Quick: who’s the most frightening character Tim Curry has ever played?

Odds are your first thought was Pennywise the clown. Maybe the Lord of Darkness from Legend. And if your biggest fear is that a man’s lipstick and eyeshadow will be more on-point than yours, Dr. Frank N’ Furter. Nigel Thornberry, of The Wild Thornberrys, probably didn’t even make the top ten.

And yet, much like the creature known as IT, Tim Curry has a way of tapping into fears you never even knew existed, even if it’s only done through proxies. What if the amusingly caricatured Nickelodeon nature documentarian were to be translated into “realistic” human flesh? And above and beyond that, he were to try and use a magical brooch to become the Soldier of Love and Justice?

Creator Julianna Maz has the answer, and to quote Merlin in Excalibur, it’s a dream to some…a nightmare to others:

@donttrythis what do you think of my Hyperrealistic Nigel Thornberry mask?? I learned so much from watching tested videos while I was making it (especially @FrankIppolito‘s videos on painting silicone) pic.twitter.com/59KlfDQIvP

— Julianna Maz (@MazMade) June 1, 2018

Rating it as an achievement, however, we should quote Nigel himself, and acknowledge that it is, in fact, “smashing!” Is it “realistic”? Well, we’ve never met anybody who looks quite like this, but if you believe Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean books, such people seem to be everywhere.

So now that you’ve had a chance to take this in, how do you rate Nigel Thornberry on the scary Tim Curry scale? Above or below his Clone Wars take on Palpatine? Give us a comment and let us know.

Images: Nickelodeon, ABC

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