I expected this episode of Face Off to showcase some exceptional looking pieces. Night Terrors! What’s not to get excited about? Creepy stuff that goes bump in the night, ghouls and grotesqueries who invade dreams! But things started off hokey and, perhaps because of the hokeyness, they didn’t seem to progress well for many of the contestants.
The challenge was to create pieces based on a fear — fear of electricity, fear of being bound, etc. Rounded up in the middle of the night to be hustled to a long-closed “haunted” hospital, the group had to come up with ideas of what they were going to do and sketch them while at the hospital … in the dark … with nothing but flashlights to see by. (I told you it was rather hokey, didn’t I?)
But things got down to business rather quickly after this little sideline antic and the three-day challenge commenced. The usual sculpt / mold / application process took place. Of note was how Tara and Jerry went about their individual tasks: Tara was a mess from the start. She didn’t get her sculpting completed to anywhere near where she should have been by the end of the first day. When she finally did get her act together, she messed with her work further in order to cut corners. (This didn’t seem to bode well for her at the time, but she ended up safe at the last when judged.) And Jerry? Truth be told, I’m weary of his over-confident demeanor and cockiness. The dude has ended up at the bottom of the pack during judging more times than anyone and it’s time for him to exit stage right.
This time, his cockiness came in the form of thinking he could wait until the absolute final moment for a mask to cure. Turns out it didn’t set as well as he’d hoped, causing him to go back to his original work which was crap to begin with. (I say this with full knowledge I could never do anything near what these artists do, so don’t think I’m armchair quarterbacking here.) His final result was a creation that didn’t do justice to the fear he chose (electrophobia) and that wasn’t lost on the judges (including guest judge Tom Savini) time and again. Ve Neill’s comment was most telling: “It doesn’t say ‘burn’ at all.”
Not surprisingly, Jerry ended up in the bottom three once again and I crossed my fingers his schlocky work would be his undoing. But it was Brea and her chemical burn potpourri of mis-applied pieces and gooey yuck that got her voted off the show this week.
Jerry’s time will come soon enough. I’ll be there to cheer his ouster when it does.
Notes:
Clacked by Michael Noble 
on Feb 02, 2012 @ 11:42 EST5EDT
