All language subtitles for Smoke.And.Mirrors.The.Story.Of.Tom.Savini.2015.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

♪ ♪

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Official YIFY movies site:
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How do you do?

Mr. Lucas feels it would be
a little unkind

to present this picture to you
without just a friendly warning.

We are about to unfold
the story of Savini.

A man of magic
who sought to create art

after his own imagination,

without reckoning
upon the nightmares

he would give to generations.

It is one of the strangest
stories ever told.

It deals with the many
mysteries of existence.

Life. Death.

Love.

Loss. Sorrow.

And happiness.

I think it will thrill you.

[Snarls, people screaming]

It may shock you.

[Gunshot]

It might even...

horrify you.

[Evil laughter]

So if any of you feel
that you would prefer

not to place your nerves
under such a strain,

now is your chance to, uh...

Well, we warned you.

[Choir vocalizing]

[up-tempo classical music plays]

♪ ♪

He's not your brother anymore.

That's a matter of opinion,

and I don't give a fuck
about yours.

Okay.

What'd you do out there, man?

Well, and to be like
you wanted me to smash you.

I'm not exaggerating,
using colorful speech, Sheriff.

He bit my finger clean off!

♪ ♪

[Grunting]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

You, sir, are a perfect patsy.

Let me shake your hand.

To finish your brother's work.

♪ ♪

[Applause]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Gunshot]Aah!

[Screams]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

["Ode to Joy" by Beethoven plays]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Mid-tempo jazz music plays]

[Indistinct conversations]

♪ ♪

Well, any time you work
with Tom Savini,

you better have your "A" game,

because he brings it
all the time.

McBride:
I'm a humongous fan of his.

I met him last night
for the first time.

It was great.

And sometimes if you meet guys
that you grew up with,

you see them,
and they look extremely old,

and Tom looks like the same
as he has always looked.

That's pretty incredible.

Nicotero: His relationship
with George Romero,

and George's desire
to shock the audience

was accented by Tom's work.

Tom basically made it possible
for me

to make some of those films.

Tom's, like, a living legend.

Tom makes things that
we can only

possibly imagine come to life.

Guy's doing the effects,
and he's acting. He's
a terrific actor.

I always admire people
who did more than one job.

You can't say "horror movies"
without thinking about Savini.

Everything I've done started
because of one movie

and how I was influenced
by my father,

my four brothers, and sister,

and I did it all
while living here in Pittsburgh.

[Film projector whirring]

♪ ♪

When I was growing up,
my dad could do anything.

He was a carpenter, a plumber,
an electrician, a bricklayer,

and a shoemaker,
and many, many more things,

all while working full time
at the steel mill.

I imagine he was so good
at so many things

because, being an immigrant,

he had to be good
at many things to survive.

So I grew up thinking that
you're supposed to do

many things well.

Before I was born,
my mother had five children...

four brothers and my sister.

There's 13 years
between me and my sister.

And she's the youngest
of that group.

So I had four... four fathers,
four big influences on my life.

Henry was the oldest one,
and he was...

He was the...
He was the smart guy.

He had books and books and books
all over the place.

Music, art.
He was a painter.

He was a tattoo artist
and a sculptor. He was...

He was studying to be
a mortician, so, as a kid,

I would see him sculpting
a... a big Egyptian head.

I think he was practicing
restorative makeup.

So he was a big
artistic influence

and an intellectual influence.

The next brother was Sullivan.

♪ ♪

He influenced me as far
as physical fitness goes.

He was a big, muscular guy.

He was in the Korean War.

Then there was Joe.
Joe was a terrific dancer.

When he danced, the whole floor
would clear,

and everybody would watch him.

He also had a great
sense of humor.

He'd put wigs on and false teeth
just to make us laugh.

And after him was Tony.

He's the only brother
that stuck around.

He's the brother
that still lived in the house

with me growing up.

I remember sitting and watching
Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain.

I mean, I was interested
in Mark Twain because Dick Smith

had done Hal Holbrook's makeup.

So, he was a big influence as
far as, you know, sitting around

and, you know,
watching Mark Twain with me.

He was the guy that was into me
being into makeup.

My sister was still there.

My sister had the burden
of raising me.

She was in charge of me from
morning till night, you know,

when she put me in the crib
or in bed at night.

So my poor sister, you know,
had no life

because she was raising me.

My dad was 50 when I was born,
so when I'm 10 years old

and running around the house,
you know,

he's a 60-year-old guy.

When I was a kid,
Sunday paper was important

'cause of the comics, you know.

You had these great
big color comics.

I used to watch my si... sister
sit there

with a sketchbook
and colored pencils

and the comics,
the Sunday comics.

And by the end of the day,
she had copied,

just by looking at them,
in colored pencil,

the Sunday comics.

And you couldn't tell
the difference

between the Sunday comics
and what she was doing.

It was brilliant.
So that gave me an appreciation

of being able to sit there

with a blank page
and create something.

Tony was 28 when he died.

I was 12 or 13.

We're talking about 1959.

He died in the alleyway
next door from a bullet wound.

Tony was going with a bunch
of friends target shooting

and bought a rifle and had it
sitting on the saw downstairs,

and my mother would
hang clothes on the wire.

What we could put together
is, he was reaching for clothes

and bumped it,
and it shot him in the side.

And he come up here and combed
his hair in front of my mother,

who was watching TV,
to show her he was okay,

that nothing was wrong,
you know.

He was gonna go next door
to tell them

to take him to the hospital,
but he passed out in their yard

and bled internally
for about an hour

before they found him, you know.

I can't really recall how
devastating it was back then.

I just have a memory of it.

A lot of bad things
that happened in my life

I can't remember, you know,
specifically.

It's almost like living
in denial.

It's like don't...
I don't acknowledge it

because of any pain that might
be involved in it, you know?

I think that's part of my M.O.

My mother was a huge influence
on me. I mean, I adored her.

You know, she's been gone
for 40 years now,

and it's like, you know,
every now and then,

it'll come back to me of how
important she was in my life.

And she was the one who let me
stay up all night

to watch horror movies after
my dad would make me go to bed.

My mother would let me
sneak back down

and watch horror movies
on the black-and-white TV

when I was a kid 'cause she knew
how much I loved horror movies.

She was the one where I'd be up
in my room

and I'd make myself up as ugly

or some fuzzy
kind of green werewolf

and come down the stairs
as quietly as I could

and stand behind her

while she's watching television
and just wait for her to turn,

'cause she... she could feel it,
and then make her scream.

I, you know...
I feel bad sometimes

of how bad I used to scare her.

But any time I wanted
to go to the movies,

I always had enough money.

And my mother would take me.

I remember my mother taking me
to see "Rodan"

and Godzilla movies at the
Plaza Theater up the street.

♪ ♪

This is where I spent
my childhood.

This was
the Plaza Movie Theater.

I saw "The Creature
from the Black Lagoon"

when it opened here in 1954.

Now it's a "corporate"
coffee house."

It was a travesty
when this place closed.

It was a... It was a movie
theater up till five years ago.

It opened in 1917.

I was a kid
going here in the '50s

and the '60s and the '70s.
You know, even in the '90s.

You know, "Dusk Till Dawn,"
played here,

you know, when it opened.

But now it's gone.

Another house of magic is gone.

Watching television as a kid,
"Father Knows Best,"

you know, all these sitcoms,
I always wondered,

"W-Why is my life
not like that?"

Thinking back on it, you know,
we were poor, we had nothing.

The... I mean, thank God
the movies were only 25 cents,

'cause movies were, you know,
my escape into other worlds

and other families,
other genres.

You know, I loved Westerns, but
I mainly loved horror movies.

I saw a movie called
"Man of a Thousand Faces"

in this theater,
the Plaza Theater,

when I was 12 years old,
and I flipped out.

[Dramatic music plays]

♪ ♪

Before seeing
"Man of a Thousand Faces,"

I thought the monsters
were real.

Frankenstein was real,
the Wolf Man,

Creature from the Black
Lagoon... They were really...

They were real.

That's why they scared me
so much, you know.

I was so afraid of them.

But "Man of a Thousand Faces"

showed me that somebody
creates the monsters.

In the case
of "Man of a Thousand Faces,"

it's Lon Chaney.

But that movie was the catalyst.

That was the springboard for me

pursuing the career
that I have chosen.

From that day on,
I was reading about makeup.

♪ ♪

In the late 1950s
and the early 1960s,

there was a renaissance
of interest in classic horror,

mostly due
to two different events,

one of which
was the availability

to different
local television stations

of a package of films
called "Shock Theater,"

and this happened to coincide
with the launching of a magazine

in 1958 called
"Famous Monsters of Filmland."

I was 12, and I would gather
all the 9-year-olds.

All my friends were, like,
younger than me, the kids.

I would gather them around
to show them,

and we would leaf through
the pages of "Famous Monsters,"

and it was really like
watching "Indiana Jones."

It was spectacular.

It was, like, a big thrill
to see this magazine.

And then, of course,
I would try to make them up

as one of the characters that
we would see in the magazine.

So that was great fun,
except they would go home

with cut throats and
half their hair burned off...

not really, with makeup...

and the parents
were not thinking makeup.

They were thinking,
"Who did that?

"Savini. Well, you can't play
with him anymore."

So, Tom, he was a bit
of a wild kid, you know.

Very rambunctious.

Always entertaining.
He was an entertainer then, too.

Back in the alley, he had
a bunch of kids back there,

and he was entertaining them
doing one thing

or another, you know.

Tom:
I was like the gang leader.

I was like the...
you know, the... the...

the monster guy
in the neighborhood.

That's what it was like,
and I... And I shined shoes...

I was the only white guy shining
shoes in my neighborhood...

to buy a mask or... or makeup.

I still collect masks
from all over the world.

♪ ♪

So, that's basically
my childhood till the age

of, like... I don't know... 14,

when a magician came to town,
Dr. Silkini.

The ads in the local paper said,

"Live onstage, Frankenstein,
Wolf Man, Dracula."

So, naturally, of course,
I went, you know.

And Frankenstein was just a guy
in a mask

that came out after the magician
did a few magic tricks.

Wolf Man was a guy in a mask,
but Dracula was some kid.

Some little kid
my height, my age,

that stood there, you know,
with the cape on,

and that was Dracula.

And I noticed that they picked
this kid from the audience,

so I made sure I was
in the audience next time,

and made sure they picked me
'cause I...

By that time, I had fangs,

I had a cape, had a makeup kit.

You know, I was Dracula
in my neighborhood.

So, I made sure they picked me,

and this is when I learned
about misdirection,

'cause I'm standing backstage
with the cape over my face

and made up with my fangs,
you know,

and... and I'm watching the
audience looking at the stage.

♪ ♪

So I sneaked out and got
as close as I could to them.

And it was... When it was time
for Dracula's entrance,

I ran up to the front row
and spread my cape,

and... and you could see the...
the kids move back in horror.

I had scared them.

It was the first time I'd scared
an audience, you know.

And they saw it, too,
the people running the show.

So they no longer picked a kid
from the audience.

I became part of their troupe.

So, that was my childhood.
14, I got my first job.

They paid me in chocolate
milkshakes and silver dollars

to be Dracula
in this traveling show.

I was in grade school,
and this kid,

he put a cartoon
on the bulletin board,

and it was a guy
tying a package, you know.

And it used to be, you know,
a... a thing

that you did
when you were tying a package.

You would get somebody
to put their finger on the knot.

Well, this guy's nose was so big

that he was using his nose
to hold the knot, tying a knot.

And we all understood
what that meant.

And he wrote "Savini"
with a big arrow

pointing to the guy
with the big nose,

and I didn't even know
I had a big nose until then.

But from that day on,
I was self-conscious

about my nose,
and that affected everything.

That affected my attitude
toward everybody.

I just felt inferior.

That sort of thing prompts
young kids to be better,

or to prove themselves, okay?

So, I had something to prove.

I mean, part of making up
for the inferiority complex,

which was a constant drive
to me, even in high school.

You know, I had to be on as...

doing as many things
as possible.

I was on the track team,
I was on the wrestling team,

I was on the team
that put parties together,

I wrote columns
for the high-school newspaper.

But the greatest thing was the
theater, being in the theater.

When you're on-stage in
the theater and playing a part,

you're not you anymore...
to them or to yourself.

You're the lead dancer
in "Guys and Dolls."

You have a dancing solo
with this gorgeous woman.

I mean, that's what got me
adulation

from my peers in high school.

Before we made
"Night of the Living Dead,"

we were gonna make a...
a very sort of high-toned

little romantic film
set in Medieval times

called "The Wine of the Fawn."

So we went around
to high schools

to look at high-school plays,

and the young actor
that we liked the best

was Tom Savini,

who was in a high-school play
at the time.

So we talked about making
this movie, and, of course,

the movie never happened.

And the big deal at the time
was Saturday night.

Saturday Night
"Chiller Theater."

You know, Bill Cardille...
"Chilly Billy Cardille-y"...

would host and interrupt
in the commercial spaces,

you know, the horror movies.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I absolutely grew up watching
Chilly Billy

on "Chiller Theater,"
and his crazy cohort.

It's so hokey now.
I thought it was great then.

But when you look back on it,
they didn't have any effects,

and it was him in a tuxedo
in a...

in a dinky little television
station up on the hill.

Tom: You looked forward
to Saturday night

and seeing those horror movies,
you know,

on... on "Chiller Theater."
I, you know...

That's where you were.

Every Saturday night,
you were guaranteed to be home

watching Chilly Billy Cardille-y
on "Chiller Theater."

You know, I would make up
friends and get in the car

and drive up to Channel 11

and knock on the big glass door
with a monster on a chain,

and they'd come out,
and they'd go "Oh, shit, yes!

Come in here."

And they would put me on
with Bill Cardille.

There was this young kid.

Turned out it was Tom Savini.

And he was very quiet.
He still is quiet.

Tom: Eventually Bill Cardille
would call me.

He said, "I'm appearing at a
drive-in, you know, next week.

You wanna come?
And bring some monsters."

Which I did.

Or there was a huge
Halloween parade downtown.

There still is.

I would make up monsters and be
on the float with Bill Cardille,

a big banner that said,
"WIIC Channel 11," you know,

and I would do
the Phantom of the Opera,

Werewolf, and Frankenstein,

and they would be on the parade
with Bill Cardille.

So he would be surrounded
by monsters, you know,

and he was a famous guy
to everybody back then.

You know,
Chilly Billy Cardille-y.

♪ ♪

In my senior year
in high school,

the topic of conversation
among everybody was

"What are you doing?
What college are you going to?"

Well, I wasn't going to college.
I had no plans to go to college.

My brother Joe was
living in California,

so I just told everybody,
"I'm going to Hollywood

after high school and, you know,
be in the movies."

You know? Okay.

So, after high school,
there's a knock on the door.

It's my brother Joe.

He had divorced his wife, and
he had come back to Pittsburgh,

so that dream didn't happen.

I went off to some...
I went off to Penn State

and became a dishwasher
in a diner

that he was a cook at.

But then I met this girl,
and she picked out the college

for me... Point Park University.

Picked out my major...
journalism,

I did it for her, you know.

She was going off
to Mercyhurst College,

and I had to be going to college
if I'm gonna be with her.

Of course, as soon as she left,
she met a football player,

and I got
a "Dear John" phone call.

I was in college. There was
this girl sitting there,

and she was, like,
falling asleep at the table,

and I was at a vending machine,

buying a cup of coffee
or something.

So I went over, and I put
the coffee in front of her.

I said, "Here, you need
this more than I do."

And that began the relationship
with Charlene,

my first wife.

You know, we started dating.
She got pregnant.

And I enlisted in the Army
to support us.

That baby, her... her parents
made her give up for adoption,

who, later on in life,
35 years later,

you know, I got a phone call
from her

searching for her parents,

and when she found out
it was me, it was amazing

'cause she was a fan of mine
and here she is my daughter,

and she couldn't believe it,
okay?

Her name is Audrey.

This blew my mind when she
came back without the baby,

'cause that's why I enlisted
in the Army... to support us.

♪ ♪

[Rock music plays]

♪ ♪

I didn't have it as bad
as the guys in the front line.

Those guys would come
into our base camp, you know,

and they... And they were scary.

There was something...
something missing.

You know, the eyes
are the window to the soul.

They were soulless.

These are the guys
on the front lines.

They were seeing and doing
the really horrible shit.

My job was just to photograph
it when it was over, you know.

To exist in that environment,

you have to turn off
your emotions.

And don't forget...
I'm this little Italian kid,

you know,
reading "Famous Monsters,"

and now suddenly
you're... you're plummeted,

you're plunged
into this real-life,

horrible situation of war,
you know, where people are...

If they walked out of the woods,
they want to kill you.

Your emotions don't just
turn right back on.

You're forced to turn them off
to psychologically save yourself

in that sort of an environment,
and that's what I did.

I also felt a safety
behind the camera.

And I also felt, looking
at horrendous gore,

I mean, guys blown apart
with grenades

and arms lying on the floor,
you know, and head wounds...

You know, I remember
looking at them like,

"How would I do that?"

These are special effects.

When you're in Vietnam,
after 6 months,

you're entitled to R&R,
rest and recuperation.

I went to Hawaii to meet
my then wife.

But when I came back, they put
me on the worst duty possible...

30 days of guard duty,
which means there's the trees,

and if they're coming,
you're the first contact.

So, it's 4 guys...
me and Morales

and two guys asleep above
in a bunker

made of sandbags with a roof.

And you would take shifts,
2-hour shifts,

and there were
7 of these bunkers.

In front of every bunker,
there was a trip wire

in the front and on the sides,

so if somebody bumped it,
a flare would go off.

If somebody cut it...
they were spring-loaded...

a flare would go off.

Now, if you saw a thousand
Vietcong running at you

from the woods, you had
to call the command bunker,

and the officer in the bunker
would come up

with a nightscope,
and if he saw them,

he would have to call battalion
to get permission to fire.

You were not allowed to open
fire just randomly like that.

So, 3:00 in the morning, the
Chinook helicopters would go by

firing 600 rounds a second
or a minute or something,

and it was a wall of red

because of how many tracer
rounds were going by.

And once that happened,
you realized there could be

nothing out there anymore,
and you could relax.

So, 3:00 in the morning,
I'm on duty,

and my trip flare goes off
right in front of my bunker.

And I immediately open fire
with an M60 machine gun.

Morales unslings his gun,
and he's opening fire.

The two guys above wake up,

and they're setting off
Claymore mines.

Trees are falling over.

All the bunkers open fire
in front of my bunker.

[Machine-gun fire]

♪ ♪

[Duck quacking]

And it was a duck, okay?

Now, you can see a caravan
of jeeps coming from battalion,

and they're coming to me,
'cause I opened fire

without alerting the officer.

Now, a general gets
out of the jeep.

I remember looking
at the stars on his collar,

and I-I can't talk,
I'm so nervous, you know.

He calls me down.

He says, "Why did you
open fire?"

I said, "My trip flares
went off, sir."

"Yeah, I guess I would've
opened fire, too.

What was it?"

I said, "It was a duck, sir."

He said, "Did you get it?"

I said, "No, sir,
the duck flew away."

We covered every square inch
of dirt

out there with something...
shrapnel,

a bullet, grenade, you know,
but the duck got away.

So he said, "Alright, next time,
challenge it,"

which means, you know, "Halt.
Who's there?"

You know.
Quack, quack!

Alright, so, they took me off
guard duty,

and the rest of my time
in Vietnam,

I was called the "Duck Slayer."

But the next night,
we were attacked.

That line of bunkers
was attacked.

I wasn't there.
Guys died.

G.I.s died in those bunkers.
A Viet...

My job was to go out
the next day

and photograph
the Vietcong bodies.

But the duck saved my life,
as far as I'm concerned,

and that's why I never eat duck.

And the people were just
beautiful in Vietnam.

Men held hands. It wasn't
a homosexual thing.

It was a friend thing.

The countryside was lush,
like Ireland or something.

You know, it was just, what...
what are we doing here?

Why are we just bombing
and destroying, you know?

I walked into a small village,

and there was a Pepsi-Cola
bottling plant sitting there.

And, to me, it was like, "Aha!

That'swhy I'm here."

It was business.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

When I came back from Vietnam,
Lon was born.

We got stationed
in North Carolina.

Coming back from Vietnam,
you know, I was a zombie.

I... There was no emotion
alive in me.

I had to turn off the emotions,

and it's something
that you do for...

you know, to survive mentally.

A lot of guys, I guess,
couldn't do that.

I mean,
post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Maybe I had that.
I don't know.

So, Charlene and I divorced,

and eventually she married
a friend of mine.

They left and took Lon
with them to Florida.

And, you know, back then,
it was a big deal

because, you know, as...
I visited Lon

and hung out with him
as much as I could.

Lon: As I got older and,
you know,

understood more about movies,
and horror movies,

and my mom would
tell me more about Tom,

and, you know, I wanted to know
more about him, and...

so she opened that door up,

so I could communicate
with him more,

and then we... You know, we got
to know more about each other.

Probably towards the middle
of high school

and toward the end
of high school,

and obviously throughout
my naval career,

much closer to him, you know,
call him all the time,

talking, e-mailing
once e-mail became a thing,

and, like I said, going to visit
him at the conventions

around the country to be
also with him then.

So, our relationship is not
a close father/son relationship,

but we have stayed in touch.

♪ ♪

My marriage went in the toilet

because I was an emotionless
person coming back from Vietnam.

And it was a movie.

It was a movie
that brought my emotions back.

I went one night with my ex-wife
to see "Midnight Cowboy."

And when Dustin Hoffman died
in that, I went berserk.

I hys... was crying hysterically
in the movie theater.

Part of it was the character
that Dustin Hoffman was playing,

and that he died
and it was a sad movie,

but I think most of it was,
this was all pent-up,

you know, for a year or two,
and this was the release.

I finally released
all the emotion

I was holding back from Vietnam.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I never thought about this
until just this second...

What a fateful move that was,
you know.

We walked... One night,

we walked
into the local live theater,

the Fayetteville Little Theater,
and a play was going on,

and that became my life.

[Piano plays, whistle blows]

♪ What else
do the simple folk do? ♪

♪ That once there was
a fleeting wisp of glory ♪

♪ Called Camelot ♪

[Singing indistinctly][Applause]

♪ ♪

In fact,
when I got out of the Army,

a year and a half
after we got there,

I stayed 7 more years.

There were 3 theaters.

I was the makeup director
for all 3 theaters.

So, a typical night, any night,
almost every night,

was me going and doing
the makeup on everybody.

You know,
if it was "Fiddler on the Roof,"

I was doing the beards
on everybody

and then playing a part,
doing the acrobatics, you know,

or changing and being...
becoming a Jew

with the payots and the hat
and doing a dance.

The bottle dance
with the bottle on my head.

A typical night, you know,
playing Charlie Brown,

playing Thoreau,
playing Ben Franklin

after a 3-hour makeup job,
you know.

So that was years of making
myself up and everybody else,

but I always made them up,

and myself, for the mirror,
not for the stage.

You can get away with murder
on the stage

because of the... the distance
the audience is from you

and the lights, you know,
their effect on your skin,

but I always made up
my characters

and every other character

so it was realistic
to the mirror.

♪ ♪

I was in a bar.
I don't drink,

but I was delivering signs
to the bar that I had painted.

And there was
an interesting-looking guy

sitting there with a big
cowboy hat on and a... a beard,

and we started talking, and
he... he was the art director

on "Children Shouldn't Play
with Dead Things."

He said, "Yeah, we're shooting
a movie shortly coming up

called "Deathdream."

And I had my portfolio
in the car.

I showed him my portfolio.
3 days later,

I was doing my first movie
in Brooksville, Florida,

assisting Alan Ormsby
on "Deathdream."

Now, the next film
they did was in Canada,

called "Deranged."

But Alan directed that,

and then I was the key
makeup guy on that.

And that was around 1972.

And then, like, 6 years went by.

I was just doing plays,

and then I decided to take
advantage of the G.I. Bill,

'cause you only have 7 years
after you get out of the service

to take advantage
of the G.I. Bill.

So I-I came back here
and auditioned

at Carnegie Mellon University.

Showed them my portfolio,
and I went back to Carolina.

I was doing a play,
and I got a... a telegram

that said,
"We're pleased to announce

that you've been accepted
in the acting/directing program

at Carnegie Mellon University.

We're also pleased to announce

that you will teach
Tuesdays and Thursdays."

So I got a full scholarship

teaching
at Carnegie Mellon University

and going to school
as an acting/directing major.

And I heard that Romero

was gearing up to do
another movie...

a vampire movie called "Martin."

We were gonna make "Martin,"
and, all set to go,

and Tom came off the elevator
one day

and literally
stepped off the elevator,

which was... opened right
into our front office there,

and cut his arm open
and fell down.

And at first,
I didn't recognize him.

I didn't know
what this was about.

But he jumped right up and said,
"Remember me? I'm Tom Savini."

So, I wound up doing
the makeup effects on "Martin,"

playing a part,
and doing the stunts.

And then I went back to Carolina
and was doing a play,

"The Lion in Winter," and got
a telegram from George...

"Start thinking of ways
to kill people."

And it was... He said,

"We're doing a sequel
to 'Night of the Living Dead.""

Took a leave of absence
from school to do

"Dawn of the Dead"
and haven't been back since.

[Ominous music plays]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Woman: Tom Savini is one
of the best in the field.

His job is to scare you
out of your wits,

and he's been
quite successful at it.

In the '70s, when Tom Savini
and George Romero

began working together,

they became heroes
of independent cinema,

at least a good decade or more
before independent cinema

became the sort of label
that people would toss around.

These guys were real mavericks
and auteurs.

Tom was really creating
the whole on-screen genre

right there
in "Dawn of the Dead."

Tom was there at the beginning
of the modern horror movement.

I mean, it started with...

He'd worked with George Romero
on "Martin,"

and then there was
that one-two punch

of "Dawn of the Dead"
and "Friday the 13th,"

which was sort of
the big explosion

that started the whole
splatter movement.

I mean, there had been films
like "Halloween"

and "Black Christmas" before,

but it was really
"Friday the 13th,"

which was a... sort of
a quasi-independent film

distributed by a major studio

with Tom Savini's incredibly
realistic effects...

It just started a whole
new mini-industry

for the next 5 years.

On the way up to
"Friday the 13th,"

we stopped at Dick Smith's
house in Larchmont.

He was way out there.

And, you know,
Tom and I were going, "Wow."

The ideas... You know, the
lightbulbs were just going off.

And the most important thing
was,

he gave us the blood formula,

because in "Dawn of the Dead,"
we just used 3M blood

and something from Germany,

and it just looked
like red paint.

It was terrible.

And so, there it was,

the formula for making
realistic-looking blood.

From then on, we had that,
and so, you know,

that just changed
everything, too.

People wanted to go to the
movies because Tom's effects

and his work propelled him
and elevated him into

sort of marquee status.

McBride: Growing up in the '80s,
the, you know...

Horror was the genre
I loved the most

when I was a kid,
so I just think...

Yeah, he just found a good way
to bring the gore and...

and cool effects to movies that
I grew up on. It's awesome.

His effects, his makeup effects
and everything, were just...

There was... There was a realism
to it that now took the film

and elevated it into something
that it wasn't

if those effects weren't there
or if they were done poorly.

And I did feel like an assassin.

I would load up my car
with my tools

and go to some strange place
and kill people, you know?

And the teenagers loved it.

Like, in "Friday the 13th,"
the teenagers would come up,

you know, and,
"How am I gonna die?"

They were so... They wanted...

They were so excited about
how they were gonna die.

And the juicier, the better.
The gorier, the better.

[Ominous music plays]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Feldman: I'm sure there's
probably very seldomly been

that much blood used
in one death scene ever again.

I mean, I think it was, like,
gallons and gallons of blood

that they used
on that one scene.

Here, I am, like, a kid.

I mean, I think about this now,

and it's like,
this is so deranged,

but I'm a kid,
and I'm watching this thing

literally saw through this guy's
skull, through his cranium,

and he's, like,
laying on the floor,

and obviously it's not
a real person,

but I don't even know that,

because, like, last thing I see
is, like, you know, Ted White

walking around with, like,
a machete stuck into his head.

And I'm just like, "Oh, my God,
this is

the most gruesome thing ever,"
and blood just spurting

everywhere,
everywhere, everywhere.

The one thing that I do remember
specifically

is that when Joseph Zito, the
director, introduced me to him,

he introduced him
in the context of, you know,

"We're very lucky
to have this guy.

It's a really big deal
that we've got this guy

'cause he's kind of, like,
a legend,

'cause he created
the first Jason,

and he's a big deal
to the franchise,

and your character
is loosely based on him."

So I was told that, actually,
in the beginning.

When I looked in the mirror
and saw the finished product,

it was hard to believe.

And those of us
that saw the film,

I believe, would understand
exactly why.

I mean, the face was
so contorted, with one eye

and the teeth and so forth.

It was a wonderful makeup job.

I-I was thoroughly pleased
with what it looked like.

Berger: His tricks of the trade
always fooled me, you know,

and that's what I-I liked best.

I just couldn't figure it out,
and...

and everything he... he does
is very simplistic.

It's... It's all magic
essentially,

you know, and common sense.

And I think that's why...

I always expected things to be
more complicated than they were,

and that's always what fooled me
about Tom Savini's stuff, is,

I'm like, "Shouldn't...
Shouldn't it be a puppet head

and this and that?"

"It's just a wedge
cut out of a... a fake machete,

and we pulled it out
in reverse."

I went to do
hair and makeup tests,

and it was very standard makeup,
and I looked very attractive.

And it just felt very glamorous,
and I thought,

"Oh, this is great."

But then Tom showed up,
and the first thing I noticed

was, Tom was
really good-looking.

The artistry that goes
into this,

it isn't just about
blood and guts and...

and bones and, you know, body
parts and things like that.

It requires a genuine artistry.

He has an impressive body
of work

because of his artistic talent.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

You know, I've always been
in love with magic,

ever since my first job
when... with Dr. Silkini,

watching Dr. Silkini
do the magic tricks

and learning backstage

how he did them made me
fascinated with it,

and that...
Wanna see a magic trick?

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

See how easy it is?

And then, of course, you know,
that led to the way

I think about makeup effects.

As you know, my books
are called "Grande Illusions"

'cause I think of makeup effects
as magic tricks.

I'm doing the same thing
a magician does...

I'm fooling you to think that...

to believe that what you're
seeing is really happening,

just like a magician does.

So... So, illusions and magic.

And people have said
this about my stuff,

"Tom is a stage magic person,

and he incorporates
that into his effects."

I mean, he could pull things
out of his butt, you know,

and at the last minute
if we needed to.

There was a sequence
where we needed to invent

a zombie
that wasn't in the script

because we needed to cover
a continuity error.

And so, okay, we said,

"We'll have a zombie jump out
and grab this guy."

Then we had to kill the zombie.

So, you know, I said to Tom,

"How are
we gonna kill this zombie?"

[Snaps fingers] Bing.
I mean, within 5 minutes,

he came back with a screwdriver,
and he...

and a soda straw painted silver,

so that the... the screwdriver
collapsed into the soda straw,

and it looked like
the screwdriver

went into the zombie's ear.

And it's one of the most
effective moments in the movie.

Tom: Yeah, I mean, I had a...
You know, I had a reputation

when I was doing effects
for getting a lot done

with very little money.

And I was resourceful.

I could use, you know,
household stuff.

So I had a reputation for...
for... for getting a lot done,

and I think it was
because of growing up poor.

You know, you had to use,
you know...

make the best of what you had.

That was it. Make the best
of what you had.

Tom was literally the one guy
who became a household name.

I mean, there were people
that you would never imagine

that would know
who he was that knew,

"Oh, my God, Tom Savini.
That's the guy that did

'Dawn of the Dead.'
That's the guy that, you know,

blew up a head with a shotgun,"
or... or this or that.

[Gunshot]So, I was doing one bloody movie
after another,

and it was always gallons
and gallons

of, you know, fake blood,

but I wanted to do the monsters
and the creatures.

And... And... And I was lucky
enough that "Creepshow"

came along, where I could
do monsters like Fluffy,

characters like Nate's corpse.

And it's also interesting
to look at Tom's body of work,

you know,
going from stuff like that,

from, like, "Dawn of the Dead"

and then you look
at "Creepshow,"

and that was really
a giant leap for Tom,

I think, in terms of the amount
of work and the type of work.

You know, Fluffy is...
It was, I think,

the first, like, real creature

that he... he had
to make from scratch, you know.

And... And there's a lot
of great stuff in "Creepshow."

I think that's still...

If I had to pick my favorite
Tom Savini movie,

I would have to say
it would be "Creepshow."

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

The thing I really love
about Tom...

and I think everybody
who's ever worked with him

loves about Tom...

is his boundless enthusiasm.

He absolutely loves
making movies.

He loves doing
his special makeup effects.

He just loves being there
and... and... and...

and doing it
in whatever capacity.

He did the special effects, and
he really was like nobody else.

He was a rock star
in that industry.

No one since has
really achieved that status.

No one ever will.

I mean, he came onto the scene,
and he just blew people away.

You just were like,
"Whoa, this guy's a madman,"

and then when you find out
who he is,

he's such a cool personality,
that he has.

He's... He's just a cool guy,
right?

He's the full package.

[Rock music playing softly]

♪ ♪

["Be Chrool to Your Scuel" plays]

♪ ♪

It was, you know...

You know, back then, everybody
was pushing the envelope,

you know, to see what...
what we could get away with.

Here... Here's a new medium,
you know.

This... This video.

Well, what...
Well, what can we do with it?

♪ ♪

Now, here we go.
We get the whole new...

the whole new media
to work with and a budget

and, you know.

So it's kind of like,
let's see what we can do.

Dee Snider was the same thing.

He was another one of the guys
that...

that went to horror movies
every Saturday, you know.

So when he got Savini
and everybody like that,

then it was... It was one of
those things that all worked in

pretty perfectly.

♪ ♪

Tom:
I was the King of Splatter.

That's one of the names
they associated with me,

'cause I was doing "The Prowler"

and "Maniac," "The Burning,"

"Friday"... two "Friday the
13th" movies in... in the '80s,

"Part 1" and "Part 4."

And, you know, it was great fun.

I mean, I wasn't crazy about
having this, you know,

'cause what happened was people
thought that I loved gore,

which is not true.

People think I'm this
hideous monster maker.

People who really know me
just think I'm a pussycat.

♪ ♪

[Cheers and applause]Thank you.

My first guest tonight was here
once before with some

of the most awful-looking
horror film special effects

we've ever seen.

He's 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. Thank you

[Cheers and applause]

I used to videotape shows back
when VCRs first came out,

and he was on
the "David Letterman" show

talking about "Creepshow"

and some of the other stuff
he had done.

I used to tape it
and watch it over,

just watching his personality
and how... how funny he was

and showing his innovations
and makeup.

And everybody was just amazed,
you know.

Even... And even showing him
how... how he did it.

It was amazing
how he figured that out.

He would talk about using things
like Rice Krispies and textures

to... to give flesh
a certain look and feel.

It was just, like, you know,
just very, very inventive.

♪ ♪

You know, I never thought about
it until you said that, yeah.

You don't see Rob Bottin
or Rick Baker or Dick Smith

on the "Letterman" show.

And, you know, back then,
I never thought of it.

I never thought about,

"Other effects guys
haven't done that stuff."

That's interesting.

This is the first time
I've even thought of that.

That, as a makeup effects guy,
I was on the "Letterman" show

promoting "Day of the Dead,"
"Friday the 13th."

This is flabbergasting.

[Screaming]

[Laughter, light applause]

There you go.
[Laughs]

Alright. Okay.

Okay.
Alright.

Now, what... Now, what about...

I saw you have
a tiny little daughter.

Would you let her go to see
some of these awful,

disgusting films
that you... you produce?

No. No.

Does she see all this stuff
laying around the house?

Oh, they're on the dresser.
She plays with all the monsters.

In fact, she's... Yeah. Oh, brother.

Lia:
Growing up, my favorite movies

were definitely anything
with a darker side.

"Interview with the Vampire,"
for one,

was one of my favorite movies
as a child,

which was absolutely abnormal

because my dad took me
to see it in the theaters,

and everybody's just
looking around like,

"What... What is this guy doing
in here with this little girl?"

Cooper: The first time I went
to his house,

his little girl was only,
5, 6 years old?

Little pink dress and pigtails
and the whole thing.

And she's showing me
around the basement.

And her favorite thing
was the anatomy book

or the book with all
the accidents in it,

you know,
the horrific accidents,

and... and... and the mutations
and things like that.

"Oh, look at this one here!
Look at this, this one here."

And I'm looking at her, going,
"This is a movie right here.

This little girl
in the basement."

Could be better in some ways,
actually.

I wasn't as scared
of a lot of things

that a normal child
probably would be.

No boogeyman... my father
wasthe boogeyman...

type things, so...

♪ ♪

Tom: So, I'm at the peak
of the splatter decade,

which was my decade.

I had just had
my daughter Katarina.

I'd married Nancy.
My daughter Lia was on the way.

And I'm... I'm here in my dad's
house, taking care of my dad.

My dad, it was
just humorous to him.

I mean, after my first paycheck,
my dad was floored

'cause it was more money
than he was able to save

in the entire, you know,

32 years
of working in a steel mill,

and he became very supportive.

He would come down. I would have
6 guys working in my basement

on "Day of the Dead," you know,

sculpting zombies, you know,
creating all these appliances,

generic appliances for zombies,
and he would come down.

You could just tell on his face,
the big smile on his face,

that this was something
totally alien to him,

but entertaining to him.

In fact, he turned... He turned
his workshop in our basement

in the house
into a workshop for me.

Built the tables, you know.

But he...
But he was always like that.

Growing up,
I would look at my dad

sitting in
the living-room chair,

and I wanted so bad
to go over there

and just
tell him how much I loved him.

I never did.

But I remember so many times
wanting to do that.

I would walk over to the door,
look out the window, and say,

"Okay, I'm gonna turn around,
walk over to my dad, hug him,

and tell him how much
I loved him."

Well, it never occurred
like that,

but it did occur the day
before he died, thank God.

Went to visit him
in the hospital,

and we hugged, and I told him

I loved him,
I kissed him on the cheek.

He had pneumonia,

but that caused him
to have a heart attack.

So I ran into the hospital
with Nancy, my wife,

and we saw him sitting there,

and he kind of waved
a little bit, you know,

and then we went and waited.

Half an hour later,
the nurse came out,

the doctor or somebody,
and said, "You know, he's gone.

We couldn't save him."

So I sat there with my dad,
and they were there,

and they... We were all
going to the house,

and I said,
"I'll be there later."

And I just sat with my dad
for, like, 3 hours.

Just sat with him,
staring at him,

and recalling all the things
that we did.

And I was able to study him,
you know, having just died,

in how he turned gray
and then...

first yellow, and then gray,

and it was only...
You know, I just...

And I needed to do that

because when I left,
this thing was no longer my dad.

I would just sneak around
with a video camera

and videotape him
from my bedroom in the yard.

You know,
I have him in the winter,

you know, with a big coat on,
digging up the garden.

As it got warmer, spring would
come in, he'd have a sweater on.

Always smoking his pipe
and planting stuff.

And then, in the summer,
with no shirt, watering.

The garden was a big deal
to him.

He grew cantaloupes
and cucumbers.

This was all in our backyard,
you know.

So I would videotape him
doing that,

or, through the kitchen window,
making, you know,

ravioli or something.

So I have hours and hours
of footage of my dad

being my dad.

So whenever I want my dad,
all I've got to do

is put in the videotape,
and there he is.

♪ ♪

[Film projector whirring]

[Screams]

♪ ♪

[Zombie groans]

♪ ♪

[Screams]

Night of the Living Dead.

I keep reading,
"Tom Savini's gonna be doing

the very ill-advised remake
of 'Night of the Living Dead.'

It's preposterous.
It can't be.

It's... It's... You know,
it's a story. It's a movie."

Man: The screenplay is done,
or it's in a first draft?

The screenplay
is definitely done.

It's very... It's unique.
You'll... He had...

It's the same original story
with lots of twists and turns,

and characters do different
things and have different roles.

I ran over.
It was a Saturday.

I ran over
to the production office,

and I happened to catch Tom.

I knew what he looked like.
I knew who he was.

And I lit... I'd never done this
in my entire career,

I literally body-blocked him
and said,

"Man, you gotta... You gotta
read me for this thing."

He says... He tried to act like
he even wasn't making a movie.

He says, "What thing?"
And I said, "Your movie."

He says, "You know about the
movie?" I said, "Yeah, man.

If we work together,
you're gonna know a lot of me."

He said, "Well, we're
almost done with it."

I said, "You gotta read me."

And I jacked him up.
You know, verify this.

I grabbed him,
and I said, "You gotta read me."

He says, "You've got 5 minutes
up here. Come on in."

What he didn't know
was that I knew

most of the original dialogue
verbatim,

and I knew who Ben was.

So he let it be known to me
and everybody around

that this was the guy.

Tom called me up and said,

"Hey, I'm doing
'Night of the Living Dead, '

and I'm gonna send you a script,

and I want you to pick
any part you want."

So I called Tom up and said,
"Yeah, man,

I want to play...
I want to play Harry,

the guy in the basement."

And Tom said, "Pick any part,
just make sure it's Johnnie."

♪ ♪

Only: You know, I remember
George telling me stories

of how he borrowed $100,000

to make
"Night of the Living Dead,"

and then Tom remade it,
and, you know, it's...

In... In my opinion, it's the
most shocking film out there,

you know, so...

Well [Clears throat]

"Night of the Living Dead"

wasn't a very good experience
for me.

For one thing, I wanted to shoot
in this glorious cemetery.

3 blocks from my house.

I spent my childhood
in this cemetery,

riding my bicycle through here,
walking through here,

jogging through here.

I really wanted to use this,
but, I mean, enh...

I understand the consideration.

It would've been a move from
Washington, P.A., to this place.

It would've been... Maybe it
would've been expensive.

But, also, I didn't know
when the movie started,

that, 2 weeks into it,

I would be in the middle
of a divorce, you know.

And that really wreaked havoc
on my mind. I, you know...

You know, you really need
all your concentration

when you're directing a movie,
and even more so.

But I was worried about
the divorce,

losing my daughter, you know,
but I had to...

had to be there,
and they kept slapping my hand.

George wasn't there.

If George was there,
it would've been a blast,

'cause George and I, you know,

we click, we get along,
you know.

And I really wanted
to please George.

I wanted to impress him
with what I was doing.

And the few things I did get to
do, the censors cut it out.

Every exit wound... Every time
there was a head shot,

they cut the exit wound.

So the movie was sterile
compared to the bloodbath

that you might expect
with George Romero

and my name on the film.

♪ ♪

[Gunshot]

So, the movie
is really maybe 30% or 40%

of what I intended to do.

There were so many things that I
didn't get to do in that movie.

An example would be, you know,
when Tom goes to the gas pump.

I wanted him to catch on fire,
and I wanted his flaming body

to go near the gas cap
of the truck,

and... and that's what makes
the truck blow up.

And there would've been
a... a sequence in there

where his girlfriend
is in the car, you know, and...

but he's on fire, so it's like,
"Oh, honey, but you're on fire."

You know? Her boyfriend's
coming at her on fire, so...

I thought
that would've been cool.

And there were some suspense
things that I wanted to do.

For example,
my end game to the film,

when Barbara goes back
to the farmhouse, you know,

was to have her see something
in the upstairs window.

And she thinks it's Ben,
so when she goes in the house,

she doesn't just go
into the kitchen.

She goes right up to the attic,
and thinking Ben's up there.

But when she goes up there,
we see Harry.

And Harry sort of retreats
behind this full-length mirror.

And now I have a two-shot
of Harry and Barbara...

Harry for real,
Barbara in the mirror.

So we stay on this shot as Harry
retreats behind the mirror,

and her reflection
raises the gun.

With her reflection in
the mirror, she fires the shot,

the mirror, of course, shatters,
you know,

and now we see
Harry's point of view

as he's falling to the floor
after being shot.

And the last thing he sees
when he looks up

is Barbara's distorted image
in the mirror.

And so,
she says her famous line,

"Here's another one
for the fire,"

and she sees them drag
Harry and Ben out to the fire.

And they put Harry and Ben
in the fire face-to-face,

and the end credits was them
burning into nothingness.

♪ ♪

It's been many years later.

I'm getting a lot of great
compliments about the film.

I went to a... I went to a
midnight showing. I did a...

I went there at 11:00
to the Q&A beforehand.

I wasn't gonna watch the movie.

But I sat down and watched it,
and it was good.

You know? It was good.

The acting was terrific.

Some suspense was there,
you know?

Performances were good, I think.

You know, we turned...
turned Barbara

into a Sigourney Weaver
hero type.

People liked that.

Plus, you get this... You get to
see a bit of a... a sequel,

you know,
at the end of the movie.

So, in general, I've been
getting great comments

about it being one of the better
remakes that's out there,

and there's so many remakes,
you know, so...

I'm proud of it.
I'm happy about it.

I'm glad that I did it.

Todd:
And Tom knew this story.

You know,
he was a Romero student.

He sat at Romero's elbow,

so he knew what Romero wanted,
and... and he got it.

And, plus, the zombies
were well-cast.

He did a great job at that.

And the environment, you know,
you couldn't beat it.

Tom:
What kept me going was, I'd be,

you know,
in the middle of the night,

4:00 in the morning, you know,
freezing on a hillside,

you know, trying to
direct zombies and things,

and I thought to myself,
"A long time ago, around 1968,

when George asked me to do
the effects

on the original
'Night of the Living Dead, '

I couldn't do it
because of the Army, you know,

and being in Vietnam
and all that,

but here I am
directing a remake of it,"

so that... that kept me going,
you know?

Plus, it was my first feature,

so, you know,
I swallowed a lot of crap

just to make sure
I got my name on a feature film,

and it was "Night of
the Living Dead '90," you know.

♪ ♪

After, you know,
doing movie after movie,

I always missed the theater,
you know, as an actor.

The theater kept calling me.

The theater in North Carolina
kept calling me,

so I went back
and did "Deathtrap" there.

That was...
That was so much fun.

You mean put them on?

Yes.
I mean put them on.

Shoots himself.

Those wereHoudini's![Crossbow shot]

Clifford: Ow! Aah!

[Gunshot]

Sidney:
...R-U-H-L. Sidney.

I'm glad you know that much,
yes.

His name... Clifford Anderson.

C-L... Aah!

[Screaming]

[Applause]

And then that led them
to hiring me to direct "Dracula"

around Halloween time.

So it became, to me,
a magic show.

I mean, I made Dracula
turn into a bat onstage,

right in front of the audience.

The audience would go, "What?!

How did you do that?!"

You know, Dracula walks into
a doorway, lifts up his cape,

and suddenly there's a bat
there that flies away.

That was so thrilling.

I made him disappear once,
just disappear.

Like, 2 guys grab him,

and the cape falls to the
ground, and he's gone,

and there's a carpet
on the stage.

And, again, people were like,
"Wha... What?!"

Magic tricks, grand illusions
for me,

live,
in front of your face, onstage.

And, later on, I got to do it
again here in Pittsburgh.

So, again, you know, I did it at
this little theater over here

on the North Side.
It was Sydney Theatre.

And in the 18-year history
of the theater,

my "Dracula" was the most money
they have ever made

because it was a magic show.

You know, again, I turned
Dracula into a bat.

I had Renfield come out
from under the stage

into the audience
before he made his appearances,

which made the women wearing
skirts in the first row scream.

It was... It was a dream.

I'd love to do it again.

He actually had a shop on
Butler Street in Lawrenceville

where I can think of,
looking back...

I know "The Dark Half."

They did special effects there
from "Two Evil Eyes."

A lot of that stuff
was actually made there.

So every day after school, he'd
come pick me up from school.

Right down to Butler Street
and the workshop.

And got to see lifecasts and
severed heads laying everywhere.

♪ ♪

Tom: I had my studio
for about, oh, 15 years.

I remember there were tables
and plaster

and slime and foam latex
and gelatin everywhere.

At one point, there were 15 guys
working there

on films like "Two Evil Eyes,"

"Bloodsucking Pharoahs
in Pittsburgh,"

"The Dark Half,"
and "Mr. Stitch."

But it was also a clubhouse.

My friends and I would just
hang out in between jobs,

and we would sculpt things
for ourselves

and make toys and play pool

and just, you know,
get together and have fun.

Gergely:
I think working in Savini Land
was probably the best job

I ever had in my life.

It was just...

the most amazing, amazing time
when I look back at it.

It was just so much fun.

Tom showed me early on that
you can have fun,

you know, 'cause
Tom's really all about fun

and having a good time.

And, of course, when it's time
to work, it's time to work.

But he's the first person
to instigate

any sort of shenanigans.

And... And I always really
appreciated that, you know,

and I always kept it in my mind.

I'm like, "You know what?

It's always fun, you know,
to work with Tom."

[Train whistle blowing]

The last film I did effects
in, I think, was "Mr. Stitch."

Every time I did effects
on a film,

I always tried to play a part.

Especially George's films,
you know.

George cast me as an actor
in "Knightriders."

Makeup effects, to me,

was my... to get my foot
in the door as an actor.

I always wanted to be
an actor in these films.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[Man speaking indistinctly]

Marker.

- Action.
- And background.

♪ ♪

Man: One more time.
Check.

[Laughter,
indistinct conversations]

I was a big fan of his
even before...

When I was growing up,
reading "Fangoria" magazine,

being a big admirer of him
in the makeup world,

like "Maniac"
and "Dawn of the Dead" and...

But, also, for his acting,
like in "Knightriders"

and "Dawn of the Dead" itself.

That character was so great,
the biker character.

So I was already
a big Savini fan.

And when we went to go cast

"Dusk Till Dawn"
we thought about,

since we were doing
a genre mash-up,

of styles and genres,

why not mix up
the casting, as well?

Get, you know, highbrow actors
like Harvey Keitel,

but also bring in people
like Fred Williamson

and, you know, Danny Trejo,
and...

And Tom Savini sent in a tape.

Sex Machine.
Hey, you!

Monkey man!

Anything you gotta say to them,
you say to me first.

Watch out, girly.

Goddamn fucking vampires!

Hey, there's a fire over here!

Hey, I'm way ahead of you!

Hey, what's your name, girly?
Yeah, me?

Sex Machine.
Pleased to meet you, Kate.

Let's go stake
these sucker fuckers.

Quentin and I were just howling.

We thought that it was such
a great... his enthusiasm.

It was a different read than
we were...

Than we kind of heard
in our head.

He has just that wonderful
Tom Savini vocal quality

that made...
And he sounded so real.

It sounded like just, like,
a really nice guy

just went against
his type of this...

Kind of pictured him
as a badass biker.

Tom Savini is badass,
but he's also just very affable

and... and humble, and it
sounded almost professorial,

the way he... he did the lines.

"Garlic.
Holy water."

You know, he just sounded
so... so casual about it.

We just thought it was a hoot.

Quentin and I just looked
at each other and said,

"What, do you think we...
We should cast him, right?

Wouldn't he be great?

It's like, "Wouldn't it be great
to have Tom Savini?"

We thought about how big fans
we were of his.

The character you see
on the screen

ain't far removed
from the character in real life.

He is one strange dude,
but a good brother.

When "Dusk Till Dawn"
came along, you know,

Quentin Tarantino was
a fan of mine growing up.

They called me on a Thursday.

They wanted the videotape
in their hands

by the following Thursday.

I didn't get the script
till the following Wednesday,

the day before I had to ship it.

So there was no time
to memorize lines, so...

And I looked at the script,
and I saw "Sex Machine."

And that... His lines were
a lot more interesting,

and his name
was a lot more interesting.

So I took his lines,
and I wrote them on cue cards

and put them around the bedroom
and did a motorcycle jacket,

you know, and... and I-I-I read
the lines for Sex Machine.

And it looked like I was looking
at different people

when I was auditioning
'cause I'm just looking

at the different cue cards.

Anyway, when they got it, it
made Quentin and Robert laugh,

so they changed the body types
and made Fred Williamson Frost,

and they made Sex Machine
a small guy,

and I got to play that.

And, you know, when you're
strapping a cock gun on

and shooting vampires with it,

that's a pretty memorable thing
to happen in films.

Clooney was the nicest man
I've ever met in my life.

I mean, look who I got
to hang out with.

So it was the most fun
you could have in a summer.

♪ ♪

Rodriguez:
Now, here are some excerpts.

These are scenes that were
cut out of the movie,

and this is one
of my favorite bits.

[Snarling]

Tom sees a couple of bikers
starting to turn into vampires.

Fucking vampires.

♪ ♪

Taking pictures of the bodies.
He's having a lot of fun.

♪ ♪

And he's handy
with a wooden stake.

♪ ♪

For pace, I'd cut out this
one line, and here it is.

Sex Machine.
Pleased to meet you, Kate.

You too.

Now let's stake
these bloodsucker fuckers.

Okay.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Now, that's what the MPAA
wanted you to see.

The real Tom, the "Taking Care
of Business Tom Savini,"

wouldn't do it that way.
This is what he actually did.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

We shot lots of bits with Tom.

This was one where I decided,

"How 'bout if there's one bottle
left standing in the bar.

and you use your whip to just,
from across the room, break it?"

And take after take,
Tom just nailed it.

♪ ♪

[Film projector whirring]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

You know, after my divorce with
Nancy, we had joint custody.

So it was Lia, my daughter Lia,
would spend a week with Nancy

and spend a week with me,
you know.

And she was always reluctant
at the end of my week

to go to that week, 'cause it
was just simply more fun,

I guess, being at my house.

And Nancy had some problems
back then.

But we went to do
"Dusk Till Dawn."

Lia was 9 1/2 at that point.

And I was able to take her
for 8 weeks with me,

and the idea would be that,

when after the 8 weeks
during "Dusk Till Dawn,"

she would come home and spend
8 weeks with her mother.

Which was... Which fit in
because, after "Dusk Till Dawn,"

I got another part in a movie,

"The Demolitionist,"
where I had to be in L.A.,

and, of course, Lia
had to stay with her mother.

However, during the shooting,
I got a call

from the...
the Pittsburgh police...

"Your daughter was, you know,
walking around,

looking for her mother,
blah, blah, blah, blah."

So I called
my friend of 35 years,

my boyhood friend, Pat Logan,

who was a policeman
in Pittsburgh.

Called him, and his
answering machine was on,

so I left him a message
about what was going on

in Precinct Number 5
with my daughter.

And I called the police station,

and Pat was there in his pajamas

and took custody away from Nancy

and took it onto himself,
and Lia went to live with him

until I got back
from "The Demolitionist."

And it was assigned to me
when I got back.

And that's how I got custody
of my daughter

when she was 9 1/2
and have had it since then.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

What that meant was, you know,
when I got full custody of Lia,

that I'm now, you know,
a single parent.

I'm her, really, only parent.

S... And that affected, you know,
my choices.

I remember, you know,
Greg Nicotero approached me

before he started KNB EFX, said,

"Hey, let's go to California
and use your name

and get jobs in
and create an effects company."

I had my daughter
living with me,

you know,
when she was in school.

So a lot of my choices were
based around not leaving home,

being there for Lia.

Yeah, so, I definitely remember
there were times

where he was offered
different things

that would mean
complete relocation,

and there was a lot of things
he couldn't do

because there was me
and I was in school.

And, you know, I-I was able to
miss school for certain things,

but, you know,
to completely uplift me

out of Pittsburgh would've been,

you know,
maybe traumatizing as a child.

And he made those choices
based upon me in mind.

He definitely, I feel
like, missed out

on a lot of
different opportunities.

Tom: Going from movie job
to movie job,

you know, you lived from
paycheck to paycheck.

It was a... It was a struggle.

So, luckily, there were
all these horror conventions

I could go to, and, you know,
appearances, signings.

And I was living off that
for a long time.

But, also,
within those 20 years,

I was making, you know,
alimony payments

and child-support payments,
so...

it was a... It was a struggle.

There are a lot of people
who are just...

just go from convention
to convention.

And that's their living.

And that was me.

Tom Savini,
one of the greatest guys

to ever
grace the horror business.

One of the nicest guys
to meet at a convention.

He's got a thumbs-up in my book.

I think he's legendary.
His special effects,

I mean, just changed the
whole horror-movie industry.

And then I met him today
for the first time,

and he's just an awesome guy.

So, the difference between
conventions back then,

when they were my lifeblood,

they were my...
how I sustained myself,

and now is, I go there
and enjoy the conventions.

I go there and enjoy the fans.

I go there and listen
to their stories

and how I've inspired them.

I love the convention mood.

You're surrounded by people
that are into what you do.

They're into the monsters,
they're into...

It's like hanging out with your
friends who love horror movies,

except there's 5,000 of them,
you know,

or, in some shows,
20,000 of them.

So many times,
me and my best friend,

Rob Lucas, would... would be
setting up the convention,

and we would look at each other,
going, "I love this."

We started a rubber band fight
at a...

at a Comic-Con show once, right?

The next day, there was, like,
3,000 people with rubber bands.

[Laughs]
Tom, you started it.

Doing conventions with Tom
because we get crazy.

We have rubber band fights
from across the room,

launching 4 at a time, okay?

[Laughs]

But, you know, that's part
of the fun of the whole thing.

Basically we're big kids
having fun.

Tom: The fans? You know,
the fans are interesting.

They range from little kids, to,
you know, doctors and lawyers,

and everybody in between.

But the fans either love you
or hate you.

The biggest mistake
you can make in life,

not just with fans,
is to try to please everybody.

Those same people that are
in love with Savini

and his work want to attribute
him to be this monster.

This... This guy that...
that really lives this...

where he's a family guy like me,
you know?

It's funny what...
what they want you to be,

and then what you really are.

It may be a blessing to be
typecast as a villain.

You know, I have this face.

Most of my parts are villains.

It's a big surprise to people,
when they see

"Perks of a Wallflower,"
for example.

Here, I'm...
I'm a high-school teacher.

The first thing they... I say
to them when they say,

"Hey, I enjoyed you
in 'Perks of a Wallflower, '"

I say, "You didn't...
Must've been a big surprise

to see me in that, wasn't it?

No guns, no zombies, you know.

You know, I'm not killing
anybody." You know?

But it shows some diversity.

So, there is a blessing
to being typecast,

'cause I will keep getting
those roles, you know.

The curse is, maybe
I won't be the lead

in a love story, you know,
any time soon.

[Laughs]

When I say
I don't do effects anymore...

and I don't... fans would ask me
why I did that, you know?

The truth of it is,
I mean, I've stopped.

My hands have been giv...
My hands are a big problem.

There's so much pain
in sculpting,

so one of the reasons
I got away from doing effects

is losing the use of my hands,

and... and nobody knows that
until now.

And even though
I don't do makeup effects,

I do collaborate, and I consult
with effects crews.

I just did "Red Ink"
in Australia as a consultant,

and I collaborated
with my buddy Gino Crognale

on Triple H's "King of Kings"
crown for WrestleMania.

♪ ♪

I'd been approached a few times
about starting a makeup school.

Jeff Imbrescia came at me
full force.

I said, "Whoa."
Signed on the spot

at the Baltimore restaurant
down the street.

And then he bought the building
and started the programs.

We had 24 students
the first time.

Now we had 80 students
come in last October.

We still get an average of 35

or, you know...
or 30 on the off months,

which are February and June.

Tom talked me into just coming
out, looking at the school.

And when I first came out here,
it was an abandoned building.

It had been a convent,
and it was totally gutted.

And I thought,
"Okay, this is July,

and the school's gonna open
in October?

I don't think
it's gonna happen."

But he said, "No, no.

Don't worry, don't worry.
It's... It's gonna happen."

So I-I gave it a shot, told him
I'd... I'd give it a year,

and it's 11 years later,
and I'm still here.

Tom: The work that is coming out
of the students

is just phenomenal.

The students' attitude
is, "This is school?!"

Because they're having so
much fun doing this all day

and making their dreams
come true.

And I think we're
the number-one school for...

Well, there's a lot of reasons.

We have industry professionals
as teachers,

we're the
least-expensive school,

and our program
is the longest school.

It's 16 months.

And it's a degree program.

My intention was to give back
to other aspiring artists

because it was so hard learning
how to do stuff, growing up.

Nobody shared secrets,
except for Dick Smith.

I love
how that made people feel,

to... to learn something

that's... that's a hidden secret
for so many years,

and I wanted to make people
feel the same way.

To see students on "Face Off"
consistently

or, you know,
making careers out of it.

You know, these are the guys
that you know are like you.

I could have saw
"Man of a Thousand Faces"

when I was 11 years old, and,
well, the movie that I saw,

you know, and then watched
"Rodan" and not be affected.

But I was affected by that
movie, somehow, you know.

It made me passionate
about makeup effects.

So when I see
Kevin Kirkpatrick or Ian or Tate

or all these guys that are out
making careers out of it,

they are the ones
that had the same passion.

So I identify with them

and appreciate what it took
to get that, you know.

Excuse me.
Maybe you can help me,

I'm looking for Tom Savini.

♪ ♪

You want an extreme makeover?

You got it.
Wow.

Very nice to meet you.
Pleasure.
Hi. Thank you.

So, listen, I have a 15-year-old

who, really, you are his hero.

He wants to be you.

And I found this in his room.

This is a drawing he made.

Is there anything we can do?

I think I can help you.

Narrator: In the makeup world,
Tom Savini is a household name.

Pennington: Who's your
favorite makeup artist?

Donnie: Tom Savini.

He... He did that?

Yeah.
Yeah!

I really wish I could thank...
thank him for all this work.

I think you might
actually be able to.

Hey, come on in.

Meet Tom Savini. What's going on in here?

♪ ♪

- How you doing?
- I'm fine.

We would like for you to come
to the school and just hang out

with the students
for a couple of days.

I would love that.

We know that you would love it.
You might not leave.

♪ ♪

To me, my father is the epitome
of never growing up.

Always has something
behind the door,

ready to scare you, or a new toy
that he brings home,

and it's the constant excitement
that you see

when a child gets something that
they're really excited about.

He's still that same person.

He's still just always looking
for fun things to do,

different things, new things.

Tom:
A lot of, I think, my creativity
comes from being childlike.

It's not an insult if you said,

"Oh, you're acting
like a child."

Oh, thank you so much.
That's my goal.

My goal in life
is to be the child again.

That's where creativity
and freshness comes from.

I had children at... at...
at a young age.

I was 21 when my son was born.

My daughter lives with me,
and she's a gem.

Her son James is my familiar,
my sidekick.

I don't have much to say
about them

except that they are...
They're what I live for,

where all my happiness
comes from.

Lia: I was 16 when I had James,
so, I mean, the fact

that he didn't have
a heart attack

and handled it and
just was very accepting.

I mean, now I couldn't imagine
if James wasn't around.

And the relationship
my father and I have,

he's taken on the responsibility
of being James' father, as well,

and does everything
that I remember I got to do

when I was young with James,
with the conventions, and...

One of... I know one
of my favorite things

growing up around him
was, we were constantly

going to Disney, every year.

Disney's kind of,
like, our special thing.

And James is now in that,
as well.

Like, on the screen, it looks
like he's, like,

a big, like, hero and stuff.

Like, he's very...

different.

He's just different
on the screen.

But at home,
he's just a normal person.

♪ ♪

This guy, Tom Savini,
I loved his work

and followed him,
and maybe I'll go to his school.

So I signed up,
and I was in the first class.

I got to meet Tom there,
of course,

and we became very close.

We actually really clicked
and had a lot in common.

Now I can call him
my best friend.

I mean, we hang out
and do things

and travel the world together.

And... And I owe a lot to him.

If I had to choose one word
for Tom, it would be "fun."

If I had one word to describe
what working for Tom is,

it's "fun."

"Fun" or "chaotic."

Which is kind of fun.

I always say, "He's my best
friend, he's my best friend."

It's weird.

It's one of those... It...
He's more like a brother.

We won't speak for a year,
and then we'll pick up

and call each other
at the same moment on the phone.

That kind of stuff always did
happen and still happens.

It's just the weirdest,
you know, connection

that you have with some people.
I don't know what it is.

Moseley:
Again, over the years,

we've done
a lot of conventions together.

I visit him in Pittsburgh
from time to time.

I think Tom is actually, truly,
a great guy.

I...
Again, I wish he directed more.

He's a great actor.

And...

[Mock crying]
I'm starting to cry now.

No, actually, I-I love Tom.

I love Tom Savini.

He's a gentleman,
he's a man of his word,

which is very important.

He can look you in the eye,
and you'll know

exactly what he's about
and where he comes from,

and that's a rare quality.

They always say,
"Don't meet your heroes

because you'll be... You'll be
really disappointed."

And then, with Tom,
it's the opposite.

You know, you met Tom,

and it made sense that you had
become friends, 'cause you...

You've... You'd admired them
for so long,

almost like as if you knew

you were gonna work
with them someday,

without possibly knowing.

I mean, we're on two
different sides of the country.

Cooper: I'd pick up "Rue Morgue"
and I'd pick up

all the... you know,
the horror magazines

and everything like that,
just to see what's coming out

and what's everybody doing,

and always something
about Savini in there, you know.

He's doing this,
he's doing that.

He's really, um...

He's one of the actors
in Hollywood

that is very, really athletic.

He's not, like, just bullshit.
You know what I mean?

Again, it's like, you know,
he's... he's a great actor.

I have a lot of respect for all
the stuff that he's done.

With the...
Even... the the mask stuff.

You know, I forget.

The prosthetics and all that,
you know, makeup, you know.

That... But...
But he's a great actor.

I-I-I feel that Tom doesn't get
enough recognition

for what he brought
to the industry

and the thousands of people
that Tom influenced

in terms of wanting
to be filmmakers...

not just
special effects makeup guys,

but writers, directors,
producers,

to make genre movies.

Tom: I just got an agent.

Everything I've done
in my career

has been without an agent
and from Pittsburgh.

My agent's got me
some great television gigs.

A lot of TV stations,
like the Epix network,

are showing horror movies
all month.

So, for the Epix network,

I'm a "London after Midnight"
Lon Chaney kind of guy,

with flames coming out
of a crystal ball,

to introduce,
as... as Lon Chaney

would in a silent movie,

with title cards...
introduce the horror movies.

Most people retire
when they're 65, you know.

That word doesn't exist in my
vocabulary anymore, you know.

I don't believe in...
Retirement, to me, means death

in so many ways, you know.

The death of ambition, you know,
so...

And... And I can honestly say
that's not true with me.

Luckily, I can take
long breaks between that.

I can do a gig and then just,
you know, play.

Go on vaca...
I take long vacations,

you know, between jobs.

It's taken me... I don't know...
55 years

to appreciate the moment.

To live in the moment.

You know, if you sat in a chair
and just made your mind blank,

the thoughts that come at you,
and... and thousands of them do,

those thoughts are hurts
from the past

and worries about the future.

So you're not really here.

You're thinking about 2 places
that you have no control over

and that you can do
nothing about.

You can't do anything
about the past.

You can prepare for the future,

but you can't do shit
about it, okay?

So you're in these 2 places,
and you're not here,

and that's what
I was suffering from.

I was suffering from not being
able to live in the moment.

Now I can.

Now it's great.
It's an easy thing to do.

♪ ♪

My life has changed
quite a bit recently.

I got married.

I have 2 cats.

And I'm probably the happiest
I've ever been at this moment.

And that's what's important,
this moment.

I've been blessed with

having some interesting people
in my life.

Not just in my career,
but in my personal life.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

My daughter Lia, she's...
she's so bright,

and she is so right and correct,

and... how else
can I say this... good.

She's such a good person.

Lia: God, he's dealt with
so much craziness from me,

and he's handled it
very gracefully.

Oh. Amazing.
Amazing.

He's my favorite... favorite guy
in the world.

I probably could've... God, so
many worse things could happen,

and he's just made
my life amazing.

She's one of the bright lights
in my life, and James, her son,

I-I don't know where to begin
with how I love this kid.

He's also so good, and so
right-on, and so smart,

and such an interesting person.

♪ ♪

And just recently my daughter
gave birth

to another grandson, Carson,

so that's one more person
that I share my life with.

And Jodii is the same way.

The things that
she comes out with.

It's like a great... It's like
listening to great music,

the things that come
out of their mouths

and their minds that I share
and connect with.

I-I think that people kind of
like the idea

that there are... There are
actual Addams Families.

I think Savini's family
is probably very normal,

except for the fact that they
scare the hell

out of people, you know.

And our family's kind of
like that, too.

I mean, I still love movies.
I still love working on movies.

I miss the theater.

There's so many things out there

that are really important
to me and I love.

But the most important thing
is, just today,

I'm walking through my house,

the lights are set up here
to do this interview,

my wife is in front
of the big screen

in the living room

dancing with this aerobics thing
that's happening on television,

the cats are sitting
there watching her,

and I'm like,
"This is happiness."

But the most important thing
is the feeling

I get from this moment,
you know.

And the next moment
that's going to occur

when I go down the house and,
you know, grab one of the cats,

or, you know, kiss Jodii,
you know.

I mean, this is really,
you know, happiness.

And I... And I'm still living
in the house that I grew up in,

so I've never lost
my sense of home.

I have no complaints.

I'm really enjoying life.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Did you hear all that?

I think that cop was Tom Savini.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

He's a solid guy.

He's a good father.
Now he's a grandfather.

And I wish... Tom, I wish you
all the luck in the world.

♪ ♪

I owe a lot of my career to Tom.

♪ ♪

...that I enjoy it all,
you know.

[Cellphone chimes]

Tinker Bell just came in.

I should turn that off, huh?

There.

Man:
Make sure you use that.

- Tell you what.
- What?

Let's see how close
I can get to your lens.

With me holding it?

Yeah, of course.

It'll be cool.

Oh!
- Oh, my God!

- I bet your mic went down.
- My mic?! Me!

Get out of the fucking way.
We're shooting a documentary.

♪ ♪

I also don't like Tom very much.

And the reason
that I don't like Tom very much

is, he treated me like shit
the first time I met him.

I was living in Charlotte
at the time.

Nothing cool ever came to
fucking Charlotte, ever.

And I went up to him and I had
the "Fangoria" magazine that had

"Night of the Living Dead" on
the cover. I handed it to him,

said, "Big fan of your work,
really liked the remake."

He takes it from me and goes,

"Oh, good. Worst experience
of my life. That's great."

Hands it right back to me.

And I spent the whole rest of
the day horribly depressed.

My illusions were shattered
forever.

But then I got to know
the guy years later,

and he's one of my best friends
in the business,

and there isn't anything
I wouldn't do for him.

So, what started off bad
ended up real good.

But I never miss an opportunity

to fuck with him if I can.

What the fuck was that called?
I directed it.

♪ ♪

Anyway...

And I went in,
and Tom was in there,

and I said, "Tom,
your girlfriend's outside.

She's trying to get in.
Should I bring her in?"

He's like, "Oh, God,
what's she doing here?

Nah, just... just leave
her out there."

They must've got into a fight
or something.

Somebody claiming to be
his date showed up,

and he just left her out there.

I thought that was
pretty damn funny.

You know, one of my very best
friends, Bob Savini,

is... What?

Oh, Tom Savini, yeah.
Tom Savini.

One of my very best friends.

And in case that didn't work...

Oh, he kicked the camera.

Fucking moron.