Deconstruction: Costume in Possession Horror

Deconstruction: Mise-en-scene in Possession Horror Films

We will exploit the use of costume and make-up in our film opening to ensure that the mise-en-scene is convincing and conforms to common possession horror film conventions. 

The Ring (2002)

There are more characters in The Ring than we are planning to be in our film opening, although we too have a young girl character. Samara is the girl in which possesses the other characters, she is a young girl within the age group 7 to 10. The possessed are a varied age group, giving us no restriction of actors. 

Costume: 

Samara is wearing a long white dress, a common convention for young children in the horror genre. This is due to the connections with innocence and vulnerability. The dress is usually like a night dress again highlighting the same characteristics. 

The dress is dirty to highlight that the character is 'unclean' i.e. possessed or evil. We could use this in our film opening to conform to common horror conventions and create a separation between the 'normal' people and the young girl, due to the difference in dress. 

The people that become possessed are dressed normally. The two girls are school girls and of the age between 16-18. They are wearing their school uniform and have bare legs and no shoes, this could be highlighting their vulnerability and the man who also gets possessed is wearing flip flops and therefore exposing his feet. 

There are no parts of the costumes that particularly stand out. This means that we have little limitation when it comes to the costume of the character being possessed in our film opening. As our actor is a teenage boy, we could exploit the use of school uniform, although he will be seen as less vulnerable as a female student. 

We are setting our film opening in winter, so we could exploit the stereotype of vulnerability by showing the character without a coat or bare arms for the ease of access by the possessed. 

Make-up: 

The image above is the only shot of Samara's face. The only visible part is the centre of her face and part of her eye. Her face is very pale and under her eyes are red. There is use of liquid latex to make the young actor look older and 'rotted'. We could use subtle white face paint to create a pale look and bruising around the eyes to create the same/similar look. 

She has brown on part of her face and neck, this is to replicate the mud/dirt on her dress, continuing the same theme. We probably will not do this as we are not planning on having the same background for the two young characters. 

There is no make up used by the 'normal' characters so there is no need to use make-up on our actor. The only type of make-up/special effect used on the other characters are during their death scene. The make-up used is the same pale effect as the young girl with other techniques. The make-up artist has used liquid latex to manipulate the face into a different emotion and shape. We could use this effect in our film opening if we show a close up of the actors face although our skills may limit the cinematic affect.

Hair:

Samara's hair is long and dark. Her hair is always covering part of her face adding to the mystery and tension of the film. Having long hair also allows a lot of manipulation, whether that be the texture or style. As we are setting our film opening in the woods we could utilise the effect of natural, textured hair, which we can use to cover part of the face so that our actor does not need a believable facial expression.

Evaluation:

• The possessed girl character is a little younger than the girl in our film opening so we will need to edit the costume but we will take inspiration from the white dress with stains.
• The make-up used on Samara is too complex and would take too much expertise in special effects make-up to re-create but we will take inspiration from the colouring and the bruising around the eyes.
• We are most likely going to use the same 'casual' costume for the unpossessed in our film opening
• We are most likely not going to use the special effects make-up on the 'normal' characters as we will not see much of the face after possession. We may apply a light layer of white face paint and use a little bruising around the eyes and mouth to create a possessed look.