SYFY’s Face Off season 3 saw twelve talented makeup artists compete against one another, but which contestant was dubbed the winner? For horror and genre fans when it comes to choosing between CGI or practical effects, then the latter tends to win every time. The 1980s were something of a golden age for makeup and creature effects, with artists like Rick Baker and Rob Bottin creating memorable visuals in movies like An American Werewolf In London, Videodrome and The Thing.

The advent of CGI thanks to Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park saw a gradual decline of practical effects in mainstream cinema. CG was able to create imagery that would have been impossible otherwise, such as T2’s iconic T-1000 or Andy Serkis’ Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Studios started to insist on using CGI over practical effects which allowed a greater degree of control and the option to change things in post-production. One of the saddest examples of the latter was 2011’s The Thing prequel, which was filmed with impressive practical effects, but Universal got cold feet and had them replaced with wobbly CG monsters in the final cut. Thankfully, practical creature effects are still going strong thanks to shows like The Walking Dead.

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SYFY has produced some quality horror shows in recent years, including Wynonna Earp and Channel Zero. Their reality series Face Off – which needless to say has nothing to do with the John Travolta/Nic Cage classic – saw talented makeup artists compete to make impressive effects and win a cash prize. Here’s a list of all the contestants and eventual winner of Face Off season 3.

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Joe Castro

Carpucine Childs

Eric Garcia

Jason Milani

Thomas Pietch

Rod Maxwell

Alana Rose Schiro

Sarah Elizabeth Miller

Roy Wooley

Derek Garcia

Laura Tyler

Winner: Nicole Chilelli

Face Off season 3 winner Nicole Chilelli had been eliminated from the show in episode 4, before making a comeback in episode 7. Her final designs sealed the deal and host McKenzie Westmore declared her the winner. Chilli has since worked on movies like Akuma. Season 3 had some notable guest judges too, including Kevin Smith, Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon) and famed production designer Patrick Tatopoulos.

Face Off was a loving ode to makeup effects, but sadly the show came to an end with season 13, which was dubbed Face Off: Battle Royale, where contestant Matt Valentine was declared the winner. Despite fans hoping for a revival, it appears the show has run its course.

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About The Author


Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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