One of his first special FX roles was as make-up artist for
Joe D'Amato, whose film Emanuelle in America required detailed
special FX for the notorious
snuff film sequences. The gruesome effects produced by De Rossi, which included a woman's breasts being hacked off and multiple floggings, were so convincing that many thought them real snuff film scenes, and one actress complained that she had been traumatised by the effects.[3]
Dino De Laurentiis hired De Rossi to create the on-set practical effects for two films in Mexico which he was producing, Dune and Conan the Destroyer. De Rossi created a number of memorable effects in the two films, including the fetus-shaped Spice Guild Navigator seen floating in a tank in Dune and the Dagoth monster suit worn by
André the Giant in Conan the Destroyer.[3]
In the late 1980s he created the special makeup effects on Rambo III. For the scene in which Rambo heals himself by igniting gunpowder inside of a torso bullet wound, De Rossi rigged a device which caused flame to burst from both Sylvester Stallone's stomach and back at once. Stallone was so impressed by De Rossi's work that he hired him again for the make-up effects for Daylight,[3] which was shot in Rome and put Stallone's son
Sage Stallone in contact with
Lucio Fulci.
De Rossi created the title monster in the film Killer Crocodile, and directed the film's sequel, Killer Crocodile 2.[6]
De Rossi continued creating FX for both Italian and American cinema, until his death on 11 April 2021 (coincidentally the same day as fellow Lucio Fulci collaborator
Enzo Sciotti).[8]
Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (Fellini's Casanova) (1976)
Cattivi pensieri (1976)
Novecento (1900)(1976)
Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti (No profanar el sueno de los muertos a.k.a. The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue a.k.a. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie a.k.a. Don't Open the Window a.k.a. Do No Speak III of the Dead) (1974)
Mussolini: Ultimo atto (The Last 4 Days)(1974)
Ash Wednesday (1973)
Valdez, il mezzosangue (Chino) (1973)
II prode Anselmo e il suo scudiero (1972)
La piu bella serata della mia vita (1972)
All'onorevole piacciono le donne Nonostante le apparenza...e purche la nazione non lo sappia (The Senator Likes Women) (1972)
The Valachi Papers (1972)
Quando gli uomini armarono la clava e...con le donne fecero din-don (When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong a.k.a. When Women Played Ding Dong) (1971)
Waterloo (1970)
Quando le donne avevano la coda (When Women Had Tails) (1970)
The Invincible Six (1970)
C'era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West) (1968)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Io, io, io...e gli altri (Me, Me, Me...and the Others) (1966)