KISS: Beyond The Makeup (2001)



It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years since I originally saw KISS: Beyond The Makeup. This documentary was produced by VH1 by the same production team that brought us VH1 Behind The Music. This was actually a 2 hour version of that series, but it was renamed Beyond The Makeup instead. It's all there. No punches are pulled as the entire history of the band is dissected, warts and all. With VH1 behind this episode, we get all era's covered, which means there is no glossing over the Creatures Of The Night, Lick It Up, Animalize and Asylum incarnations of KISS.

The documentary covers everything from when Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley met, to the formation of their first band Wicked Lester all the way to the Farewell Tour of 2000. A lot of great footage of the band and photo's in and out of makeup during their peaks years when everyone wanted to see what they looked like without the makeup on.

This was put together very well, leaving no stone unturned and is an excellent primer course on the band for those that really don't know much about it's history, in-fighting, breakups and reunions. Give it a shot, it's well worth it.