Make-up and costumes

In horror films props, costumes and make-up have to be really exaggerated and strong looking compared to comedies and romantic type films.

Costumes 
These usually come in typical horror films. Here are a few i've looked at and analysed.

Zombies 






Zombie costumes are a typical one to see in horror films. They usually are seen with dirt all over them along with make up used to make them have fake wounds and decaying skin almost. Zombie costumes usually consist of ragged clothes with missing shoes. The person is meant to look like they have a disease this can be seen in films like Shaun of the dead and zombie land. They have blood all over them and dark make-up is used to give a grey effect on their faces so they literally look dead. Fake eye contacts are used to make the eyes look white or a really light colour this exaggerates the fact they have contracted a serious disease.

Vampires 
Vampire costumes have been modernised in the 20th century to fit in with new films as the phenomenon came back with films like Twilight and the Tv series True Blood. However a typical vampire costume is pretty distinct, as their is something in vampires that are meant to be alluring and attractive their usually dressed smart. I've researched and found that they usually opt for dark colours to wear. They have white faces like all the colour has been drained and then the teeth are sharpened are long to really make them look like vampires. Sometimes some have very light eyes like Edward from twilight he is made to use contacts to make him look unique compared to humans in the film.

Ghosts
Now i'm going to do some wider research into ghosts as our film involves them. This is the costume i have to really analyse because it fits perfectly into our short film. Ghosts like to wear dresses and their appearance is always made to look very pale. Ghosts usually come from the past so are dressed up in victorian english clothes or something from another time period altogether. Ghosts need to look like they have a weird vibe coming from them so have transparent veils on like the bride to the side. If it is a female ghost they can be seen in full length dress that are coloured white or a pale colour to contrast with their complexions. In our film we are going to make the actor playing the ghost look very bewildered with messy hair and dark eyeshadow around the eyes and cheekbones to add to the effect that they are no longer alive. I thought we could do this because of films like the ring when the girl has really long hair covering her face as she gets out of the well then progresses to crawl out of the TV. This kind of costume would go perfectly with our film to scare the audience.


Horror make-up
From doing some extra research into horror make-up i've found there are lots of factors that need to be taken into consideration when deciding what look we are going to go for. For our film i've found we can experiment with lashes, glitter, fake blood and latex pieces that stick on to give the character a wound or facial scars. The one thing that stood out to me when researching make up was the use of eye contacts this is a big one in the horror make-up industry and is used to make the audience think that the character is more scary and that theirs something just not right about them so they look a little odd. Pale face paint is used a lot in the film world it is mostly used on characters playing a vampire or ghost like villain. Were going to keep the eyes dark and exaggerated to make them appear bigger and abnormal. We also decided to add to our blog we will make a make-up tutorial later on to how we achieved our look for our characters.