Tom Savini: The Early Years

Tom Savini: The Early Years (2004)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice interview with make-up legend Tom Savini comes courtesy of Blue Underground/David Gregory and can be found on their DEATHDREAM disc. Running just under ten minutes, Savini discusses how he ended up playing Dracula in a local theater and how his time in Vietnam influenced his work. When back from the war Savini ended up doing a couple low-budget shockers: DEATHDREAM and DERANGED. From this point on he began working with George Romero on MARTIN and it was DAWN OF THE DEAD that really set his career in motion. Savini has always been one of the best people to listen to in an interview or commentary because he keeps everything moving and he's just fascinating to listen to. I thought the interview here was very quick and to the point but we do get to hear some great stories about how and why he was hired and we get some nice photographs as well. We even get a clip of the brain scooping sequence from DERANGED that was missing from the MGM disc. Fans of Savini will certainly want to check this out but you can't help but hope one day Gregory can tackle his entire career.

This 10 minute featurette can be found on Blue Underground's DVD release of "Deathdream", in it Tom Savani talks about the legendary make-up artist Dick Smith. As well as talking about his past work beginning with his first job as Dracula in a children's play, his experiences in Vietnam, his dealings with Forrest Carpenter and Alan Ormsby, his experiences on "Deathdream", the other cast and crew members, and also his work on "Deranged" and "Martin". It's not that informative, but it's always a treat to hear Mr. Savini talk as he's a pretty interesting guy.

My Grade: C+