Behind Me?

The Behind Me? head was actually designed for a prop used in the 1994 Wyandotte, Michigan Jaycees movie-themed haunted house. It was created to mimic the classic "guy-on-the-spikes" scene from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark. (I had to freeze frame my old VHS video about 300 times to try and get the details right. The stupid thing would shut itself off after being paused for a minuteor two. Yeah, I know, VHS is really old-fashioned, but keep in mind that this was 1994.) For the Raiders prop on which the head sat, we weren't allowed to use metal for the spikes, so we improvised with foam. We definitely could have chosen a better material...

When I started entertaining ideas of mass producing the various props in 1995, this one had to be included. This was in part because I thought this was a really effective prop. It was also because Forestal and I go wayyyy back. (I had a plastic skull model that I coated with brown shoe polish when I was a kid in an effort to recreate the Forestal look. The desired effect was not really accomplished, although every time I touched the thing I got brown shoe polish all over me. But I digress.) On top of all that, he was really like my company's logo.

When converting it into a moldable, salable prop, the hair had to go unless I wanted to include a wig and jack the price of the prop up $10 (and that's for a cheap, crappy-looking wig). Some re-sculpting and re-painting were also required for the final prop. I had to compensate for the lack of hair and the demands of the molding process. Comparing the final prop (front - left side - right side) to the original version (front - right angled), you'll see that the gored side was modified to be easier to mold. The head also underwent a massive re-paint. Had we gone live with production on Behind Me, I would had to fill more of the mouth in as well.

Click the images above to view photos of this prop in the window.