Giannetto De Rossi

Giannetto De Rossi (born 1942) was an Italian make up artist who worked on films such as Emanuelle in America, Zombie and Dune. One of his first special FX roles was as make up artist for Joe D'Amato, whose film Emanuelle in America required detailed special FX for the notorious snuff film sequences. De Rossi prepared several gruesome effects for the film reels, which were played as part of the narrative; the effects included a woman's breasts being hacked off, multiple floggings, burning with acid and pokers and shootings. The FX were so convincing, many thought them real snuff film scenes, also an actress complained, she had been traumatized by the effects as well. When gore master Lucio Fulci required FX for the goriest horror film in history Zombi 2, De Rossi arrived on set and in the process created zombies, bite wounds and an exploding head. This film cemented his reputation as possibly the greatest special FX designer of all time. De Rossi would continue to help Fulci in two more films: The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. De Rossi was next called by Dino De Laurentiis to work with Carlo Rambaldi to create the on-set practical effects for two films in Mexico including the sci fi blockbuster Dune, for which he worked wonders, creating the fetus-shaped Spice Guild Navigator seen floating in a tank. The other film (shot simultaneously and using many of the same sets) would be Conan the Destroyer in which he helped create the mutated Wizard as well as the Dagoth monster suit worn by André the Giant. In the late 80's he created the special makeup effects on Rambo III most specifically the shot in which Rambo heals himself by igniting gunpowder inside of a torso bullet wound (De Rossi rigged a device which caused flame to burst from both Sylvester Stallone's stomach and back at once). Stallone was so impressed by De Rossi's work that he made sure to hire him again for the make-up effects for Daylight (1996 film), which was shot in Rome and put Stallone's son Sage Stallone in contact with Lucio Fulci. Fabrizio De Angelis (who had previously produced all the Fulci films De Rossi had worked on) invited him in to work in the Dominican Republic to create the title monster in the film Killer Crocodile (1989 film) with the offer to direct two low budget sci-fi films (Killer Crocodile 2 and The Cy Warrior) of his own for his company Fulvia Film. He was also notable as the designer of the mask used in the film The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film). Source: Article "Giannetto De Rossi" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.