ONE of the surprises of last year's US television season was writer/producer Joss Whedon's Buffy The Vampire Slayer, a well-crafted combination of Horror, comedy and teen drama. Loosely based on Whedon's 1992 feature film, about a high school cheerleader who spends her nights slaying vampires, the vastly superior TV version has become must-see viewing among discerning genre fans.
Among the many factors that contribute to Buffy's appeal is the grotesque assortment of creatures that populate the series. Vampires are the main stock-in-trade, but other episodes feature demons, mummies, snake-creatures and killer robots. To create this monstrous menagerie, the producers turned to Optic Nerve Studios, whose alien make-ups for Babylon 5 earned the company an Emmy Award.
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According to Optic Nerve co-founder John Vulich, the opportunity to work on Buffy was too good to pass up. "We had a couple of friends with the production that recommended us," recalls Vulich, "and like any job, I called them a couple of times and they were somewhat interested. Through another friend, I heard there was a preying mantis in one of the episodes, so I sent them a package and called them up a third time and said, 'Look, on page four of our press kit, there's a preying mantis suit, and from what I understand, you have one in your third or fourth episode', so they looked at it and said, 'Come in tomorrow'. I went in and had a meeting with the producers and that went well. We saw eye- to-eye on the concept and how to approach it, so we had a good rapport right off the bat."