AN EYE FOR GORE MAKEUP WORK EARNS PRAISE.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - A woman is placed inside an MRI device in a hospital lab and emerges a steaming mound of burned flesh. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, a hideously deformed mountain man removes her voodoo doll from a microwave oven.

Corpses rise from a graveyard and form an army of zombies that terrorize locals.

A space alien arrives on Earth and is captured by federal agents.

Many of the bizarre scenes that have made ``The X-Files'' one of the most popular television shows around are made grotesquely real by makeup artist Cheri Montesanto Medcalf of Santa Clarita.

Her gift for bringing the macabre to life recently earned the 37-year-old her second Emmy award for makeup artistry on the series.

``I'm a big chicken in real life, and I don't like gore,'' Medcalf said in a recent interview between grueling, 21-hour shifts. ``But if I create it, I'm fine. It doesn't bother me.''

Kim Manners, co-executive producer and director of ``The X-Files,'' called Medcalf ``a real, true professional.''

``Makeup like Cheri does is a lost art,'' he said. ``And when you've got good makeup, you're not afraid to get the camera in tight. And that definitely has more impact on the people watching the show.''

Medcalf said she was recruited by producers of the show three years ago while working on the feature film ``Forces of Nature.''

At the time, she said she was reluctant to move from feature movies to television and wasn't familiar with ``The X-Files'' show.

``I asked them, Who's Scolder and Mully?'' she recalled, referring to the star characters in the show, Mulder and Scully. ``I think I was one of the few people who didn't follow the show. I was afraid TV would be boring compared to working on movies.''

Today, however, she said her work on the show has been some of the most challenging and creative of her career.

``In the first episode I won an Emmy for, we did a full body burn on a father and son, and at the time I thought it was too real to show,'' she said. ``But they got in so close with the camera on the burns, they really looked real.''

This year, Medcalf won an Emmy award for her work on an episode about an Appalachian mountain man who uses voodoo dolls to torture and kill his enemies. The mountain man was played by handsome actor Billy Drago, whom Medcalf transformed into a monster.

``They wanted a guy who looked very eerie, and Billy came in looking good,'' she said. ``I had to totally create the character. So I made his eye deformed, his teeth were rotten, he had wrinkles and skin hanging off his face, and we extended his fingernails. No one saw him before makeup, so people thought he really looked like this. Everyone wanted to know who the creepy guy was walking around the set.''

Manners said Medcalf is not only talented but extremely fast.

``She takes great care in what she does, and she's on a limited timetable,'' he said. ``I think she did Billy's makeup in 45 minutes. She's really an artist.''

Both of Medcalf's parents were successful makeup artists in New York City, and Medcalf said she decided as a teen that she, too, wanted to pursue makeup artistry as a career.

``At 17, I left high school for three months to do my first film, `Fear no Evil,' '' she said. ``At 19, right after I graduated, I moved to California, and I've been doing this ever since.''

Medcalf has worked on dozens of feature and television movies during her career, including ``Robocop II,'' ``Larger Than Life'' and ``Home for the Holidays.''

Because makeup artists work closely with the actors, they often become the actors' confidants, she said.

``You just become so close to people because you're touching them and they're sitting there for a long time,'' she said. ``I find out a lot about them, and they find out a lot about me.''

Medcalf described ``X-Files'' star David Duchovny as a funny man with a dry sense of humor and co-star Gillian Anderson as a quiet, spiritual woman.

``Everyone on the show is a pleasure to work with,'' she said. ``And everyone has a sense of humor. Our hours are so long, you really need that.''

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(1 --2) Above, makeup aritst Cheri Montesanto Medcalf pals around with a model of one of her subjects at her Santa Clarita home. In addition to other awards she has won, Medcalf recently earned her second Emmy for her work on ``The X-Files.''

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer