From Batman To Saturn Award, Natick Native's Film Career Is Vast

NATICK, MA — As a student at the University of Southern California in the early 1990s, Natick native Paul Salamoff had the chance to attend a Saturn Awards ceremony, considered the Oscars for sci-fi and horror filmmaking.

Salamoff sat at a table with director James Cameron on one side and "Psycho" and "Outer Limits" writer Joseph Stefano on the other. They had a good time discussing sci-fi, and Salamoff had a realization about his future.

"One day, I want to make a movie that's going to win a Saturn Award,'" he remembered thinking.

That happened in October, when Salamoff won a Saturn Award for best independent film for "Encounter," his directorial debut about a group of friends encountering an alien life form. But over 30 years, Salamoff's career in Hollywood has spanned special effects, writing and producing on dozens of movies that many have seen and probably love.

At age 5, Salamoff saw a double-feature of "Star Wars" and "Logan's Run" at a Cape Cod drive-in, beginning a lifelong love of movies. His father took him to a horror convention in Boston when he was 13, where he met special effects guru Tom Savini ("Friday the 13th," "Dawn of the Dead"), igniting an interest in makeup effects.

"I remember saying [to my father], 'That's what I want to do,'" he said.

Luckily for Salamoff, his dad also loved movies. And as a dentist, he was able to teach his son how to use materials such as alginate and dental acrylic to make props — some of the same materials Hollywood uses for gory effects.

At USC, Salamoff worked on many student films, but his break came when he landed a job at Alterian Studios, which handled effects for movies such as "The Addams Family" and "Mom and Dad Save the World." He left school to work full time to work on makeup effects on films ranging from the Roger Corman cult classic "Carnosaur" to "Batman Returns," where he crafted penguins for Danny DeVito's villain The Penguin.

Perhaps his most famous creation was Slammer, the man-hating terrier from Peter and Bobby Farrelly's "There's Something About Mary." Salamoff's Slammer prop was the star in a violent and hilarious fight scene with Ben Stiller. (Salamoff also had a hand in two other non-family-friendly Stiller props from that movie.) He also worked on effects for the Farrelly brothers movies including "Me, Myself & Irene," and "Shallow Hal."

The visual effects world began to change in 1994 when "Jurassic Park" was released, ushering in the era of computer-generated effects. Salamoff decided to pivot to writing, pursuing his own scripts, writing graphic novels and comics, and writing the book "On the Set: The Hidden Rules of Movie Making Etiquette." He also produced movies and began teaching at the New York Film Academy — and in a recent class there, he met the granddaughter of the woman who owned the real-life dog from "There's Something About Mary."

"Encounter" came to life after Salamoff met Amy Bailey, a Georgia film producer and writer. Bailey wanted to bring a major film production to her hometown, Augusta, to compete with Atlanta — home of Tyler Perry's studios and Trilith Studios, which has been used in almost every Marvel movie.

Salamoff wrote a treatment for "Encounter" about 15 years ago but had buried it away. He pitched it to Bailey and ended up writing the full script in under a week.

"It just poured out of me," he said. "I think it was something I needed to write."

The movie stars Luke Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison ("Cabin In The Woods"), Vincent Ward ("The Walking Dead"), Glenn Keogh ("Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.") and character actor Tom Atkins ("The Fog," "Lethal Weapon") as a group of Georgia locals who find an alien meteorite in a field. The object soon sprouts limbs and begins to control their minds. Whether the alien is good or bad isn't clear until the final act. Meanwhile, two government agents lurk nearby trying to cover the whole thing up.

"It's a story about loss, grief and fear of the unknown," he said.

Although Salamoff's career has flourished on the West Coast, it all began in Natick. One of his closest friends growing up — and perhaps the only other movie geek in Natick at the time — was Loni Peristere, who went on to direct TV shows like "American Horror Story" and started Zoic Studios, which has produced effects for everything from "Avengers: Age of Ultron" to "Mad Men."

Salamoff said his time working as a bagger at Roche Bros., at a local video store and at the former USA Cinemas (later Natick Loews, which was demolished in 2004) helped prepare him for Hollywood. At the video store, he created a Freddy Krueger costume for the debut of "A Nightmare On Elm Street 4" and displays for "From Beyond" and "Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood." He also played Danny Zuko in a production of "Grease" at Natick High School.

On the heels of "Encounter" and the Saturn Award win, Salamoff is pursuing a few other films to direct and is working on the graphic novels "Discord" and "Hired Guns." At one point during a recent interview, Salamoff pulled out a thick binder of scripts and another ideas to show he still has plenty more to create.

"I wake up in the morning with this natural energy because I love what I do," he said. "Every day is a possibility."

"Encounter" (2019) is available to watch now on Tubi, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV and other streaming services.