Season 11 of SyFy’s Face Off changed things about with a spin on their usual formula. “Abstract Alien” spelled out the new rules as former contestants from prior seasons returns to make up teams. These familiar faces now work in teams of two and as McKenzie tells the contestants, each duo will live and die together.
Another change, apart from the team concept this year, is that the judges will see two examples of each team’s work. There will not be a “send off” each week. One team will have immunity and then a team will be sent home the next week.
The first spotlight challenge is also that bit different. As McKenzie explains, each of these contestants are “all stars” who have been on the show before. As such, the competition has been altered to reflect their prior experience on the show. For the first time ever the hopefuls are having green screen technology as part of their makeup challenges.
As usual the teams separate to work on their designs. Throughout the start of the episode, each team explains who they are and what season they competed in. The first contest that the group face are aliens influenced by creature feature films like The Abyss and War of the Worlds.
Surreal is the name of the game and the aliens created in this first episode are to be based upon inhabitants from under the sea. As they enter the lab and begin work on their projects, disaster strikes. Evan’s clay sculpture and the figure it is attached to, falls to the ground.
Michael Westmore comes on set to dispense advice and this season he is alone. McKenzie is not accompanying her father which is another change this time around.
Day two is taken up with finalizing the sculptures and then moving onto the molding process. The green screen process is a brilliant addition and at least one team test out the new technology.
Cat and Niko have a cowl mold that refuses to open. As usual, other competitors, like Keaghlan Ashley, step in to help out their compatriots. With help the team finally get the mold broken apart. The cowl has been damaged but it can be repaired.
This is the part of the show where the designs and all the hard work start to come together. The models arrive to be fitted with the prosthetics and made up. Niko and Cat speed up their process to make up for the broken cowl.
Last Looks start with everyone rushing to put everything together. The teams take their creations out for the judges to inspect.
Ben and Evan, Jasmine and Stella, Keaghlan and Marissa, as well as Rachael and Gage score the best and the worst. At the end of the in-depth breakdown of each creation Keaghlan and Marissa were the winners in the first episode’s spotlight challenge.
This gave them immunity for next week’s spotlight challenge and the rest of the teams were all reminded to up their game for the next test.
Face Off airs Tuesdays on SyFy. This newest season looks impressive and the move to bring back former contestants has upped the stakes. Personal favorite Keaghlan Ashley and her teammate Marissa Ebbe were the clear winners this week.
Tune in next week to see who will win the next challenge.
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