Face-Off: SFX Artist Competition on Syfy

Syfy’s reality television shows, other than Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International, haven’t grabbed my attention much. Mad Mad House almost did and Scare Tactics came close, but they couldn’t hold it beyond the first few episodes.

Now comes Face-Off, pitting makeup artist against makeup artist in a full-body, fantastic makeover knockdown. Special effects makeup is what I’d be doing full-time if I weren’t all thumbs and had a tin eye to boot. Sigh.

Making a contest out of it, where twelve aspiring makeup artists compete for 100,000 dollars in prize money and a year’s worth of makeup supplies sounds promising. Add guest judges like Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13^th), revolutionary body painter Filippo Ioco, Greg Nicotero (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Michael Westmore (Star Trek: The Next Generation) on top of the regular judges, Ve Neill (Pirates of the Caribbean, Edward Scissorhands), Glenn Hetrick (Heroes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files), and Patrick Tatopoulos (Underworld, Independence Day, Resident Evil: Extinction), well then, you’ve grabbed my full attention.

Face-Off airs January 26th on Syfy.

For their first spotlight elimination challenge, the contestants are tasked to imagine an entirely new species, a human/animal hybrid, based on one of three exotic animals that are brought into their workspace lab–a beetle, an ostrich or an elephant. The contestants must work in teams of two to execute their creative visions, utilizing specialized skills including molding, sculpting, prosthetics and an involved application process on live models. Future elimination challenges include application of full body make-up to nude subjects, conceptualizing a creature that would inhabit a newly discovered planet, creating an original horror villain, and transforming a “bride” into a “groom” and a “groom” into a “bride.”