In the early 90's I hired two teams of special effects artists to produce two different lines of Halloween masks. My venture bombed though because it seems that I didn't have the permission of the Lord to do this for a living despite the fact that some people do.
My sculptor for the premier line, Twilight Delights Legion of the Undead, was Mark Alfrey (see MarkAlfrey.com) and Warren Disbrow and Brian Coposky did the second line.
I found it unusual that people who work in Hollywood stay up to 4:00 AM sculpting monsters but it is a living for them. Personally, I did this myself as a hobby and was trying to hire skilled sculptors to have better products to sell.
There are quite a few companies selling the chemicals for making special effects makeup and masks like BurmanFoam.com and fxwarehouseinc.com I had a distributorship with Sandra Burman years ago.
According to the monotheistic tradition, Satan, was originally a good angel named Lucifer or “Morning Star.” He rebelled against God and was cast down from Heaven. He also took about 1/3rd of the angels formerly in Heaven with him to Hell. There is a Jewish opinion that after the Messiah comes and the resurrection of the dead happens the Devil will repent and God will restore him to His good graces.
In Europe, many of these demon-based legends grew as they did in pretty much every culture including the Japanese culture of Shintoism and the Jinn or Genies of Arabia. When people didn't believe in science and technology as opposed to mysticism, these legends proliferated.
Nevertheless, I strongly maintain that the physical plane of existence that we live in has forces at work that are invisible to us. The realm of the unseen that's hidden away can be the stage where the Godly forces are battling the Satanic powers.
And where large masses of land were as of yet unsettled and untamed, the legends grew like they did in Germany. Germany had a lot of wooded areas and Germany believed in vampires and werewolves. Japan's legends should be investigated too.
Ancient cultures like Greece and Rome had beliefs in supernatural beings and aberrations of nature like the Gorgon, Chimera, etc. It's worth using this document as springboard to move up and get a more comprehensive expose of this concept. You might want to check out The Ancient World Web on the Internet.
The Norsemen had their giants, dwarfs and monsters too, and Loki's - the God of mischief, and his 3 monstrous brood - Hela, the Goddess of death, Fenris wolf and Jormangandar - the snake that encircles the world, are legends that have come down to us despite the Church's trying to destroy all the ancient records of the Norsemen.
The Nazi swastika was the symbol of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, whirling through the air to strike one of Thor's enemies and the lightning bolts are the symbol of his lightning.
Hitler appropriated those symbols for his own use but today, there's a group called Friends of the Swastika who are trying to restore the symbol to its original purity. Actually, it was an ancient sun symbol.
I have read in dictionaries that the term vampire relates to men who are sexually abusive to woman. You have to realize that the demon Dracula (based upon the real life Count Vlad the Impaler) uses his European charm to woo women to their deaths and resurrections as vampires. Bela Lugosi is the definitive Dracula for many but some people like Gary Oldman's rendition and also Christopher Lee's of the '70s.
There are also ghouls like the ones portrayed in the various Night of the Living Dead movies, both the old ones or the new ones by Tom Savini as the special effects artist. Half dead, resurrected beings that have no soul but are yet alive is a haunting topic.
By the way, Fangoria, Cinefx and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazines showcase the movies and also have ads for makeup schools where you can learn how to create special effects makeup. Personally, I just stick to mask and toys these days.
