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Making Monsters: Inside Stories from the Creators of Hollywood's Most Iconic Creatures
Explore behind the scenes of the greatest monster movies ever made!
What makes a great movie monster? Academy Award-winning make-up effects artist Howard Berger and acclaimed journalist Marshall Julius have spoken to dozens of film industry legends to find out.
A celebration of monsters, monster movies and monster movie makers, Making Monsters delivers an illuminating, entertaining and accessible oral history of the genre, gathering an enviable array of A-list talent from make-up and digital effects legends (Tom Savini, Phil Tippett) to directors (John Carpenter, Ti West), actors (Simon Pegg, Barbara Crampton), composers (Michael Giacchino) and writers (Russell T Davies).
Packed with hundreds of images, from film stills to personal, behind-the-scenes pictures from dozens of interview subjects - many never before published - Making Monsters is a treasure trove of monstrous creations, and the stories behind them, that is sure to make fans jump, scream and howl with delight.
764 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 3, 2025
I wish you could see the creepy cool cover art from this book.
It's worth picking it up alone.
If you like Horror films, how movies are made, stories from Hollywood, dreams of makeup artistry or creature creating, this is the book for you!
Filled with hundreds (yes you heard that) pictures from movies from the Golden age of Cinema to the most recent horrific, gory flicks, this is for you!
Interviews with makeup artists, directors, producers, monster actors, onscreen scene partners to the monsters/creatures, costumers, special effects creators and many more fill up every page with stories, experiments and experiences.
It's worth picking it up alone.
If you like Horror films, how movies are made, stories from Hollywood, dreams of makeup artistry or creature creating, this is the book for you!
Filled with hundreds (yes you heard that) pictures from movies from the Golden age of Cinema to the most recent horrific, gory flicks, this is for you!
Interviews with makeup artists, directors, producers, monster actors, onscreen scene partners to the monsters/creatures, costumers, special effects creators and many more fill up every page with stories, experiments and experiences.
July 29, 2026
was lucky enough to attend a talk by Marshall Julius, one of the co-authors of this book, in Norwich earlier this month.
His passion for monsters, creatures and cinema is infectious and it definitely rubbed off on everyone in the room. Listening to him discuss his favourite creature designs and the journey that led him to where he is today was fascinating. If you ever get the chance to meet or hear him speak, I couldn’t recommend it more; he’s an absolute legend.
As for the book itself, I really enjoyed the artwork and found much of it genuinely interesting. However, I was hoping for more insight into how many of these iconic monsters and creatures were actually created. Rather than brief quotes from people involved in their development, I expected a deeper look at the creative process behind the designs.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good book, but I see it more as a beautiful coffee table book to dip into than a detailed read.
His passion for monsters, creatures and cinema is infectious and it definitely rubbed off on everyone in the room. Listening to him discuss his favourite creature designs and the journey that led him to where he is today was fascinating. If you ever get the chance to meet or hear him speak, I couldn’t recommend it more; he’s an absolute legend.
As for the book itself, I really enjoyed the artwork and found much of it genuinely interesting. However, I was hoping for more insight into how many of these iconic monsters and creatures were actually created. Rather than brief quotes from people involved in their development, I expected a deeper look at the creative process behind the designs.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good book, but I see it more as a beautiful coffee table book to dip into than a detailed read.
March 20, 2026
I will be honest, this book wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought this would do deep dives into the creation of some of the most iconic creatures in entertainment. Instead this is just little snippets from people about their feelings on certain creature movies. Some of them were so simple as a single sentence saying this was the person's favorite movie.
There were a few sections towards the end of the book that were a little more interesting to me because they spent more time talking about one movie and actually discussed more in depth about creating the monsters. These mainly were the Gremlins, Predator, Aliens, and The Last Of Us pages. But overall, a creature was only discussed for one, maybe two pages before it moved onto the next one, and it wasn’t in depth or anything.
Basically this was disappointing in content, but the pictures were good and did show behind the scenes of some of the creatures.
There were a few sections towards the end of the book that were a little more interesting to me because they spent more time talking about one movie and actually discussed more in depth about creating the monsters. These mainly were the Gremlins, Predator, Aliens, and The Last Of Us pages. But overall, a creature was only discussed for one, maybe two pages before it moved onto the next one, and it wasn’t in depth or anything.
Basically this was disappointing in content, but the pictures were good and did show behind the scenes of some of the creatures.
October 5, 2026
Almost exactly like Julius' previous Masters of Makeup Effects, for betters or worse (mostly for worse). You would think this time it would specifically focus the likes of puppetry and creature suit making, but no, it's just more of the same. More barely contextualised soundbites, more jumbled and messy formatting, and more focusing on either extremely popular or recent productions. Again this is the furthest you could get to a serious history of creature effects as an artform, this is just more printed Buzzfeed nonsense; some pretty pictures (some that I've not seen before) but worthless past that.
Yet again the text is really Anglocentric, only focusing on the big names from the United States and United Kingdom. There is barely any discussion of Japanese creature effects that country's longstanding history of special effects films! In fact, awful CGI kaiju crap gets more images than any of the classic Toho stuff!
There is also no mention at all of Italian films either despite that country's long history of mechanical creature effects, aside from the notorious 1977 King Kong. It's easy to demonise Carlo Rambaldi as a hack who stole candy from children if you neither give any context on his other work before that gig, and only quote the same salty Rick Baker story. Yeah we know, King Kong was a disaster. Much like this book.
And yet even with American and British productions, its all so surface level with barely any attempt to highlight underseen work, just popular shit like Terrified, Last of Us, Stranger Things, American Horror Story, Walking Dead, and... The Witcher? No attempt to highlight even the likes of Nick Maley for his work on The Keep, Bob Keen for so much of the creature films he past some very brief mentions of Dog Soldiers and Hellraiser, let alone the army of monster maker freelancers (Shawcraft Models, Richard Gregory, etc) that worked on the original Doctor Who. There's a brief mention of the modern 2005 Doctor Who and its just 1 or 2 easy to find images, actually same with Star Wars.
The book is also flippant with the topic of disabled actors in films, with a twee mention of actors with acromegaly like Richard Kiel and Rondo Hatton (described as 'not only ugly, he looked like a monster' 'he was so ugly, they could save money by putting him in movies....in a chapter full of gore effects like the melting head in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the head explosion in Scanners.
Disability in film is something I feel strongly about, and also a topic I have noticed has overlap with makeup effects - whether its makeup artists recreating the visages of notable deformed people such as Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980), or Roy Dennis in Mask (1985). There is also the amount of little people who are hired to play gremlins and so on. This is something I feel deserves respect, but as Marshal Julius was too busy in his mausoleum of plastic shite and to be parasocial with actors and effects artists to even think of that. After all, he started the previous book with 'hooray the pandemic'.
If you want to know more about makeup effects, creature effects, etc, it's best to keep looking into older publications. Don't buy this sorry excuse for paper and fuel a fanboy collector's addiction to landfill fodder.
Yet again the text is really Anglocentric, only focusing on the big names from the United States and United Kingdom. There is barely any discussion of Japanese creature effects that country's longstanding history of special effects films! In fact, awful CGI kaiju crap gets more images than any of the classic Toho stuff!
There is also no mention at all of Italian films either despite that country's long history of mechanical creature effects, aside from the notorious 1977 King Kong. It's easy to demonise Carlo Rambaldi as a hack who stole candy from children if you neither give any context on his other work before that gig, and only quote the same salty Rick Baker story. Yeah we know, King Kong was a disaster. Much like this book.
And yet even with American and British productions, its all so surface level with barely any attempt to highlight underseen work, just popular shit like Terrified, Last of Us, Stranger Things, American Horror Story, Walking Dead, and... The Witcher? No attempt to highlight even the likes of Nick Maley for his work on The Keep, Bob Keen for so much of the creature films he past some very brief mentions of Dog Soldiers and Hellraiser, let alone the army of monster maker freelancers (Shawcraft Models, Richard Gregory, etc) that worked on the original Doctor Who. There's a brief mention of the modern 2005 Doctor Who and its just 1 or 2 easy to find images, actually same with Star Wars.
The book is also flippant with the topic of disabled actors in films, with a twee mention of actors with acromegaly like Richard Kiel and Rondo Hatton (described as 'not only ugly, he looked like a monster' 'he was so ugly, they could save money by putting him in movies....in a chapter full of gore effects like the melting head in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the head explosion in Scanners.
Disability in film is something I feel strongly about, and also a topic I have noticed has overlap with makeup effects - whether its makeup artists recreating the visages of notable deformed people such as Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980), or Roy Dennis in Mask (1985). There is also the amount of little people who are hired to play gremlins and so on. This is something I feel deserves respect, but as Marshal Julius was too busy in his mausoleum of plastic shite and to be parasocial with actors and effects artists to even think of that. After all, he started the previous book with 'hooray the pandemic'.
If you want to know more about makeup effects, creature effects, etc, it's best to keep looking into older publications. Don't buy this sorry excuse for paper and fuel a fanboy collector's addiction to landfill fodder.
September 14, 2025
Fantastic fun and great pictures. Must for monster fans.
June 4, 2026
Excellent coffee table book.
November 6, 2025
This is a book that I got a digital critic’s copy thanks to Meg from Parsons Publicity Group for Welbeck. What shocked me when I settled into reading this is that Howard Berger, one of the great makeup and special effects artists, is one of the authors. Along with his co-writer, Marshall Julius, they interview more than 75 luminaries in the industry. This ranges from John Carpenter and Wes Craven to iconic horror actors like Barbara Crampton. We also get to see dozens of makeup artists and digital effects notables, composers and writers.
It is broken up into different categories, mostly by the main creature from the films. That is fun as we get smooth transitions from one film to the next. Getting to hear from the likes of Jeff Yagher, Chris Walas, Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nictoero, Rick Baker and Tom Savini is amazing. These guys didn’t invent what they do, but they shared who inspired them and what they learned. It is one of those things that makes it fun as a horror fan to connect with since we have similar experiences as to how we got to where we are.
I’ll say that this is an easy read. All the interviews that were done, they are broken into little snippets. These are then artfully placed on the page along with behind the scenes and images from the films that are being referred to. That was something that I appreciated as a fan. I might have seen the film they’re talking about, but being able to directly compare, right after reading something is a positive for me. There are just so many images in this. The amount of research is an element that I can’t overlook.
I would then say that this is truly a must buy for someone who loves special effects and creature makeup. It would make an excellent coffee table book and I would recommend reading as well. If you also have a budding artist who wants to get into this line of work, there are good pieces of advice in it as well. Hearing from all these amazing people, seeing how most came from modest beginnings to where they are is a true inspiration.
In conclusion, this is an essential addition to any horror fan's collection, especially those with a passion for special effects and creature makeup. Berger and Julius have crafted a compelling and visually rich journey through the history of cinematic monsters, offering invaluable insights from industry legends. Its accessible format, stunning imagery, and inspiring stories of artistic journeys make it not only a fascinating read but also a potential source of motivation for aspiring artists. This book is highly recommended for both casual fans and serious enthusiasts alike.
My Rating: 7 out of 10
It is broken up into different categories, mostly by the main creature from the films. That is fun as we get smooth transitions from one film to the next. Getting to hear from the likes of Jeff Yagher, Chris Walas, Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nictoero, Rick Baker and Tom Savini is amazing. These guys didn’t invent what they do, but they shared who inspired them and what they learned. It is one of those things that makes it fun as a horror fan to connect with since we have similar experiences as to how we got to where we are.
I’ll say that this is an easy read. All the interviews that were done, they are broken into little snippets. These are then artfully placed on the page along with behind the scenes and images from the films that are being referred to. That was something that I appreciated as a fan. I might have seen the film they’re talking about, but being able to directly compare, right after reading something is a positive for me. There are just so many images in this. The amount of research is an element that I can’t overlook.
I would then say that this is truly a must buy for someone who loves special effects and creature makeup. It would make an excellent coffee table book and I would recommend reading as well. If you also have a budding artist who wants to get into this line of work, there are good pieces of advice in it as well. Hearing from all these amazing people, seeing how most came from modest beginnings to where they are is a true inspiration.
In conclusion, this is an essential addition to any horror fan's collection, especially those with a passion for special effects and creature makeup. Berger and Julius have crafted a compelling and visually rich journey through the history of cinematic monsters, offering invaluable insights from industry legends. Its accessible format, stunning imagery, and inspiring stories of artistic journeys make it not only a fascinating read but also a potential source of motivation for aspiring artists. This book is highly recommended for both casual fans and serious enthusiasts alike.
My Rating: 7 out of 10
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews