Interview: Marli Kruger & Natasha du Toit Break Down the Kills and Makeup Effects of BUZZKILL

Directed by Jem Garrard (R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead) from a screenplay by Suzanne Keilly (2021’s Slumber Party Massacre), Buzzkill follows sorority sisters trying to survive a revenge-seeking killer, with their fate resting in the hands of the hard-partying Nora (Siena Agudong), who “knows that the drunker she gets, the more her tipsy memories start revealing clues about who’s murdering her friends. But she’d better hurry, or her next vodka soda might be her last call.”

Brought to you by Terror on Tubi, we’re celebrating the premiere of Buzzkill with Marli Kruger and Natasha du Toit, who spoke with us about Buzzkill's makeup effects, kills, on-set experience, and Halloween costume tips!

Buzzkill has a really fun and comedic energy. Can you speak to the collaboration with director Jem Garrard and writer Suzanne Keilly to design these kills and help bring the story to life?

Marli Kruger: The kills on Buzzkill were such a big collaboration. On a project like this, no one department can really work in isolation because there are so many moving parts involved in making a kill work on camera. We always have what we call a “Wounds and Kills” meeting during pre-production, where all the relevant departments get together and break down each sequence. We discuss how Jem would like to film the scene, the camera angles, what exactly needs to be seen, how much time we will have to achieve the effect, and how many resets we’re realistically going to get.

We also hear from stunts about the timing of the action, props, set dressing, costume, blood effects, and, of course, what needs to happen from the makeup and prosthetics side. It’s important to have these conversations early on to allow time to get all the necessary elements ready.

With practical effects, resets are a big consideration - once you’ve covered an actor or a set in blood, the reset times can be huge. Jem is very smart in the way they will shoot everything they can up until the point of the kill first in order to save time. Jem and Suzanne created this wonderfully heightened world where the kills could be gruesome and shocking but also funny.

Natasha du Toit: It is always such a pleasure to collaborate with Jem on kills; they love to push the limits with each prosthetic to have maximum shock effect. I get to create prosthetics that really show the action and aftermath of these kills. We try to do everything practical wherever we can and do not just make use of camera angles to "sell" the kill.

With Buzzkill embracing and subverting slasher genre tropes, what are some of the films that served as inspiration for crafting the look of the kills and practical effects?

Marli Kruger: I always love that I have an excuse to re-watch some of these films and shows for inspiration. I especially enjoyed Scream Queens for the absurdity of the kills. Films like Scream are also great references because they manage to be genuinely frightening while still having humour. I also love the practical effects era of horror that we embraced. There is something about practical blood and prosthetics that gives the actor something tangible to react to, and gives the image a texture that is difficult to fake.

Can you share with our readers a bit of the process for creating the movie's kills on set? How long does it take to prepare and film a "kill scene"?

Natasha du Toit: This is a complete collaboration between Make-up, Prosthetics, Props and the SFX Team. Some kills were an onset creation that needed a bit of preplanning of what each department would help with and what would be needed: These would be blood rigs and kill weapon rigs. These types of kills would be a blood rig (By SFX) that would either be combined with a rig for the kill weapon (By Props) or just the blood rig by itself. Prosthetics collaborated with Props in making small lifecasts of our actors, focusing on the body part where the kill would happen. 

This helped props create the kill weapon rig to fit perfectly to our actors’ body shape, making the actor comfortable in these uncomfortable dying times. On set: once the scene was complete, it would be a complete buzz off set with Costume, Make-up, SFX and Props all hands on deck to make sure the rigs are placed correctly and go on fast (if it was 30min we were lucky)... as most of these kills had only a one-time wow factor for that first spray of blood. So the pressure was on to get it right.

When it came to kills that involved prosthetics, we needed to make sure if that character would shoot other scenes on the same day and how that would affect the shooting schedule. Prosthetics involve full lifecasts, sculpting, moulding, and casting that can take up to a week to create. It was always easier to do a prosthetics application in the actors’ pre-call, giving us good light and time to complete application and to maximize shooting time. But then there was always the fun part of magically transforming a bloody actress in record time back to her glamorous Sigma self.

Nora’s “buzz” plays a big role in uncovering clues about the murders. How did you approach the visual look of the effects or makeup knowing that the film would play with Nora’s blurred vision?

Marli Kruger: Jem had the brilliant idea to not only see the flashback actions from Nora’s POV, but to have the actual “past” Nora in the scene being watched by “present” Nora. There were days where we had 3 Nora’s for one scene. Siena, a picture double and a stunt double. Sometimes they also needed to be changed over into the other look for the same scene. This was quite challenging, as we had different levels of blood, drunkenness, and disheveledness on Nora. These changes had to happen super fast on set. We had a tiny bit of leeway on matching things 100% because we are not experiencing these flashbacks in a completely objective way, but through Nora’s perception and memory.

What was your experience like working with the actors of Buzzkill throughout filming? Can you speak to the collaboration with them for practical effects application? Any fun stories from the set come to mind?

Marli Kruger: The cast of Buzzkill were all so incredible and game for anything! Being covered in blood is NOT comfortable at all! It gets sticky and dry and cold. You often have to get touched up with more blood to keep it looking fresh for long. But the cast were so wonderful and patient. Such troopers who stayed positive and had fun with it, despite the discomfort.

With so many characters in the sorority, how did you use hair and makeup to give each of the girls their own identity?

Marli Kruger: The characters were so beautifully written, so just reading the script already gave me a great starting point. I take aspects of the character’s personality and make mood boards from there. Then, of course, we collaborate with costume to see if our visions match up and always run everything past Jem for approval. Once the girls are cast, they also bring their own personalities and ideas for the character to the table. I wanted to make sure the audience could easily distinguish one character from another. It is a really enjoyable process because hair and makeup becomes another layer of the characterisation.

We have to talk about the Clowns...

Marli Kruger: Probably the most fun designs of this film! Jem wanted each of them to have a familiar quality, referencing clowns in pop culture. The challenge was giving them the familiar qualities, but still keeping the designs original. We also took into consideration the character’s personalities and styles, as well as the look they have when transitioning into the clowns. Natasha did all the sculpting and making of the prosthetics, while I worked on the hair and wigs. The cast were all so excited for these looks and had a lot of fun with it.

With Halloween approaching, any tips and tricks for our readers to take their costume gore and blood to another level?

Marli Kruger: Layering is probably my biggest tip. Real injuries aren’t one shade of red, so don’t just pour fake blood and stop there. Build up different tones and textures. A little bruising or discolouration around an injury immediately makes it more convincing, and use different types of blood if you have them. Or spray the blood with a bit of water to run naturally. Also, think about gravity - the direction the blood would run, where it would settle in creases or get transferred to. Those little details make a huge difference. Don’t make anything look too perfect. Irregularity usually looks more believable. Most importantly, only use products specifically intended to be safely used on skin, especially around the eyes and mouth. Safety First!

Natasha du Toit: Too much is never enough!! Go wild and have fun... but please for your own good, PICK A GOOD BLOOD. No one likes to be the sticky person at the end of the night with every remnant of that night stuck to you like a bad hangover.

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Watch Buzzkill free on Tubi now to see how Nora and her fellow Sigma Omega Kappa sisters fare against that mysterious killer! And for thousands of other horror movies at your fingertips, head to Terror on Tubi, Tubi’s year-round home for horror!