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"Think of a scary movie\u2014any scary movie. Special-effects makeup artist Rick Baker is most likely the man who made it a screamer. *The Ring*? That was him. *The Exorcist*? Him, too. Michael Jackson's *Thriller*? OK, not a movie, but you get the point. This Halloween, Baker is celebrating his favorite holiday by partnering with M.A.C. on his first-ever makeup collection. I talked to the movie legend about the products, the bone-chilling ad campaign, and just how he's been scaring the pants off me since I was three.\\n\\n                   \\n\\n__How did your line with M.A.C. come about?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"I've always wanted to do a Halloween makeup collection, but it had to be good-quality makeup. I had a relationship with M.A.C. and asked them if they'd be interested in teaming up. A lot of what we included are the pro items that many people don't even know M.A.C. makes, like Chromacake and Acrylic Paint.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__For the ad campaign, did you use any special-effects products?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"No, I wanted to show people all the different things you could do with the products and the colors that M.A.C. has. I created all three looks for the campaign\u2014the Bride of Frankenstein, the zombie, the Day of the Dead\u2014using their stuff. For example, I used the highly pigmented Acrylic Paints for the Day of the Dead look and created the Bride's scars (*below*) with lip pencil and white highlights.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__So how did you get your start?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"I'm self-taught, but my break came at 18 when I wrote a letter to my idol, Dick Smith, who was a special-effects makeup artist in the 60s and 70s. I told him I was visiting New York City with my parents. He was impressed by my work and agreed to meet with me. We became fast friends, and that's how I came to work with him on *The Exorcist*.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__You've created so many amazing characters. Do you have a favorite?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"Harry from *Harry and the Hendersons*. If you watch that film, it holds up really well in today's world of computer-generated imagery, even though it was made over 25 years ago. It was the first time I built a radio-controlled animatronic mask that we controlled off camera.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n[#image: /photos/5771993b8d432b9e20f907a7]||||||\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n__What's the most difficult makeup you've done?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"Human transformations\u2014old age makeup or an overweight person, like the stuff I did in *The Nutty Professor*. People always say, \\\"Really? That's harder than making an alien?\\\" It is, because you see people every day. If something's not right, audiences pick up on it on a subconscious level.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__What's the longest you've ever spent on an actor's makeup?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"There have been a couple of times when I'm surprised the actors haven't killed me. David Notten's makeup for *American Werewolf in London* was a long process. But the longest has to be when we turned Eddie Murphy into a white fitness instructor for the first *Nutty Professor*. That took at least 10 hours because we had to paint his whole body and do armpit hair and stuff.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__What's the weirdest thing you've ever used to create a special effect?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"Cornflakes and Rice Krispies. The cornflakes make cool, crackly skin, and if you mix Rice Krispies with gelatin you get this disgusting stuff that's great for zombie makeup.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__I have to ask\u2014what was it like working with Michael Jackson on *Thriller*? __\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"I didn't really know Michael at the time and just thought, Well, this pop star is going to be a pain in the ass to make up. But in fact, Michael loved to be made up. He was so painfully shy that I couldn't believe he was the same guy who had done the moonwalk on TV a few days before. It was like seeing two different people. Eventually, though, we became friends. He would come over and watch movies, and my wife and I went to dinner at his parents' house with Bubbles the chimp.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__Watching the video again recently, I wondered how you kept the makeup from coming off the dancers during filming.__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"Actually, it wasn't the sweat I was worried about, it was the fact that the dancers weren't cast until three days before we filmed. My crew and I actually had to be zombie extras in the video because we had casts of ourselves and we could create more elaborate makeup. For the dancers, we had to make generic casts and create rubber appliances in small, medium, and large and hope they fit.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n__So what's your favorite makeup to do?__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \\\"I like something really grotesque. The world of monsters is what made me want to do this for a living. I've also found that the bloody, gory makeup is actually the easiest to do. People tend not to look too hard when things are covered in blood.\\\"\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  __RELATED LINKS:__\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \u2022 [Halloween Makeup Idea: Pretty, Sparkly Fish](http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2013/10/halloween-makeup-ideas-pretty-fish.html)\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \u2022 [3 Halloween Beauty Ideas for the Costume-Averse](http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2013/10/halloween-beauty-ideas.html)\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  \u2022 [Blood Bath: Behind the Scenes of Carrie's Famous Prom Scene](http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2013/10/carrie-movie-prom-blood-scene.html)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.allure.com/story/rick-baker-collaborates-with-mac>