A close look at the werewolf makeup of “Wolves”

Today, Make-Up Artist magazine showcases Dave Elsey’s werewolf makeup for Wolves, the just-released werewolf film by David Hayter. Despite Wolves‘s “relatively modest budget”, Elsey and his team put a lot of time and effort into the design and execution of their werewolf makeups, and the article takes a close look at each wolfed-out character.

Elsey certainly knows how to bring werewolves to life through practical makeup, having won an Oscar for his work with Rick Baker on 2010’s The Wolfman. Initially hesitant to take on another werewolf film, he was drawn in by the prospect of designing a conventionally attractive female werewolf. He and his team spent a lot of time finding ways to integrate each actor’s human features into the werewolf designs, from facial hair to scars and tattoos, and they did a lot of considered hair work, some of which I have already snarked on.

The final make-ups the four main werewolf characters included three large facial pieces that were pre-punched with fur, hands that were tipped with soft urethane claws and a body/muscle suit underneath. “We did as much of the hair work as we possibly could before we glued the pieces on,” notes Elsey, “but we still laid tons of fur on the actors while they were in the chair, including all the refined stuff that goes up their cheeks and transitions into their cheekbones. All of that is laid on, because it was too difficult and delicate to do that beforehand.

Check out the article for more, including a lot of great photos (which you can see at a much larger size if you right-click and open in a new tab).