Brian Rowe

“I was that kid in your class who liked to gross everybody out by sneaking my Fangoria subscription to school, using a pencil with a home-made severed eye impaled on it in English class, or planting a severed hand in the teacher’s desk drawer (for which I was rewarded with a few after-school detentions). I have been making my own Halloween props since I was 8 or 9 years old.

Back then (I won’t say how many decades ago that was!) there weren’t a lot of Halloween props and make-up available in the stores, the way there is now (and of course no internet or YouTube back then either). I had to make everything myself, improvising with every day materials like tan coloured silicone bathroom caulk to make severed stumps, or a rotted corpse made entirely out of old nylons. When I got the book ‘Grande Illusions’ by Tom Savini a new world opened for me: the world of special effects make-up. There were no digital effects back then, so you had to figure out how to create everything with real materials.

Naturally, I went to film school, graduating with honours and with ambitions of becoming a big director (you fool!). While learning about film and TV production, I kept expanding my skills as an FX make-up artist. My fellow students knew where to find me whenever they needed something gross or gory. Working for years in post production, many of my friends and co-workers were independent filmmakers, and I was the one they turned to for props and effects solutions to fit their (often microscopic) budgets. They still call me whenever they are in need of make-up or props.”

You can find Brian on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1935495/

Desirée Van De Laar

“I spent most of my life in The Netherlands, where I was born and raised. I’ve always been fascinated by Halloween, though at the time it was a very obscure holiday.
When I moved to Canada in 2012, thanks to Brian I was immediately immersed in the horror and Halloween subculture, and creating props and prosthetics. I’ve always been an artist, so the switch was easy – it was just a different specialization. Instead of canvasses, I now work on people. Instead of painting murals, I now paint creatures.
Having not grown up a horror-fan (shock!) often gives me a clean perspective, uninfluenced by typical horror cliches. That combined with Brian’s extensive horror knowledge, gives us a unique approach to each project.”

You can find Desirée on IMDB:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7175581/