MastersFX’s Monster Museum Opens To The Public

The paranormal is always present at this time of year in British Columbia – the area is shrouded in drippy forests and by dark shadowy myth – and regional cryptids seem to watch from every corner. The region has historically been associated with numerous eerie film and TV monsters as well, having been home to The X-Files, The Never-Ending Story, The Thing, Deadpool, Twilight and its sequels, Watchmen, The Last of Us, and so many more genre films and TV series, which have been filmed in the area.

On Friday, October 13, over 400 Vancouver film and TV professionals came out en masse to celebrate the Grand Opening and bloody ribbon–cutting of MastersFX’s new Monster Museum and FX Studio in Burnaby!  

Founded in 1987, MastersFX (MFX) is an award-winning “monster shop” designed, created, and produced some of the best-loved monsters in movies and television shows for nearly 37 years!

Inside the showroom of their pristine, 25,000 square-foot monster-making space, the MastersFX team has created a Monster Museum, which is presenting “Forty Years of Monster-Making.” The experience offers visitors an interactive exhibit that takes them through parts of MFX’s actual working monster shop, showing off their various techniques and letting visitors operate the animatronics and take selfies with real screen-used monsters.

Photos by BAD/GOOD Photography

The museum includes aliens, demons, devils, fairies, harpies, vampires, beasts, corpses, carcasses, robots, sasquatches, mummies, werewolves, and zombies. Multi-Emmy Award-winner Todd Masters has personally curated these “FX Art” exhibits.

The museum, now open on weekends during October, also demonstrates advancements that the MFX team has made in the special effects field – aspects of which they call “Neo-Practical Effects.” The museum contains over 80 creatures and FX used in making shows on which MFX has contributed their special form of art, including Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, Fringe, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yellowjackets; Stargate; Six Feet Under; Star Trek: First Contact and Predator. Even current projects are represented: It Lives Inside, Monster High, and The Fall of the House of Usher, to name a few.

Buried within a horde of local movie and TV industry leaders who attended the Friday the 13^th opening of the museum, Todd Masters, MFX President – his white pants still bloody from the ribbon-cutting ceremony – buzzed, “I’m overwhelmed that so many of our friends and colleagues turned out to help us bring our monster-studio to life!”

Just minutes earlier, Masters used a pair of giant scissors to cut the ribbon – one that actually bled when he cut it.

“It’s nice to see everyone again,” he told the crowd of over 400. “The strikes haven’t been good for the movie community – hopefully, we’re nearing resolve – and you can feel the energy in this room. Having this massive industry support for our FX – something that is very much a local art form – is exhilarating.”

“Our studios have had most of the summer to develop the museum – our team refurbished many pieces, from over decades,” says Sandy Lindala, MastersFX’s legendary FX Producer and Vice President. “Vancouver has always been a monster town, with many classic genre shows shooting here over many years. Not to mention that the Pacific Northwest is renowned for local monster legends like Sasquatch – and that Ogopogo is only four hours east from here, in Lake Kelowna. A bit further south in Forks, Washington, is where the Twilight vampires come from. So this part of the world is truly supernatural!“

Inside the crowded museum during the venue’s grand opening event on October 13, actress and “actual monster” Jenaya Ross (who has portrayed monsters in several recent entertainment projects, including It Live Inside and Nancy Drew) eased through the crowd in her “human” form.

“I’ve had the privilege of working alongside the MastersFX team as a creature actor for a few years now.  And they are easily some of the most talented artists I’ve ever met.” Jenaya Ross states.

“Their creative abilities continue to amaze me with each new project,” Ross explained to those attending the grand opening event, as she pointed out that one of the characters she just recently portrayed – the Pishach monster from the film It Lives Inside – actually glows in the corner of the museum. “I can’t wait for the general public to come check out MastersFX’s work at the museum, and to be able to fully grasp the attention to detail and effort they lovingly put into every piece of monster art they create.”

Now open to the public, the Monster Museum tickets are quickly selling out. You can get your tickets and more information about the MastersFX Monster Museum here.

Here’s a look at just some of the screen-used characters that call the museum home.