New monster museum opens in Burnaby

Halloween came early in Burnaby with the opening of the new MastersFX Monster Museum, which features over 80 exhibits of hand-crafted monsters, creatures, and characters from motion pictures that have hit the big screens.

Behind the creations are special effects artists, or self-proclaimed “monster makers,” who have an eye for fine detail.

“AI and computer graphics have been very much in the headlines lately, and people are wondering how that affects MastersFX and practical effects and we just wanted to show how this work is still very relevant,” said owner Todd Masters.

Masters says the launch of the museum, which doubles as their studio, is a win for an industry that has been hit hard by Hollywood strikes. The curated showroom features fan favourites from Predator, Sonic the Hedgehog, Six Feet Under, Nancy Drew, True Blood, and more.

Some of the monsters take weeks and even months to create, depending on the production schedule. The creatures can start simply as a design on paper, then the materials come in, and then it’s digitized on the computer.

Jenaya Ross calls herself a “creature actor,” one of the people who brings the characters to life on set. She says she spends many hours in the makeup chair, sometimes up to five or six hours.

“It’s usually big dudes,” she says of creature actors. “You can wear like large creature suits, or kind of tall lanky people like me, so then they can build onto my body and create monster pieces on top of me.”

The MastersFX website asks parents to exercise discretion if bringing young children to the museum. On Friday, some creatures appeared so real that they had visitors doing a double take.

“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” one museum-goer said. “You’re walking around and you see a dude and you’re like ‘hey’ and he doesn’t wave back.”

The sea monsters, zombies, ghosts, and ghouls will be on display to the public throughout the month of October, bringing the movie set to life.