I'm thinking about a term like "Suit Monster", to refer to a monster or creature played by an actor in any kind of suit, costume, mask or makeup which is intended to make the actor look like a monster or creature. This is the often low-tech creature effect found in countless genre films. "Suit monster" might seem like an insult.
I would apply this to the classic monsters of Universal Pictures and other Hollywood studios around the 1930s-1940s. Dracula, not a rubber suit, but a painted makeup to make Bela Lugosi look like a vampire, and clothes of an otherworldly style. If a vampire can be called a monster, then Lugosi's Dracula may qualify as a suit monster. The earlier Nosferatu had Max Schreck with lots of posthetics on his head and hands, so a comparison is unfair, the Nosferatu looks way more like an inhuman creature.
The Frankenstein monster was Boris Karloff with heavy makeup, clothes that had padding underneath, and platform shoes, which made him look larger, taller and more unnatural than a normal human. Maybe this is the suit monster that set a standard of quality.
I'm thinking about a term like "Suit Monster", to refer to a monster or creature played by an actor in any kind of suit, costume, mask or makeup which is intended to make the actor look like a monster or creature. This is the often low-tech creature effect found in countless genre films. "Suit monster" might seem like an insult.
I would apply this to the classic monsters of Universal Pictures and other Hollywood studios around the 1930s-1940s. Dracula, not a rubber suit, but a painted makeup to make Bela Lugosi look like a vampire, and clothes of an otherworldly style. If a vampire can be called a monster, then Lugosi's Dracula may qualify as a suit monster. The earlier Nosferatu had Max Schreck with lots of posthetics on his head and hands, so a comparison is unfair, the Nosferatu looks way more like an inhuman creature.
The Frankenstein monster was Boris Karloff with heavy makeup, clothes that had padding underneath, and platform shoes, which made him look larger, taller and more unnatural than a normal human. Maybe this is the suit monster that set a standard of quality.