Porridge oats and cornflakes

Porridge oats and cornflakes contained within a small plastic tub previously used to hold typewriter ribbon.

Roy Ashton (1909–95) and Phil Leakey (1908–92) were master make-up artists who worked on many of the British cult horror films of the mid-20th century. A trained artist, Australia-born Ashton began his career at Gaumont-British Film Corporation in 1932 as a means of supplementing his passion for opera singing. In 1955, Ashton became the assistant to Hammer Films’ Phil Leakey, the first makeup artist to receive on-screen credit for ‘Special Make-up Effects’. Following Leakey’s departure from Hammer in 1958, Ashton took over as head makeup artist, where he continued his expert work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Ashton and Leakey had to create their make-up effects within small budgets and so made creative use of everyday materials such as breakfast cereal. Using this together with liquid latex they were able to create scarred skin for their creatures.