Director Nick Taylor spent years admiring the work of special effects artist Steve Johnson in a way that went beyond basic curiosity.
“He was someone who had a very special place in my heart, because I grew up as a lonely misfit horror fan,” Taylor says. “I didn’t have a lot of friends who were into the weird horror stuff that I was into, so I always felt like a bit of an outcast. When I saw ‘Scare Tactics with Steve and Linnea’ on TV, I saw this cool, handsome, very successful guy who’s into all of the weird stuff that I was into. It validated me … ‘Oh, I’m not such a misfit.’ There’s this cool guy who’s got a gorgeous wife who’s super successful in Hollywood, making some of the best movies, and he makes his living making werewolves and vampires and blood and all this cool stuff that I love. It made me feel less alone.”
Taylor was able to meet Johnson 20 years later at the Monsterpalooza horror fan convention, where he picked up a copy of the artist’s memoir “Rubberhead” and couldn’t believe what he read.
While Johnson was known by genre fans for his work on tons of hits like 1984’s “Ghostbusters” (where he created Slimer), the conceptualization of Doctor Octopus’s arms in 2004’s “Spider-Man 2” and the aliens in 1989’s “The Abyss,” he was never quite the household name of a Rick Baker or Stan Winston. The reason? A drug habit that not only helped him build some of his signature works, but eventually got out of control.
