Name: Tom Savini Reveals His Horror Film Secrets | Letterman
Uploaded: 2023-10-25T15:00:35.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Savini Reveals His Horror Film Secrets | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Tom Savini Reveals His Horror Film Secrets | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-25. Transcript available.

My first guest tonight was here once before with some of the most awful-looking
horror film special
effects we've ever seen. He is one of the most sought-after creators of such
effects in the
entire movie industry. His credits include Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow, The
Burning,
and a whole slew of Friday the 13th movies. Please say hello again to Mr. Tom
Savini. Tom,
nice to see you again. Okay. What we're going to look at here tonight is all
stuff you've invented,
you've perfected, you've designed. These are all special effects. These are all
makeup,
and they fall under those two categories, right? Special makeup effects. Okay,
let's just begin.
You show us the first item and we'll go right through the inventory here. Okay,
let's get this
off here. This is Raul. Oh my God. Oh my heavens. Here's our control. What was
Raul used for? Raul was
the specter in the window at the beginning of Creepshow. I don't know if you
saw that, but Raul poked his head
lifted up like that. Various controls there for him?
He's smiling. He's smiling.
Let's get this kid some floss.
Okay, his eyes. That's amazing.
He was. Oh, here it is. What did you lose?
Well, you can move that back and forth.
Okay, what happens here? Just...
Yeah.
What about the other one? What happens on the other one?
Oh, that's empty. There's nothing attached to that. Okay. Now, what is this
made of?
Well, it's a real skeleton. We buy these and they send them to us and the boxes
are labeled
India. They all come from India.
This is an actual human skeleton?
Oh, right, right. It's a real human skeleton. It's very expensive and we made
casts of the
face to sculpt the makeup and...
But isn't... That must be the... We've got laws against that. I mean, isn't it...
Maybe that's why they're from India. I don't know.
They actually...
They actually come from India. Those are actual human bones.
Right.
Now, could you buy a skeleton in the United States legally?
Well, I did buy it here from a company called Carolina Biological in North
Carolina.
But when they send it...
Trade them in a Carolina Biological?
In North Carolina. You can buy...
Better than Bones R Us, I guess.
They have this huge catalog and you can buy...
They have a big catalog.
You can buy tarantulas and snakes, rat lungs.
Rat lungs.
Rat lungs.
Now, why is it better to have the actual thing than just, say, like something
out of plastic or...
Well, they do make plastic ones and they're more expensive than the real bone
ones.
I guess they must cast individual bones to reproduce it in plastic.
But the idea of getting a real one is, see, if we have to bake this in an oven
to...
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Well, we have to do that to secure the latex.
The plastic one would melt.
Yeah.
But the real bone one...
Boy, I would keep an eye on the loved ones, folks.
When, you know...
All right.
Okay.
Tom, that's a very impressive piece of work.
And a little sickening, I might add.
But what else have you got tonight?
Well, here's...
This is a prop from The Burning, I think.
It's an actual bayonet that we've prepared.
Right.
This is how we cut a throat.
See how the...
Ooh-hoo.
Oh, that's amazing.
That's just...
Oh, God.
Ooh-hoo-hoo!
Oh, that's great.
What we do is we pump blood.
You shoot a little through there.
We pump blood through the blade, so when it hits you, the blood squirts out of
the blade.
That's amazing.
Now, this is an example of a really simple idea actually being a very
impressive effect.
What it lets us do is it lets us use the real actor and have the blood gush out
and the actor can react instead of a fake head.
How many real knives did you use before you came upon this idea?
Well, lots of real knives and many fake heads.
That's great.
That's quite an effect.
That's very impressive.
What else, sir?
Well, these...
We're doing a film now called Day of the Dead.
It's the sequel to Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead.
It's Day of the Dead?
Day of the Dead.
Day of the Dead.
Be out for Christmas, I hope.
But this is...
We have to make scores of zombies, so what we do is we sculpt the zombie in
clay and reproduce this foam latex piece.
And this will fit over the actor's face.
Right.
You know, and do something like that.
So, again, that's covered up with flesh-colored makeup and so forth?
This was made from my face.
See, it'll age me.
I can talk.
It'll move and bend.
Is that the kind of thing that you would also put pneumatic things underneath
to make it pulse or something?
Yeah, the foam latex, yeah, because it stretches so nice.
That's what Raul is made out of and some of these other things.
Okay.
What else have we got?
Well, let's...
I'll show you an example of...
Oh, these things here.
These were made from...
Well, just like a mask like this is made from my own face, I made a cast of my
teeth and then built these.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We fit top and bottom.
Right.
Yeah.
So, again, that's not a real complicated effect, but certainly very effective
when you...
Yeah, it's an example of how a small addition can change your whole...
Okay, let's take a look at something else before we have to do a commercial
here pretty soon, Tom.
This is Lizzie.
Lizzie.
Lizzie.
Now, Lizzie does a number of things.
She will wink at you.
Oh, my God.
All right.
What exactly is Lizzie supposed to be?
What went wrong here?
Well...
What was the problem there?
Well, something did go wrong with Lizzie.
Lizzie is from a new TV series on called Tales from the Dark Side.
I directed...
This is the one you directed, right?
Yeah, my episode is called Inside the Closet.
I don't want to give too much away, but obviously there's something in the
closet, and it's Lizzie.
Uh-huh.
She also...
She smiles.
Uh-huh.
She has a winning smile.
Her mouth opens.
Oh, and she also has a remote-controlled device in here that moves her eyes
back and forth like that.
So a combination of all those things and the smile.
She was alive in the episode.
Well, she looks good now, too.
All right, Tom, we've got to do a commercial.
We've got all kinds of other stuff to take a look at here.
We'll be back with Tom Savini.
Hi.
All right.
Now, what are you going to show us now, Tom?
Okay, we're going to actually shoot somebody in the head.
Oh, good.
But first, I'll show you how we do that on a set, okay?
It involves taking a condom.
Now, you need to hold this.
If you'll hold this, I'll fill it with the blood.
I have to put blood in it, okay?
I hold it.
You hold this.
It's a brand new one, okay?
This is, um...
I always get stuck.
I'm stuck holding this.
Okay, now, we'll, uh...
Now, you don't...
You could have used anything else.
No.
It has to be a condom.
No, it doesn't.
It could have been anything, couldn't it?
It could have been a rubber shoe, a boot, or anything.
Well, we buy these by the case,
and so since we had them, I thought we...
Ladies and gentlemen, let me apologize here.
I had no idea.
Okay, now, this is an explosive charge here.
It's electrically operated.
How much now?
Is that actually powder in there?
Oh, sure.
It's smokeless powder.
And how much is in there?
Oh, I don't know.
That much.
But I have to stick this in here.
Tom, try not to get too technical on these, if you will,
so the lay people at home can...
All right, I'd like to stick this in here.
Oh, well, you stick it in there.
No, you have to hold it.
Okay, now, I'll stick this in here.
Now, I'll take it, okay?
Thank God.
Now, if you'll grab that piece of tape there.
Piece of tape?
Okay.
Now, what we do is we twist this until it gets...
If you just tape that across there.
Just like that?
Just like that.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
All right.
Now, there it is.
That is a...
You've built yourself a little explosive device.
Sure.
Okay, now...
Now, when we...
When we look...
If you see wires, leave immediately.
First date, second date, the wires are a clue.
Get out of there.
Okay.
This is our...
Take a cab if you have to,
but leave immediately.
All right.
This is our detonator.
Mm-hmm.
And...
This is our head.
Okay?
Oh, she was...
That guy was here before, wasn't it?
You liked him, so I brought him back.
Okay.
Okay.
Now, this is the squib on the back of the head.
You've got...
Oh, you...
Okay, you've got one of these loaded up back there.
Right.
It's already prepared.
All right.
Now, what I'll do is plug this into the detonator.
Now, if we were on the set, and you would be the actor, you would be required
to point
the gun at the actor wearing the squib, and when you fire the gun, I'll press
the button,
and the blood should blast out of the back of that squib.
Right.
So, what we're looking at here is it would be a tight shot on the head.
No, we're going to try to get both of you in the shot, but, well, they might
shoot a shot
of you shooting in that show.
Yeah, and then a shot out of the head.
Yeah, so on the movie screen, you would see a giant close-up of this...
Forty feet high, and...
All right.
Now, I have the gun here.
These are blanks.
This is connected.
Okay.
We're in number one.
Okay, I'm all set.
Okay, now, this is going to be very loud, isn't it?
Very loud, very loud.
Okay, so, let's all keep that in mind.
It's going to be very loud.
You tell me, would we just...
Why don't we do a ready, set, go, okay?
Okay.
How about a drum roll?
That's always nice.
All right.
What?
A little...
Drum roll.
Oh!
Ready?
Whatever you want.
Set.
Oh, my God.
I think I like that one.
Oh.
Very impressive.
Very impressive.
It's sickening, but it's also very impressive.
Good luck with your movie.
Thanks very much.
Congratulations on directing one.
We get a pause here.
Tom Savini, we'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.
We'll be back at the first night on the vacation.