From Blood To Blockbusters

You can feel it the moment Howard Berger starts talking: the best practical effects don’t just decorate a story, they drive it. We sit down with the KNB EFX cofounder to unpack how scrappy bets, obsessive planning, and a fierce love for monsters shaped modern genre cinema. From the unlikely $1,500 script that launched Quentin Tarantino to a fully storyboarded From Dusk Till Dawn handoff that let Robert Rodriguez focus on energy rather than logistics, Howard maps the decisions that turned cult ideas into enduring franchises.

We dive into the KNB partnership model that keeps the work fresh: Greg Nicotero helms the gore and undead empire while Howard steers character-first makeup shows. That yin and yang unlocks range—from Grindhouse and Planet Terror to intricate prosthetics that demand patience and precision. Along the way, Howard reflects on why some films surprise even the crew, how nonlinear storytelling redefined what a “genre” movie can be, and what it takes to keep a team “frosty” through long days and high stakes. The stories stretch from Lovecraft and Bride of Re-Animator’s brutal build to the relationship-first choice to do Cabin Fever at cost, which opened doors to Hostel and beyond.

What emerges is a blueprint for sustainable creative careers: respect every project, plan like your life depends on it, and choose collaborators who sharpen your voice. If you love 80s–90s horror, practical effects, or the crossroads where indie grit meets blockbuster scale, this conversation is a masterclass in turning latex, blood rigs, and storyboards into cinema that sticks. Hit play, share with a horror-loving friend, and leave a review with your favorite KNB effect moment—we’ll read the best ones on a future show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Howard Berger
• 0:20 Hits And Misses In Filmmaking
• 1:03 From Dusk Till Dawn Origins
• 2:00 Rodriguez, Tarantino, And Storyboards
• 3:05 Grindhouse And KNB’s Division Of Labor
• 4:18 Nonlinear Storytelling And Tarantino’s Rise
• 5:31 Set Lore, Jars, And Staying Frosty
• 6:05 Lovecraft, Re-Animator, And Masters Of Horror
• 7:00 Cabin Fever To Tentpoles: KNB’s Ethos
• 9:50 Birthday Banter And Sign-Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello everybody.

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Awesome. Sam Fish here at Living Death Weekend 2024 with Howard Berger. Hi everyone. Howard, I just want to say again, I've been following your career since I was a little kid. Can be a fact. You know, everything you guys have done. Oh, cool. Thanks. Like when I see your name in the credits, I know it's going to be great.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

Oh, that's nice. When I see my name in the credits, I cannot guarantee it's going to be great. So I'm glad that you have more confidence than I do in what the final product's going to be. Because sometimes I'm like, I don't know how this is going to go. And then I see the movie, I'm like, oh boy. But then I'm there's times I'm super pleasantly surprised, and I'm like, you know, if I'm working on a movie, I'm like, this is gonna suck. And then I see the movie, I'm like, hey, this movie turned out pretty darn good. So, you know, I never know. I I used to be good at guessing, I'm like, oh, I think that's gonna be great, but now I'm like, I have no concept. It's gonna I'm uh you know it's a dealer's choice, however it works, it's up to the director if this is gonna be good or not.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01

So right, right. I mean, honestly, like I I love the classics. Yeah. Um, everything from I'm more of like an 80s, 90s horror fan. You know, Dustful Gone was obviously one of the best movies ever made.

SPEAKER_00: 1:17

It is, it is a great movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19

And the the effects in it were phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22

Well, thanks. I mean, I think a lot of that has to do with, you know, because Robert Kurtzman, who you interviewed as well, who was the K, the original K in KB, Robert came up with that idea and wrote like a 20-page outline, and he had the foresight to hire Quentin Tarantino before he was famous to write the script, you know, and and we wrote a check for$1,500. And that was part of it, so we gave Quentin his first paying job as a as a screenwriter$1,500, and then we promised if he ever got a movie going, we would do the effects for free. That movie was Reservoir Dogs. So we did Reservoir Dogs for free, and we wrote a$1,500 check to Quentin, and and then the rest is history. But I think Dusk turned out so great because Bob had like storyboarded the entire movie. So when the movie happened and Robert Rodriguez was directing it, we just handed Robert the books of storyboards and went, This is the movie, and he's like, You guys just made this really easy for me. And then of course, Robert did a great, you know, did his great job as always, and just did his twist, the Robert Rodriguez twist, on Dust Till Dawn. So it worked out really well.

SPEAKER_01: 2:25

And the fact that it spawned uh two sequels, I know, and a TV show.

SPEAKER_00: 2:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. And people love Dust Till Dawn, you know, and and you know, Savini is you know, when it we go places and people see Tom and they always do like the the dick gun thing, and it's like okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy's been in other stuff, but you know, they love they love sex machine, and that was like written for Tom, you know. Right. Absolutely, you know, nobody else could have played it but Tom.

SPEAKER_01: 2:53

Another great Quin Tarantino Rodriguez collaboration was with Ryan House movies. Yeah, yeah, they're cool. Especially Planet Terror.

SPEAKER_00: 3:01

Yeah. Well, that was all Greg, Greg Nicotero, who's the N in KB. Right. He always works with Robert. So he supervised all that. That was his he did Planet Terror and he did uh Death Proof with Quinton. So, and and that's his baby, like you know, and that's how we work at K B. We I mean Greg and I work hand in hand, but we can't always it doesn't make sense that we're both supervising. So we'll take shows like obviously Greg is you know the Walking Dead guy. He's the king of the zombies now. And so he does all that. I have nothing to do with Walking Dead, but then there's things I do, you know, that I'm fully in charge of that he doesn't have anything to do with. So we kind of ping-pong, and I think a lot of it is because we both have uh different interests. I mean, we have you know, overall interest in movies, monsters, and makeup effects, but but I think you know, he has a specific thing he loves, and I have a specific thing I love. So it kind of that's how it works out. You know, I think that's part of the longevity of KB. If we both love zombies, we'd be both vying for like, well, I want to do Walking Dead and I want to do Walking Dead. It's not that it's like you can do Walking Dead because of all the blood. I don't want to deal with the blood. I'm gonna go do character makeup movies. So it works out great. It's a perfect yin yin and yang as far as the company goes. But but yeah, I know Grindhouse is super cool. I love the concept, you know. Quentin and Robert are always a pleasure to work with. And you listen, you know you're gonna end up with something super cool. Those movies, when you work with those guys, you're like, especially Quentin, you're like, this is gonna be one of the greatest movies ever made. So that's all there's to it.

SPEAKER_01: 4:30

Quentin and and you guys, Gus Hodan and Grindhouse in general were you know, I love the idea of like listening to Prime Horror. Yeah, yeah. And I wrote a script that's been doing really well in film festivals, and the main inspiration was like it was like Highway to Hell mixed with true romance. Um and it does like a 180 of like dustal dumpers. Got it. Um and the log line for it is um criminal lovers steal drugs from sadistic bicergame and clash with street bugs and demon creatures playing off the driveway.

SPEAKER_00: 5:14

So it's a it's a Disney Plus movie. Exactly. Great, I'm looking forward to it. That sounds good. It's part of the Star Wars universe. You know, when when Bob, when Bob wrote Dusk, or when Quentin wrote Dusk, Bob sent it out and it got like the worst notes. And people were like, is it a gangster movie or is it a monster movie? This is this was written like shit. People hated it. And it wasn't until Reservoir Dogs came out that flipped the flipped everything, and people were like, Wow, so you can make nonlinear storytelling. It's like, yes, you can do whatever you want. And that really changed, and then everybody was clamoring for for you know anything Quentin had written, and that, you know, and then there's of course a lot of copycat people there. I'm like, that's uh well a Quintin wannabe, you know. But it's yeah, no, it's super interesting. I think that's I mean, he redefined cinema, you know, and and the way you can tell a story, so it's it's pretty cool. And we always loved, we love working with him. We love we it's always a pleasurable experience. It's hard, right? You work your you work your ass off, but it's it's worth it. It's so it's very rewarding.

SPEAKER_01: 6:16

Awesome. I I had a chance to interview um Edisony, uh-huh, who was in Django. Right. Um, and we got to talk about his work on Django. And he told me a story that on every Gwent Tarantino film, there's some uh like jar that people put money into.

SPEAKER_00: 6:36

Oh, the swear jar? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Or is it a swear jar or is it it's it's not a swear jar.

SPEAKER_01: 6:42

I think it's a it's a it's like like a raffle jar.

SPEAKER_00: 6:45

Yeah, it's something crazy. I mean, there was also a thing. Well, anyhow, it's inappropriate. Quentin would do inappropriate things on set, and and there it would end up with a Polaroid and end up on the wall. And so some actors were like, I don't like that. It's like, well, don't fall asleep on set, and you'll be okay. So I never fell asleep on set. I was always like, even if I was dog tired, I'm like, there's no way I'm gonna fall asleep and round Quentin. So plus you just want to stay, you know, frosty the whole time. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:15

A couple more questions I wanted to ask them. We just talked about Lovecraft, yeah, Monday night, uh bridal reanimator. Yeah. And I know you guys also did something for Necronomicon uh Book of the Dead.

SPEAKER_00: 7:26

I did I I'm not sure if we did or not. Maybe we did. I those are yeah, I don't know. Uh could it's very possible we did work on Neprecon Necronomicon Book of the Dead. Very possible. But the other ones, yes, uh we did work on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 7:42

Reanimator is probably one of my top the whole series is probably like in my top favorite franchise. They're so wappy and weird. Yeah. You know, uh I I really wish I would have had the chance to hear this Stuart work.

SPEAKER_00: 8:00

Yeah, Stuart was awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 8:01

Uh I'm trying to get Brian to use now.

SPEAKER_00: 8:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 8:04

Um I how about Jeffrey Combs? I I want Jeffrey Combs all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:11

Yeah, Jeff's great. Great, yeah. Well, Stewart was wonderful. I mean, even when we did Masters of Horror, he picked, you know, Lovecraftian stories, you know, and just a really good guy, or good, good filmmaker, very specific about what he wanted, you know, for the shows. So when on Reanimator, I I was working for John Beakler. It was before KB, but Brighter Reanimator was KB. So, and that was a bear of a movie. That was so hard. It's definitely one of the most difficult films I worked on, but also again, rewarding, which is great, you know. I love that makeup. I love that makeup we did on Kathleen Kenmont. And she was a wonderful person to work with. And yeah, I mean, you know, it's it's it KB in these last 30, 36 and a half years has a very, you know, broad scale of movies we've worked on, you know, from low budget horror movies to mid-range to like gigantic 200 million dollar tent poles. So, but we treat every movie the same. There's no discrimination. It's not like, oh, that film only has you know a million dollars or two million. Like, I mean, we did Cabin Fever for really for cost, and and that came from David Lynch, who was gonna produce it originally, and Eli Roth was his assistant, and he called and he's like, Hey Howard, um my assistant's making this movie. Will you look at the script? And I'm like, Yeah, yeah. And I read it, I'm like, it's a fun script. And then I met Eli and I'm like, I like Eli, he's cool. And then we did it for cost, and then you know, that that grew into hostile and hostile too and Green Inferno, and and then yeah, that was about it. So, but you know, it's we cared as much about you know uh cabin fever as we did about Transformers 5, you know. So, you know, and they're both very different. You could probably do 150 million transf or uh cabin fever movies compared to that. So to the Transformers, but or 150 movies. But anyhow, it's like you know, that's what keeps us going. That's what K that's why K and B's been around forever. That's what you know the my the my mindset and Greg's mindset is that, and it's about finding projects that we find interesting, that intrigue us, that have ch challenges, and we're very interested in that. We don't want to rehash the same thing over and over again, you know. It's like there's certain things we're like, eh, we're good, we're good. But you know, try to mix it up.

SPEAKER_01: 10:29

I'm a big fan of Eli, especially because we actually have the same birthday.

SPEAKER_00: 10:34

There you go. Well, that would be a good reason why you're a big fan. So yes, good. Well, I'm glad you don't have the same birthday as I don't know, Drew Barrymore. Although Drew Barrymore is really cool. But you'd probably be like, you know, I'm a big fan of Drew Barrymore because it's our birthday. But it seems more appropriate that you and Eli, you know, have a share a birthday than you and Drew Barrymore.

SPEAKER_01: 10:53

It's interesting who's who's core or not, uh, I'll just say it's April 18th.

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

April 18th.

SPEAKER_01: 10:58

James Woods. Yeah. James Woods, got it. Bert Moranis. Uh-huh. That's another one. And that's all I've come with on.

SPEAKER_00: 11:06

Well, that's pretty good. And you. And me. And you know, Eli told me that. He says, hey, you know who else got his birthday? He said, it's yeah. Right, right. The fishbowl guy. The fishbowl guy. And I'm like, really? He's like, yeah, that's why I'm a big fan of his. I went, that's cool. He's like, yeah, my we share the same birthday. And that, you know, anyone who said it was my birthday, I'm a big fan of. Yeah, that worked out perfect.

SPEAKER_01: 11:27

Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, and thank you for my pen. I will use it, I will use it daily. So is it is it waterproof? Oh, good, it should be because it's a Jaws pen. It's right here. So ideally, this pen should be waterproof, right? Okay. Well, we're gonna test it out in the ocean and see if it truly is.

SPEAKER_01: 11:49

Here's the famous tagline.

SPEAKER_00: 11:50

Yes, let's hear it.

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

Thank you for taking the time to swim in the bowl.

SPEAKER_00: 11:55

That's a good tagline. Did you come up with that yourself? I did. All right, yeah. Don't tell anybody that, okay? Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 12:01

The other one is I hope the temperature was just right.

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

All right. I like the first one better. So there you go. That one's better. Now, if you worked at a restaurant, you're like, I hope the temperature of this is much better. And you're like, oh, he means the meat. But yeah, yeah, sounds good. Cool. Thanks so much, my friend. My pleasure.