Joseph Jay McClurkin passed away on December 13, 2025. He was 61. He was working with a customer at his place of employment (Bryans Road Building and Supply of Waldorf, Maryland) when he suffered a heart attack.

I knew Joe from a side passion he had; creating special effects. We both worked on a movie that came out initially in 2007. That movie was the slasher film DEAD HUNT. This was a production from Timewarp Films, and the movie was co directed by Don Dohler and Joe Ripple. The film has been described as “SCREAM meets THEATER OF BLOOD” as an exciting, bloody whodunit.

Joe had been hired to do the special makeup effects. This movie had a high bodycount, and it was up to McClurkin to provide the visceral gore. Throat slashing, disenboweling, electrocution, eye gouge – it was a heavy schedule for the man! But through trial and error, Joe pushed through it all and delivered some great effects. The DEAD HUNT bluray should be coming out in 2026. With good luck, there should be plenty of behind the scenes footage of Joe in action.

I would encourage everyone that reads this to check out Joe’s website, WEABEASTIES.COM. On those pages, Joe went into much more detail about his work. He was even working on a full size replica of KITT from the TV show KNIGHT RIDER.

I only got to meet Joe once – at the premiere of DEAD HUNT in 2006. He was a great guy, and a good man. We at Smash or Trash send our condolences to Joe’s family and friends. A very talented artist, and he will be remembered here.