Angel

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - On Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 9 p.m. ET, in an episode called "Unleashed," The WB’s "Angel" pits its titular character, a vampire with a soul, played by David Boreanaz, against a classic movie monster — the werewolf.

It’s not the first time a vampire and a werewolf have squared off — warring clans of each battle in the current feature film "Underworld" — nor the first time a werewolf has appeared in series co-creator Joss Whedon’s fictional universe.

On early seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which spun off "Angel," Seth Green’s laconic Oz lived a double life as a rock musician and a werewolf. But, says monster-maker Robert Hall — whose company, Almost Human, worked and works on both "Buffy" and "Angel" — the new werewolf won’t look anything like Oz’s furry alter-ego.

"They were saying Oz looked like a gay possum," Hall says. "Everyone has their own idea of what a werewolf should look like. My answer usually is, ’What did the last one look like that you saw in the real world ?’ I don’t know. It was tough. We probably did nine or 10 different designs.

"We were going back and forth with [executive producer] Jeff Bell, because he was real specific about it. The script wanted a big, bad wolf that didn’t look like a gay possum. I think it literally said, ’Don’t make it look like a gay possum.’"

"I said, ’I want to do something big.’ They said, ’Great.’ I said, ’I want to do something that doesn’t have a lot of hair, and you can see the muscles underneath, so that will take it away from gay-possum-land, which is where we don’t want to go.’"

Stretched out on the floor of Hall’s Culver City, Calif., office, the latex costume looks like a wolf with alopecia. Instead of a thick pelt, it has sparse, wiry hair that allows the skin to show through. Although, to be fair, there was more hair before the costume had to survive several fight scenes — which also took their toll on stuntman Steve Upton.

"There was a huge one where he jumped with Angel," Hall says. "They were inside of a two-story bedroom. He jumped at Angel, who’s out on a ledge, and they went down two stories, where Steve got a little bang on his head.

"He went out for a while. He woke up, and they asked him where he parked his car, and he didn’t know. It was a whole thing for a little while, but eventually he came around. I had to pull his werewolf teeth out, open up his face and give him water."

While the more episodic story structure on "Angel" in its fifth season has kept Hall and his company busy with fresh monsters each week, it’s far from the only thing on their plate. Hall actually found out that he had to design a werewolf while he was on the set of "Frankenstein" in Slovakia.

Starring Luke Goss as The Creature and Alex Newman (Sci Fi Channel’s "Dune") as Victor Frankenstein — and co-starring Donald Sutherland and William Hurt - the newest version of Mary Shelley’s classic novel is planned to air on Halloween 2004 on Hallmark Channel.

But first, Almost Human’s work is on display in "Monster Makers," airing Sunday, Oct. 26, on Hallmark Channel. The family-oriented film stars Linda Blair ("The Exorcist" and Tim McCallum as a mother and son coping with a trio of monsters that leaps out of the frames of a campy horror film.

Also starring are George Kennedy, Larry Manetti and Adam Baldwin (Whedon’s "Firefly").

"One of the monsters is a ghost," Hall says, "so that made it easy. We didn’t have to do anything. It just possesses people. The other two are a were-rat who has his tail slammed in doors and stuff, and a possessed mannequin, the ’Manikin.’ Kids ought to be scared by the Manikin. We accidentally made him kind of creepy."

Apparently, Blair approved of Hall’s efforts.

"It was very important to me," she says, "that the characters and special effects and makeup on the monsters were the best they could be. When I saw the different creatures, I had a great smile on my face because I think they’re fabulous and the audience will enjoy them."

In his spare time, Hall has also just completed "Lightning Bug," a semi-autobiographical independent feature he both wrote and directed. It stars Bret Harrison as a working-class kid in northern Alabama (Hall’s home state, and the film’s location) who dreams of going to Hollywood and making monsters.

But first he has to deal with a drunken stepfather (Kevin Gage) and an unexpected romance with a rebellious local girl, played by Laura Prepon of Fox’s "That ’70s Show," who is also one of the executive producers.

Asked why he did a coming-of-age story instead of a horror film, Hall says, "Because no one expected me to. They say write what you know, and I know this sort of stuff. It’s about how real-life monsters are a lot worse than escapism."