While her lifeas a makeup artisthas spanned a variety of hits in different genres (Nightmare Alley, Room, Queer as Folk), there is something special aboutSid Armourworking on the hit TV seriesChucky. One of the first films she worked on was actually 1998’sBride of Chucky, and now, 25 years later, she’s back with horror legend Don Mancini for the critically acclaimed third season ofChuckyon SyFyand USA, streaming next day on Peacock. The Wednesday night lineup ofSurreal Estate and Chuckyis actually one of the best pairings on TV right now.
The third season ups the ante ofthe surreal horror comedy, delving into wilder satire as the killer doll winds up in The White House. The season opens with Chucky in the bedroom of his new friend, the youngest son of the First Family. As the show teases, “This country ischucked.” We spoke with Armour about working onChucky35 years after The Bride of Chucky, how the franchise has developed since the originalChild’s Play,and how makeup is crucial to the show.
“It’s really fun to see how it all developed,” said Armour, looking back on when the show was first birthed from the films. “The series is really fun and the time span just allowed for a lot more to happen. Even though it’s television, there’s quite a lot more. And the cast is a lot of fun. Everyone’s older, but like really into their characters, what with so many preceding stories from overthe decades of all the films.”
Her industry has also changed over the decades. Practical effects, design, makeup, cinematography — technology has evolved everything, even the creepy little doll at the heart of the series. “Makeup has really changed. Tony Gardner is the head of the puppeteer department and the work that he does on the multiple Chucky dolls is really amazing.” She added:
“Prosthetics has come such a long way, blood has come such a long way, and just regular makeup. The ‘out of kit’ effects that we do really helps us blend the lines into different departments, where we really haven’t before. We’re all very much connected on the series in between departments.”
Getting Bloody with Chucky
One thing viewers may take for granted is just how much planning (and clean-up) is involved with the bloody slasher violence of horror movies and shows, andChuckyis no exception. “We do have things really well planned. We have huge blood sprayers. Last year for Alyvia Lind, her mom gets sawed in half — the grip department are so cool, they built us this whole likeDexterbox right off set, with all the plastic sheeting to get thatDexterkill. And we all just went crazy with the blood!” exclaimed Armour.
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“I mean, if we’re on location, we have to be really careful that blood isn’t getting all over really expensive floors and different things. You know people need to get cleaned up, and it’s a big process for sure,” she said, adding:
One of our one of our ADs was like, “Oh, we’re pulling up this really bloody scene, so double your wet wipes and everything.” So we had garbage bags full of towels, and showers prepared, and shaving cream and things to take off the blood.
“I had no idea how much makeup would be involved, and it’s period, and gender bendy, and Jennifer Tilly, and all the different ways you can kill somebody. And that’s really fun,” laughed Armour. “Don Mancini wants, what we have time and budget for. There’s so many different factors of every decision that we make, where it seems like oh, there’s just some blood splatter on a face. But that could have spanned many meetings, and you just have to be open. It’s not ‘my show,’ it’s not ‘my ideas.’ It’s a collaboration of everybody, and that’s really exciting.”
Horror or Comedy?
It can be tricky balancing horror and comedy, especially with regard to the effects and talent behind the camera. You don’t necessarily want to make something so gory and disturbing that it kills any humor, but you also don’t want things to look, well, stupid. For Armour and Mancini, there was only one way to approachChucky. She explained:
“The makeup department, no matter what happens, we want it to be as real as it can. I remember season one. Oh my gosh, Fiona Dourif was made into Charles Lee Ray, which is her father, and she had this scene in this bar. And it was the ’80s, and that was tons of background, a lot to think about, and she was amazing in that role. And I said to Don [Mancini], ‘How authentic do you really want this to be?’ And he was like, ‘Completely authentic. I want it like color for color, everything.'”
“But we are talking about adoll that kills peopleand, you know, is alive,” admitted Armour. “It’s not a total stretch to think that maybe a couple of things don’t have to be 100% ’80s, but we do it, we want it to be [real] even though it’s campy. The campy has to come from the actor, the scene, and what’s happening, and the fact that a doll is killing somebody, but we still want our makeup and everything to be as if it would be in a serious film.”
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Armour has done the makeup for such famous faces as Natasha Lyonne, Simu Liu, Keke Palmer, Drake, and Elliot Page. But Chucky is one of her favorite subjects. “The horror genre is just more fun. Yeah, you just can’t take yourself as seriously as on some other films that I’ve done that have been about things that have really happened to somebody, and you want to try to be careful and honor real life people and occurrences.” She continued:
And when you’re onChucky, everybody is just diving into something that’s a fantasy, and it’s just a lot of fun. So, every day is — how far can you go? And that’s always a lot of fun, especially for makeup. It’s like the bigger, the better, in every respect.
The same could be said about season three ofChucky, which premiered Oct. 4, with a new episode tonight at 9/8c on SyFy and the USA Network. Episodes stream on Peacock the next day, and new episodes air each Wednesday night.
