For audiences, the four seasons of Robert and Michelle King’s “Evil” have been the stuff of nightmares. For Oscar-winning prosthetics artist Joel Harlow , it was the stuff of childhood dreams. “This is the high water mark of my professional career in terms of artist fulfillment,” Harlow told IndieWire over Zoom a few days before the series finale aired August 22 on Paramount+.
“This is what I wanted to do as a kid.” Harlow means that literally. In most instances, the “ Evil ” script would merely say, “Joel will deliver us something terrifying.
” And starting with the sleep paralysis demon George, that’s just what he did. “Evil” followed three assessors for the Catholic church — a priest (Mike Colter), an agnostic psychiatrist (Katja Hebers), and an atheist scientist (Aasaf Madvi) as they evaluated a case of the week to determine if an exorcism was needed while battling demons in their personal lives. Throughout, the show toed the line between the supernatural and the coincidental.
And Harlow and his team at Morphology FX brought them all to life, week to week for 50 episodes. And George was the creature that started it all. Already renowned for his Oscar-winning work on “Star Trek,” “Mad Men,” and “Dark Shadows,” Harlow met with the Kings to discuss their project, bringing preliminary sketches he did of George.
They liked it enough to hire him, and from there evolved a “beautiful working relationship.” “I would pitch them ideas, .