animator, Troll, and Terror
02:30 Vision in 1986.
02:32 For the brave and the bold, the nastiest gem of Hall's career would be the 1981 slash-fest
02:38 Nightmares in a Damaged Brain. The movie contained so much blood and dismemberment that it was
02:43 dubbed a "video nasty" in the U.K., and thus pulled from video store shelves. Truly a fine
02:48 achievement for any FX master.
02:51 In 2012, Hall got his own reality show on the sci-fi channel called Monster Man.
02:56 "That's why I'm the Monster Man."
03:00 The show followed Hall and his family as he worked on projects like Two-Headed Shark Attack
03:05 and Big-Ass Spider.
03:06 "Spiders happen to be my speciality. I become a spider to catch a spider."
03:14 Beyond the movies, he made an impact behind the scenes with rock 'n' roll royalty, crafting
03:19 props for horror-inspired musical acts like Kiss, including Gene Simmons' demonic-looking
03:24 chess pieces. You could even say that Hall's work for the band inspired the rumor that
03:29 Kiss stands for "Knights in Satan's Service."
03:32 Hall worked outside of the genre a fair bit, earning a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in
03:37 2008 for his costume design on the beloved children's musical series Yo Gabba Gabba.
03:42 He even played a kaiju, donning the goofy Godzilla suit in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure,
03:47 arguably the best place for horror-phobes to see his work.
03:51 Monster Man died in April of 2021 at the age of 61.
03:56 Those watching the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Netflix will see the return of legacy character
04:01 Sally Hardesty, who was originally played by Marilyn Burns in Tobey Hooper's 1974 game-changer
04:07 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
04:09 In her first leading role, Burns crossed paths with the iconic slasher Leatherface and lived
04:14 to tell the tale, although her character was mad as a hatter by the time the credits rolled.
04:19 She went through hell and put herself through the ringer for that performance. In the documentary
04:24 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Family Portrait, she reportedly requested to really be hit
04:29 during her torture sequences, and even cut her hand on a prop knife.
04:33 Marilyn Burns' Sally Hardesty joins Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode from the Halloween
04:38 movies and Olivia Hussey's Jess Bradford from Black Christmas as one of the original final
04:43 girls and will always have a high place in the slasher pantheon.
04:48 Marilyn Burns' death in 2014 prevented her from reprising the role of Sally in David
04:53 Blue Garcia's new Chainsaw movie, and so Olwen Fuere was cast in her stead.
04:58 While it's wonderful to see mother Marlene from Mandy go blow-for-blow with the Sawyer
05:02 family, it's fair to note that Burns brought a doe-eyed energy to her performance in the
05:07 original film that can never truly be recreated.
05:10 For an under-seen Burns performance, check out Tobey Hooper's 1977 low-budget gem Eatin'
05:16 Alive, which was loosely based on serial killer Joe Ball.
05:19 "Come on out of there. Come look at what old Judd Dunn brought you."
05:25 Burns plays a bright mom with a bad wig named Fay, whose family falls victim to another
05:30 backwoods butcher played by a different genre giant, Neville Brand. Her performance really
05:35 drives home the fact that modern queens Sidney Prescott and Maya from the Indonesian horror
05:40 jam Impetigor owe a tip of the hat to their sister in survival.
05:45 Prior to his death in 2021, at the age of 79, Giannetto De Rossi earned his legendary
05:51 status in horror makeup and special effects by working with a murderer's roll of acclaimed
05:55 directors, including Sergio Leone and Federico Fellini.
06:00 On the horror side, the Roman artist first began with director Lucio Fulci, who was impressed
06:06 with De Rossi's work on Joe D'Amato's erotic film Emmanuel in America, which dove into
06:11 the world of snuff films.
06:14 De Rossi's next project was Fulci's gruesome ode to the undead, Zombie 2, featuring incredible
06:20 practical effects like eye-gouging, throat-chomping, and an epic underwater fight between a zombie
06:25 and a shark.
06:27 De Rossi later worked on two films in Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy. The first was The Beyond,
06:32 and the next was the jugular-stabbing, eye-piercing Gorefest, The House by the Cemetery.
06:38 Later projects include David Lynch's Dune in '84, Peter McDonald's Rambo III, and he
06:43 even designed the Degoth Monster getup for Andre the Giant in Conan the Destroyer.
06:48 A great entry point for new fans would be Alexander Adjah's 2003 New French Extremity
06:53 picture High Tension, in which De Rossi created some of the best SFX of his career.
07:00 [music]