By Brandon HENSLEY

Back up and mask up have been an ongoing theme this year for unfortunate reasons, but it may soon take a more fun, yet spooky, turn, especially if you’re a fan of classic movie monsters.
La Crescenta artist Mark Enright has been hard at work this year developing monster masks for NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) for eventual release online. The masks are based on the Remco action figure line in the 1980s. As such, the line, which includes Frankenstein’s monster, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wolfman, Phantom of the Opera and Dracula, might look a bit plain, or off, to the casual observer.
“You can tell what character it is, but there’s something off that makes them look weird. It doesn’t look like the movie monster itself,” Enright said. “They’re supposed to look weird and generic.”
Enright had been in contact with someone involved with NECA who enjoyed some of his work, which included masks of Star Wars characters. He told Enright to work on this monster set with the hope of mass-producing them.
That goal has come to fruition, though eager buyers won’t be able wear them this Halloween. Enright said the masks were supposed to ship in August, but issues with licensing held that up.
They are available for preorder at lootcrate.com. (Loot Crate is a subscription based toys and collectables website. The full set comes with all six monsters, but Mummy and Dracula are available only to those who pay up front. Preordering ends in December.)
Enright, who owns a small creative business called Mortar Heads, has always been an artistic guy. He grew up in northern Indiana and entered art contests as a kid. His other passion was music and he played bass in the band Cartoon Boyfriend, which has a song on the Home Alone 3 soundtrack, a jangly power pop jam entitled “My Town.”
“I’ve always had the urge to create stuff,” he said. “That’s always been present.”
Perhaps more notably, Enright has had a hand in designing the Krohns’ haunted house every Halloween. The house, at 413 Whiting Woods Dr. in La Crescenta/Glendale, is a hot spot for scares this time of year. A special haunt has been designed for the house, which is part of the CV Weekly Fun and Frights in the Foothills, the self-guided tour on Oct. 31. Enright’s had fun in set and costume designing for the homeowners David and Alisa.
That’s sort of how Enright came to make masks. He said he was involved in the makeup effects industry and worked on various haunted houses. He started making masks because he was always doing makeup for someone else and, when it came time to scare people, he never had time to do his own makeup, so the mask became a quick fix.
To do the kind of work he does, Enright said it requires a certain kind of personality.
“You’re on a stool under a light, with a blob of clay for eight hours a day. If you like doing that, it’s the perfect job,” he said. “It’s challenging, but it’s also rewarding to get one done. The part everyone seems to hate is molding. Once you finish your sculpture, you have to get out the plaster and make a mold of it so you can make the mask itself. That’s kind of the worst part of the process.”
Of the six available monster masks available on Loot Crate, Enright said the Mummy was his favorite.
“It looks very little like the movie character so it gave me freedom to do my own thing. It’s still looks like the action figure and [NECA] still accepted it … he’s all old and bandaged and dirty looking, so he didn’t have to look all perfectly sculpted and nice and smooth like Dracula is.”
If customers don’t want the full set, they pay $50 each for a mask. Either way, Enright said the feeling is surreal whenever strangers contact him and ask to buy his creations.
“I’ve been selling masks for the last couple of years, and people out of the blue are sending money. It makes you feel good to have people like the things you are doing,” he said.
For more about Enright’s business, visit @mortarheads on Instagram, and visit lootcrate.com to view or preorder his monster masks.