When I read your post I rushed home and took a look at my copy of Tom Savini’s Grande Illusions. I own just the first volume, but I recall I saw something in the book relating to the effect you want to pull of. The effect was used in the original Dawn of the Dead and, I believe, Friday the 13th part four.
In Dawn of the Dead, this is the scene where Tom Savini, playing a biker, gets pulled or knocked off his bike by a zombie. Tom gets pissed (hey, I would be too if something like that happened), pulls out a machete and plants it on the zombie’s head.
Tom writes in Grande Illusions that he took a piece of soldering wire and traced the shape of the actor’s head from the wire onto the machete. He then had the machete cut out in the exact shape so that it would fit onto his head and give the impression that it was imbedded deeply. He simply placed the machete onto his head, and the scene was shot in reverse photography. Instead of filming the scene with the machete going into the head, he filmed it with the machete already on the face and then pulling the machete out of the face. He would then play it in reverse and it would look like the machete slamming and imbedding itself on the skull of the zombie.
BTW The above text is mostly Tom’s words right out of the book. I just changed in to the “third person” narration. So, the text above is what you would find in the book. This is located in page #44. There are also three images included in the page. One with the machete with the cut out shape of the guy’s head, the other is with the zombie “wearing” the machete on his head (just like it was seen in the movie) and the final image is a drawing of the zombie’s face and the machete with the wholes and some arrows pointing at the way the machete was fitted.
Remember, the key here is that you are going to film the prop machete (with the cut out of the girls face) on her face and then remove it quickly. Obviously, this works with a close up (the farther away, the cheaper the effect will look) and her expressions are very important. You will be shooting this machete off face and then reversing the scene (Adobe Premiere, Final Cut and any other self respecting editing software can do this) to look as if she is receiving the blow of the machete. You can even speed the image once reversed and it will look like a quicker, harder, more devastating blow.
Savini also writes that the sound effect of the machete going into the skull at post is also very important because it makes it more believable. So choose a gory, bone crunching sound or something to the effect that would make people squirm.
He also mentions that there was blood tubing in the zombie’s hair, so in the close – up where you see the machete buried in his head and Savini moving it around, you would see the blood gushing out around the weapon.
Tom Savini says: “This is another example of the continuity of shots making you believe you actually saw the machete go into his head. When you see me raise the machete and swing it at him, I am actually just swinging thought empty air; the actor wasn’t even there. Then we go to the shot of the machete going in (the reverse shot), and from there go to the close-up of the machete in there with the blood gushing out (blood tubing). Finally, we do another close-up of me pulling the machete out; we did it so fast, you weren’t even aware there was a huge hole cut out of the blade!”. (This text is located on page #45 of the Grande Illusions first book).
Just watch the scene in the original Dawn of the Dead and in Friday the 13th part 4.
In Friday the 13th part 4, there is this dumb guy that just got laid and is going into the kitchen to open a bottle while another dumb friend watches an old porn movie. This guy gets stabbed in the hand with the bottle opener and then gets the machete to the face. Very quick scene. Has a lot of impact and I am 100% sure that the effect was achieved in the very same way.
Also, if you want to try something else, maybe you can make a mold out of the girls head and build a fake head to use in the effect. Then you can use a real machete and whack the hell out of it. Use blood tubing for the gore.
You can also insert a shot of the guy who used the machete of the girl getting splattered in the face with the girls blood (always a fan favorite).
A dummy or mannequin head with a wig could also work. Think about camera placement and probably shot for a quick cut to avoid revealing the effect or making the scene look cheap.
Hope this helps. If I find anything else, I will post it too.
Be sure to pick up a copy of Tom Savini’s Grande Illusions for other great gory ideas. Check eBay. Might find it at a good, affordable price.
