Cautionary Women

Can you believe it has been around 50 years since Linda Blair possessed audiences as Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist? The unseen enemy that grips her in the movie hits close to home especially now as Covid-19 makes its invisible, body-snatching presence felt everywhere.  Now we all know an ancient Mesopotamian demon is the real enemy in The Exorcist, but Regan really made the Prince of Murderers a character all her own. Here's how you can take possession of Linda's iconic character for your next costume party. (Cue Mike Oldfield's equally iconic "Tubular Bells.") How to do Regan's Exorcist makeup and hair The power of Christ compels you to...do Regan MacNeil's makeup before anything else.  Blair's harrowing makeup for Regan was done by no other than the “Godfather of Makeup” himself, Dick Smith. This is the man who literally wrote the   book on monster makeup  and formulated fake blood with corn syrup.  "I was faced with the problem of making this 1...

From the Warner Bros. film The Witches (2020) So how do Grand High Witches dress up?  Depends on which actress. Anne Hathaway portrayed the terrifying villainess for Robert Zemeckis' big-screen take on Roald Dahl's "The Witches" in 2020. The original 1990 movie saw Anjelica Huston in the role, too, brought to bewitching life by master puppeteer Jim Henson in his last work as producer.  Playing Grand High Witch for the night requires one to be the epitome of fashion, and the two AH's delivered. While Huston slinked around in ultra-glamorous, eighties-going-on-nineties bowed skirts and hats, fellow Oscar winner for supporting actress Hathaway opted for voguish 1960s wear in keeping with the period of setting.  What does the Grand High Witch wear?  According to the source material , which came out in 1983, the fashion of the Grand High Witch is the definition of function. Witches have to hide their claws with gloves; their toeless hooves with pointed shoes instead o...

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford's feud on the set of 1962's Whatever Happened to Baby Jane could be a movie unto itself. Their purported beef was the stuff of Hollywood legend, escalating into a cringeworthy night at the Academy Awards that saw Crawford accepting an Oscar that was not hers, allegedly just to spite Davis. The villain narratives fabricated by Hollywood rags against the two actresses, who had been nothing but consummate professionals during filming, would make their violent characters, Baby Jane and Blanche Hudson, shudder. But boy did Bette look villainous. Caked to the high heavens with makeup and wearing children's gowns, Davis had the part of an unhinged, washed-out child star down pat.   Ready to play Baby Jane Hudson? Let's get hagsploitational.  Baby Jane costume  To get into the character's frame of mind, Davis played up the ugly. Baby Jane was stuck in the past, and nothing says regressive like adult-size dresses styled for little girls....