Genre: Reality | Sci-Fi

Air Date/Time: February 8, 10/9c

Network: Syfy

Synopsis:

Face Off is a competition/elimination series exploring the world of special-effects make-up artists and the unlimited imagination that allows them to create amazing works of living art.  Judging the Face Off competition are some of the most renowned names in the SFX world — three-time Academy Award winner Ve Neill, famed special make-up effects artist Glenn Hetrick and director/creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos. Together, they make a panel that is tough, smart and direct. Face Off is a production of Mission Control Media with Michael Agbabian and Dwight D. Smith serving as executive producers.

For this episode of Face Off‘s Foundation Challenge, the ten remaining contestants are tasked with creating an original trauma makeup featuring wounds that may have been inflicted by a werewolf. Sam Huntington brings his expert perspective to the challenge, having worn a tremendous amount of special effects makeup in his career, including his role as werewolf Josh on Syfy‘s hit original series Being Human, currently in new episodes Monday nights at 9/8c.

I’m not generally a fan of competition shows, but I really like this one. Yes there are some of the seemingly required personalities: the overconfident, the hard-to-work-with, the youngsters, the more seasoned, the great-but-knows-it. I would be fine without all of that, because the time restrictions, filming, judging, and of course competition, all cause enough stress on their own without adding all of the personal nastiness into it. On the other hand, there are very few workplace environments that don’t have a variety of personalities, some of which clash, so I suppose a utopian community is, well, not realistic.

So far most of the episodes haven’t had a Foundation Challenge, one that starts the episode and the winner of which has an advantage for the next, main, Spotlight Challenge, but this week does. This is good news, as the Foundation Challenge is the one described above in the synopsis, and it’s such a great idea. Sam Huntington is not only there to give a couple of tips but is actually the judge of the very quick competition. When speaking with journalists about this appearance recently, he said that he was amazed by what the artists accomplished in such a short amount of time. He also said that the judging wasn’t actually very difficult, because there was one very clear winner. Hmm, I’m not quite sure it would have been as easy for me. But well done, Sam!

I’ve seen almost every episode of this show this season, and these artists really are very talented. This week’s Spotlight Challenge entries were probably amongst their weakest,  but they were still really impressive. This second challenge did, for me, have a very clear winner, and this time the judges agreed with me. The judges’ opinions sometimes seem arbitrary, but they know their craft a lot better than the viewers do, so sometimes we just have to take it on faith. I’m fairly confident, though, that you’ll agree with them (and me!) about the winner.

The Spotlight Challenge also had a guest judge, this time alongside the regular judges, and it’s Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill Vol. 1), who is not a shrinking violet in this appearance. You’ll see.

If you haven’t seen the show but are a fan of Sci-Fi TV and movies – and I’m pretty sure you are, or you wouldn’t be here at SciFi Mafia – you should definitely check out this fascinating competition series. You’ll be wowed, and you’ll learn a lot, so that the next time you see a shiny creature onscreen you can say wisely, “I wonder if they used Saran Wrap just there…”

I give Face Off, Season 2, Episode 5 “Dangerous Beauty,” Four Out of Five Stars.