Desiree Russo/ Sendelbach

Makeup artist/ Straight make-up & Hair Styling / Special Effects

"Flesh Eaters From Outer Space / Scarlet Moon Trilogy"

In the mid to late 80's and early 90's I was the hair and makeup artist for alot of the glam metal bands on the East coast. During this time I was introduced to Warren by Gene Reynolds. When I first started working with Visual Experiences back in 1988,( A Taste For Flesh And Blood AKA Flesh Eaters From Outer Space) I never knew I would make some life long friends , but that’s exactly what happened. We were all working so hard to bring an idea to life, make it believable and keep our faith on a very tight budget (that included gas, bologna sandwiches, and cheap cola.) We did whatever we could on whatever we had, and we had a blast the whole time.

We were learning every aspect of film making while we filmed. Not only did I get to use my makeup skills, I learned how to do lighting, set construction, casting, location scouting, public relations, and acting. It's not as easy as it looks... Ha Ha. I also have a special ability to remove Kayro syrup and food coloring from any substance on earth. Warren let us do everything but hold the camera. Which for me was a very good thing…

There were so many fun things that went on and went wrong (In a funny "Well that sucked" way, not a nobody can do anything right way.) I remember thinking "I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a snuff film" meaning we had Steve Mezo "Tattooed Steve", and Tony Annunziata, almost dying in the Sid suit. It was the middle of summer, and we were shooting along the Jersey Shore in a full thick rubber and latex body suit (unbelievable) and it was during the time when all the beaches were closed due to high bacteria. But neither one of them became sick from it. Must have been from eating the burgers off the F/X grill. HA HA HA 

Then there was a scene where Greg Scott had to be roughed up by a couple of thugs, we got bouncers from a local club that were all too happy to make it look real by actually beating up Greg… So some of the pulled punches you see are made contact… It was priceless to see Greg’s face when Warren suggested we attach some electrodes to his nads to shock the truth outta him. He kinda believed Warren would do it…(I woulda stopped him).

We had some stuff made outta not so safe things like fiberglass body parts at one point. (Not the finished product, but the makeing is dangerous. Between the fumes and sanding.) We learned that you could make things like giant full sized caves outta butcher’s paper and cardboard houses if ya had to…it was just pure fun.

I remember Warren making fake breasts outta geletain for one of the kill scenes (As a test makeup) and me having to try to fit them on Lori Karz, neither one of us were too happy about that (Because of the weight and the ammount of spirit gum to hold them on), turned out after an hour there was no way she could wear them for the kill scene. So we had switched to a latex appliance. 

We had a kissing scene between two actors that hated each other and when it came time for the guy to grope the girls crotch she hated him so much that we had to have a stand in to grope her… I think it was Tattooed Steve's hand. Then there was the time Warren sat me down in the basement handed me a prop penis from "Kiss of Medusa" and said "We’re gonna rip Gary's penis off  and we need to rebuild this penis appliance for the scene." I laughed and made an impressive member of the cast for him…it even got an appearance in Invasion For Flesh And Blood. I loved working on that film so much, and it thrills me to be involved today. To be able to still be in contact with some of the most special people in the industry. When we get larger budgets, look out world!!!

I ran into warren at the mall about 10 years after shooting Flesh Eaters, we started chatting and he invited me to be a part of Scarlet Moon. I was so happy to be working with him again. This film was so different than working with him on the other films. There were limited shoots and he was really working so hard to pull this one off in the quickest amount of time. Amidst the same problems as usual in low budget film world. Tight budgeting, limited resources and coming up with locations.

But this time he was up against unavailable actors, unreliable actors and unreliable crew members who would often complian about the conditions of shooting and/or effects, but never offered the required time or money to further or help the project.

Once again I got to help out with other areas ,Set Design, Creature Design ,Location ,and Public Relations, etc. I called around and got us a film location at SPELLBOUND (Metaphysical shop) in Belleville, NJ ( yeah ,ok ,that was all my fault…I'm the Villain…)

The only thing about shooting there was that we couldn’t touch anything. The owner was a Santarian Babalou (High Priest) AKA VOODOO HIGH PRIEST!! And he had special patronages to Santarian Gods set up through out the store. In other words "You break it you bought it" ,really meant "You break it these Gods screw with your life then violently kill you for fun!" Not a fun responsibility when your bringing in lots of production lights and camera equipment…

The owner Vinnie had Warren and Dominic had come up to the shop before he would commit to the movie and made them ask the Gunja if it was alright… Ha Ha! I think they thought they might not make it outta that one.

Vinnie turned out to be sooo cool and will remain a good friend of ours' always! So we all know that Warren and Dom are blessed by the Santarian Gods now…Ha Ha , that pretty much sums up Scarlet Moon, blessed by Santarian Gods.

 I loved working with the whole cast and crew, there were a lot of us on this one, some of the cast I never even actually got to meet, but the ones I did I will remember forever.

Mr. Disbrow (Mr. D) Warren's dad. He is one of the most wonderful people you could ever meet and he plays "Professor Hertz" in all the films. He never missed a day, was always there and always being supportive of Warren and his uphill battle creating these movies. He is also a great prop builder and on set photographer. 

Over the years I have made a million memories, have had fun with Warren, and all the great people I’ve gotten to know during the making of the films. I’ve had the privilege of being a part of movie making with Visual Experiences and can't wait to get the call to do future projects.