As Halloween approaches, a “spooky” Malibu couple with long lists of credits in the horror film genre is once again in the spotlight.
Heather Langenkamp Anderson is the long-time working actress who starred in the original “Nightmare on Elm Street” as well as “Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” – both supernatural slasher-horror films. She and husband David LeRoy Anderson run AFX Studio, which creates award-winning special makeup effects — often of creatures and aliens — for film and TV. The pair first met at a “wrap” party and have been married since 1989.
Heather now has a recurring role in the new Netflix series “The Midnight Club,” based on a 1994 horror novel. The story follows a group of terminally ill young adults at a hospice that begin to meet at midnight to share scary stories and make pacts about returning after they die.
Langencamp plays the part of Dr. Georgina Stanton, the owner of the hospice.
“She’s very mysterious and enigmatic,” Heather explained in a personal interview. “She offers the dying teenagers and young adults an environment with freedom, to live their lives as they would like, although they have to reject some lifesaving treatments. It’s really about living life to its fullest — to have agency over your own life every day.”
The scary and supernatural stories the young people tell at midnight make up many of the show’s episodes, and Heather and the other actors play various characters in the stories.
During the interview, Heather agreed to let The Malibu Times announce the big reveal about her secret identity. For the past six years, she’s been a DJ on KBUU 99.1 Malibu radio, going by the pseudonym “Sandy Bottoms.” There – the secret is out!
On her radio show, Heather mixes her favorite music from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, interspersing it with commentary about current events in and around Malibu — covering the beaches, the mountains and “the overall eclectic small town community.” Talking about everything from Malibu High School plays, to the annual Pie Festival, to fundraisers for wildlife, “Sandy” lets everyone know how they can participate in the civic and cultural life of Malibu.
Her show, “Off the Lip,” airs at 1 p.m. on Sundays on KBUU 99.1.
Langenkamp’s husband David LeRoy Anderson has won two Academy Awards for Best Makeup for his work on “Men in Black” (1997) and “The Nutty Professor” (1996). He won two Emmys for Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Limited Series, Movie or a Special for his work on “American Horror Story” in 2015 and 2017.
He’s making his latest contribution to the realm of spooky by creating special makeup and effects for two characters on the new Guillermo del Toro anthology miniseries “Cabinet of Curiosities” on Netflix.
“All the stories are independent and not linked,” David explained. “They’re horror versions of ‘The Twilight Zone,’” Anderson said. “It was super exciting to be brought into this project; and meeting Guillermo was the highlight of my career.” Guillermo is a big fan of makeup effects, and he knew my name and my wor. I’ve never been so star-struck, but he really wanted me there. He asked about my process and was excited to hear our ideas.”
David’s first job was to take comedy actress Kate Micucci and “turn her into something hideous and outwardly ugly with big teeth, a lazy eyeball and disgusting skin rashes.”
The other character he had to design makeup for was christened “the lotion lady” — a tall, thin woman with periwinkle-colored lotion running in slow motion down the length of her body. He had to design a special head-to-toe silicon suit with a “face” that could be taken off and put back on. Some of her performances had to be done “blind,” because she couldn’t see. And the lotion they developed was very cold, so they had to create a “hot tent” for her to stand in.
“She was a bad periwinkle dream,” David laughed.
Heather Langenkamp Anderson’s “The Midnight Club” begins airing Oct. 6 on Netflix; and the eight episodes of “Cabinet of Curiosities” begin airing Oct. 25 on Netflix. David’s makeup is featured in “The Outside” episode.