Creating a villain ‘on steroids’ for new season

(Villain, from Et] vember that was done up in “Stranger Things” decor. Although he had pulled ideas and inspiration from several different characters and movies, he couldn't shake Bradley’s work from his mind.

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ARTISTS and prosthetics experts applied makeup and prosthetics on Jamie Campbell Bower, right, to transform him into “Stranger Things” villain Vecna.

(Netflix)

He wanted Veena to feel “so poised, so considered and surgical, almost. And Pinhead is that. He doesn't run. Pinhead never runs. He knows that he’s an ultimate power all the time,” Bower said. “That feels really strong for me. I really, really like that.”

In addition to playing the monster, Bower plays the man he once was, Henry Creel, in “Stranger Things,” Netflix’s supernatural sensation, which released the first batch of episodes for its fifth and final season last Wednesday. Henry, whom we meet as a boy with powerful psychokinetic abilities, evolves throughout the show from the first child test subject in Hawkins Labs to the powerful Vecna after he’s banished to the Upside Down.

As he devolves in the dark, decaying shadow dimension, he becomes less and less human in both spirit and appearance. His skin is scorched by lightning, his body is overtaken by the vines from the Upside Down, and his left hand is mutilated. He has a deep, booming voice, which is actually Bower speaking without manipulation in post-production. And in Season 4, most of what the audience sees of Veena — the vines wrapped around his body, his mutilations and burns, the slimy texture of his skin, his startling walk and movement — was pulled off practically with prosthetics, appliances and makeup.

Bringing Vecna to life was no easy feat, with a lot of cross-departmental collaboration happening behind the scenes. In Season 4, where Vecna is first introduced, the team built full-body prosthetics based on concept art for the character that took roughly eight hours to apply on Bower.

But for Season 5, the creatives behind the show were looking to make “Vecna on steroids,” as Barrie Gower, the prosthetics wiz for “Stranger Things,” put it.