94: THE YEAR IN REVIEW : Valley arts and entertainment rebound after a shaky start : In With the New : Putting the Fear Into His Folks

The guy who has terrorized thousands with his makeup and special effects in movies and on television will soon be giving his parents the willies: Josh Brezner is taking driving lessons.

Brezner, who is perhaps the youngest makeup artist working in Hollywood today, is now a junior at Van Nuys High School’s Theatre and Fine Arts Magnet. His free time is spent creating bloody wounds and monsters for the camera.

But not all of his work is murder and mayhem. He worked as a makeup assistant on a recent NBC special, “Angels 2, Beyond the Light” (although his job mainly consisted of giving extras bloody noses and black eyes), and he continues doing makeup and effects for student films. He was also profiled in a recent edition of the magazine Disney Adventures.

Life imitated art for the Brezner family Jan. 17 as their Granada Hills home ended up looking like a set in a disaster flick after the Northridge earthquake. Their house was too damaged to repair. The family has moved three times since the quake, although they’re back now in Granada Hills--for good, they hope.

Now that the family has settled down, Josh has been able to concentrate on picking up the rules of the road rather than packing boxes. “He’ll be a good driver,” says his dad, Michael. “But putting your child behind the wheel is scary.”