Evil Dead 1981: Possessed Hand

                The Evil Dead 1981 version is much different than the 2013 version. Some movies back then were better than movies today. Honestly, I wouldn't consider this to be one of them, even though I wasn't a major fan of the newer one in the first place. Back then special effects were much different and obviously not as advanced, but I decided it would be fun to try and bring the past back to life by doing some of the effects in a more modern way.

            In the very beginning of the movie, one of the characters gets possessed to draw something while she was sketching. Her hand turned a blue-gray and it looked as if her veins were popping out of her hand. She was obviously scared and shaking so when you go to make your hand possessed, it doesn't have to be perfect unless you will be holding still or letting people inspect your hands at a close range. All you will need for this is a white creme makeup, skin wax, a variety of widths of brushes, and a matte gray and blue eye shadow. None of this should have glitter or sparkles due to the fact that if you are all shimmery it will look just like makeup and not a special effect.

            You really won’t want to do this on a hand that has a lot of hair on it due to the fact that it makes the removal much harder. If possible, you should shave the hand. If not, then make sure the person who this is being done on knows that there may be a little pain with the removal of the skin wax. You shouldn't need to use much wax, but it is always nice to have a heads up.

            Like any other time you are working with skin wax, you need to moisturize your hands, especially at your finger tips. Melted skin wax is the worst! Anyhow, unlike before, you want to use very little amounts of skin wax due to the fact that veins aren't the size of a wound like I have discussed before. You can play around with your hands and flex to get an idea of how large you actually want the skin wax sausage to be. A good estimate of how many you should make is about three. One vein should run from between your middle finger and ring finger to your wrist, one from between your middle and pointer fingers to your wrist by your thumb, and another running from one of the other veins to your wrist. Keep in mind, that is just a suggestion and you can adjust to a situation.  Once the veins are blended in you can start applying the white creme base.

            The creme should not be caked on, but just light enough to make your skin look powdered. The next step is to dust a gray matte shadow to the hand to make it look dusty and old. The next step would be to apply different shades of blue to the raised part of the veins you previously applied. If you really want you can also try a plum color as well to show depth. Once you get the right shade you can dust a little bit more gray eye shadow over the whole hand to finish it off.

            Some more options would consist of “contouring” your fingers and other bones in your hand to make the hand look sickly. When showing people you can have the hand shake and be very stiff. If you blend well, wear long sleeves, and act the part, this effect could really be pulled off nicely.

Dramatic exit—Director J