Busted Knuckles

   For Claudia, due to the nature of her character I wanted her to have busted knuckles to show distress and her violence when she has her emotional outbursts so I thought I'd try and see if I could create this effect. Looking at my final outcome, I'm rather happy with the result considering it was my first trial, however I also see rooms for improvement. I felt I could of trimmed/ripped the skin more around the knuckles as when my fingers are stretched out the 'skin' just looks like theres too much than what should be around the knuckle, and also when colouring under the 'skin' I felt I went a bit too dark for what I was looking to have.

Method:

1. I started by painting the knuckle area in different tones of red until I was happy with the intensity
2. apply tin layers of liquid latex around the wound and build up latex closer to the wound
3. wait for latex to dry but continue to move your fingers to help the latex move a lot better when you pick it up and helps you move your fingers better
4. powder latex to take away the shine
5. carefully pick the edges of the latex up to create the broken skin effect, whilst ripping edges to make it look more realistic
6. colour slightly under the latex and consider going a few shades darker to show dried blood
7. finally add some vaseline to the centre and if you desired so, some fake blood

Sticking & Colouring Wounds Made Out Of Moulds

   In our most recent make-up session we went back and revisited on how to colour wounds, but we also covered how moulds are made and how we apply them to the skin. Using moulds is a great way to keep up with continuity as you're guaranteed the same result every time you use moulds, the use of gelatine for these kind of moulds (wound shapes) works best due to once the gelatine has set and you've applied powder to the mould you'll see that it looks and feels rather flesh like. Another tip we was taught was about using adhesives when sticking these to our skin and more importantly the type of adhesive that works best with these kind of moulds, which is a glue called pros-aide. Unlike spirit gum or latex, pros-aide is said to move with the skin and gives it a lot more flexibility which helps make the wound look a lot less fake if it's being placed on someones face.

Method:

1. stick your chosen mould onto your skin with pros-aide (make sure you wait for the pros-aide to go clear)
2. blend edges using witch hazel or vaseline until you get a seamless blend from mould to skin
3. power wound to remove any shine
4. start colouring your wound, keep in mind to start light and build up colour to create a more realistic effect. It also helps to dap colour instead of rubbing/painting the colour on
5. once I was happy with my colouring I then added some vaseline to the centre to add depth
6. and for some extra gore, add fake blood to the centre and slightly outside the wound 

American Horror Story: Asylum

   The story takes place in 1964 and follows the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy the Briarcliff Mental Institution, located in Massachusetts and founded to treat and house the criminally insane. The wardens who run the institution include the stern Sister Jude, her protégé Sister Mary Eunice and the founder of the institution, Monsignor Timothy Howard. The doctors charged with treating the patients at the asylum include psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson, who is a psychiatrist assigned to evaluate Kit Walker, who believes his wife Alma was kidnapped by aliens. It is revealed that Thredson actually committed the murders, and got himself assigned to Walker’s case to make sure he could pin the murders and Alma's disappearance on him. Kit is duped into taping a confession and is arrested for the murders but later escapes custody. Thredson also tries to "reform" the patient Lana Winters, the lesbian journalist who attempts to expose Briarcliff’s for their mistreatments of patients. Winters is in a relationship Wendy, who was blackmailed by Sister Jude into committing Winters to stop her from exposing Briarcliff, which she is then later on murdered by Thredson. Thredson agrees to help Winters escape the asylum, but she finds out about his dark secret and that he sees her as the mother he never had. He keeps her prisoner and tries to turn her into his mother figure. He rapes her, and is later going to kill her for his "indiscretion". Winters later escapes, only to end up back at Briarcliff, but it is then she learns that she is pregnant with Thredson's baby.

   The sadistic scientist Dr. Arthur Arden, which you later figure our that Arden is a former Nazi whose experiments have produced "Raspers", mutated former patients, who lurk in the woods surrounding the institution, and who are fed the flesh of dead patients.

   The patients, many of whom claim to be unjustly institutionalised, include lesbian journalist Lana Winters, accused serial killer Kit Walker, nymphomaniac Shelley and alleged murderer Grace Bertrand. Briarcliff's inhabitants are routinely subject to supernatural and scientific influences, including demonic possession and extraterrestrial abduction. The season primarily takes place throughout the 1960s with flash-forwards to 2012.

   Sister Jude was once a flirty nightclub singer who unintentionally killed a young girl in a drunk driving hit and run accident in 1949. This led her to become a nun and then work at Briarcliff. Sister Mary Eunice is a shy and innocent nun who fears Sister Jude. Later, she becomes possessed by the Devil during an exorcism of another patient and becomes cruel and evil. Sister Jude is terrorised by the memory and goes to see the family of the dead girl. When is when she learns the girl survived the accident with only a few broken bones. Sister Jude figures that God had a plan for her all along, and decides that it is her job to destroy all the remaining evil at Briarcliff. A possessed Sister Mary Eunice is able to get Sister Jude deposed and committed. Mary Eunice takes over Briarcliff, with Dr. Arden's help. She nurses the weakened Monsignor Howard back to health and he tries to perform a failed exorcism on her. But later Howard kills her by throwing her off the third floor balcony which also realised the demon inside her.

   Meanwhile, believing his wife is dead or missing, Kit takes a fancy with inmate Grace Bertrand, who had murdered her family after her father sexually abused her. She and Kit got caught having sex in the kitchens before his arrest which they’re then separated with the idea of them to be sterilised. However, she is abducted by the same aliens that had taken Alma but is later returned back to Briarcliff, heavily pregnant and about to give birth. He negotiates with Monsignor and arranges for Grace, himself, and their baby to be released. However when they arrive at his old home to find his wife Alma and with her own baby.

   Lana captures a confession from Dr. Thredson admitting to his crimes, but corners him in his house to say she has turned the tape over to the police and hopes he rots in jail. He states, because he is insane, no jury will convict him, grasping for a gun in a drawer she shoots him in the head. In the present, she has become a famous television reporter and gets Briarcliff closed down for its treatments. Lana reveals that Monsignor Howard committed suicide after she threatened to expose his neglect of the patients. She also goes on to say that Kit took in Sister Jude, after Alma was committed to Briarcliff for killing Grace. Jude's dementia worsens and she is taken into the woods by the children. Her mind is healed for a while but she later grows frail and dies. Kit is later abducted by the same aliens that took Grace and Alma after he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

American Horror Story: Murder House

   The story takes place in 2011 and follows the Harmon family: psychiatrist Ben, his wife Vivien, and their teenage daughter Violet, who move from Boston to a restored mansion in Los Angeles after Vivien has a miscarriage and Ben had an affair with one of his students. Soon after moving they encounter the home's former residents, the Langdons – Constance and her two children, Tate and Addie and the disfigured Larry Harvey. Ben begins seeing patients out of his home office. One in particular, a possibly psychotic teenage boy named Tate Langdon, takes interest in kindred spirit Violet, who suffers from depression. Ben is unaware that Tate is both a ghost and the son of Constance. As they settle in, weird and wonderful events begin to occur increasing regularity. It is soon revealed that there have been upwards of 20 violent deaths in the home over the course of its history, and is known to be haunted by anyone who has ever died on the property. The season is primarily set in the modern day, with flashbacks to the 1920s, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

   During the series, while exploring the attic, Vivien discovers a latex bondage suit that was owned by the previous gay couple who was murdered in the house. She later is raped by a man wearing it, who she believes is Ben, but is actually Tate. Vivien's rape results in the rare condition that the womb can hold twins by different fathers. It is later revealed that the reasoning behind Tate's actions was to conceive a baby for Nora, a ghost in the house who lost her own child.

   On Halloween, the only day the the dead can walk among the living, Violet learns that Tate is an infamous school shooter, who murdered a library full of his classmates, as well as crippling a teacher and setting Larry Harvey on fire to punish his mother Constance for having Tate's younger (and deformed) brother murdered. Trying to come to terms with the monster Tate is, and her own romantic feelings for him, Violet then commits suicide, however she doesn't realise was successful until weeks later when she discovers she cannot leave the house and Tate shows her, her own body. After many poltergeists, Vivien is committed to an insane asylum, while Ben is convinced that the second twin was fathered by Luke, a neighbourhood security officer but then later finds out Vivien was actually assaulted by Tate and has her leave the asylum.

   During Vivien’s birth she later dies and as a result Ben contemplates suicide to be with them. Instead, Vivien shows herself after not wanting Ben to see her, and convinces Ben to leave the house immediately for the protection of the baby. As Ben is leaving the house, he is caught and murdered by Hayden, who hangs him to simulate a suicide. Now trapped in the house, the Harmons team up with Moira and the other spirits to keep other families from moving in by scaring them away. Meanwhile, Tate is now living with Hayden as they have both been blocked out by the Harmons. Three years later, Constance returns to Los Angeles, but finds that her grandson, Michael (the Antichrist), has murdered his nanny. She slowly walks towards the smiling child as he rocks back and forth. She then smiles and whispers, "Now what am I gonna do with you?"

2nd Continuity Assessment

   This week it was time for the last assessment on continuity, so naturally I was slightly stressed on how I would preform and recreate my design exact like the first assessment. Surprisingly, when recreating this look a second time round I wasn't as nervous and took my time a lot more to make sure I was 100% correct in recreating it as when creating this look the first time round I rushed incase I couldn't recreate the look within the desired time, but ended up with half an hour to spare.
   Looking at both sets of images side by side I think I did pretty well to get my design pretty much exact to my first look, my only flaw I really see with my second design is that the scar wasn't as red compared to my first try. I was rather pleased with myself when  I saw that I got the scar pretty much in the same place on the face, as this was the part of the look I was nervous about the most because if the scar was slightly out of place you'd be able to see straight away.

1st Continuity Assessment

   Last week was the first part of our continuity assessment where we had to complete both our make-up and hair design in 1hr 30 minutes and then repeat the same process exactly the same the following week. I'm so happy to looking over these images now and seeing my design on someone as I feel that they turned out better than I expected my final outcome to be. If I had something to pick about my design it would be how my final hair turned out, as I wanted my hair to look like a controlled mess however my model had a lot of short layers in his hair so it was slightly harder to make his hair look messy instead of just styled that way. Although to give a hint of victorian male into my design I used the well known trait of a side parting.

Women In Horror

   Misogyny in horror films is the degrading view of women who fight to survive in a male world within the horror genre. Specifically in slasher films, misogyny is apparent. There is no doubt that there is a sign of gendered specific violence towards women as well as; "the proportion of time spent watching young women cower, scream, or run in terror" compared to male roles. Males are pretty much never seen running away from the attacker, but they are killed quickly with no chase involved or scene of struggle.

Final girl

   The slasher film was the first genre that allowed gender norms to take a different path. The role of the final girl confused audiences with the portrayal of a female being a violent hero. However, there was finally a possibility that the heroine who defeats the monster is a female and is categorised as the final girl. The final girl is the “first character to sense something amiss and the only one to deduce from the accumulating evidence the pattern and extent of threat; the only one, in other words, whose perspective approaches our own privileged understanding of the situation.” The only way the final girl is able to kill or escape the monster is by taking on male characteristics. However, Clover cautions audiences against seeing "final girls" as products of feminism. Final girls are still seen like the other women who have been killed after taking part in sexual activities by being a part of "the chase". Clover concludes that the final girl is “an agreed upon fiction [for] male-viewers’ use of her as a vehicle for his own sadomasochistic fantasies.”

The female monster

   Shelley Stamp Lindsey states “Carrie is not about liberation from sexual repression, but about the failure of repression to contain the monstrous feminine”. Audiences are not supposed to identify with Carrie whilst she becomes the monster, instead they are supposed to be scared of her ability and destructive potential. Carrie is purposely portrayed in this manner because she demonstrates what happens when women gain power and are no longer repressed. Carrie ultimately tells its audience that they must live as a patriarchal world and if they do not then this is what will come of it.

   Aviva Briefel states that menstruation is the start of monstrosity. Once a girl has reached her puberty she is seen to be monstrous. Horror films feed into the female monsters identity through her menstruation. This then states that having your period makes you weaker. The overall objective in Briefel’s article, Monster Pains: Masochism, Menstruation, and Identification in the Horror Film, is that the female monster is unable to control their emotions when pain occurs whereas male monsters are unable to feel pain.

The repressive patriarch

   In every horror film the repressive patriarchal form of a monster is either “symbolically castrated, pathetically lacking…or he is overly endowed and potent.” The real sexual interest that occurs in horror films comes from the monster. “The monster’s power is one of sexual difference from the normal male. In this difference he is remarkably like the woman in the eyes of the traumatised male: a biological freak with impossible and threatening appetites that suggest a frightening potency precisely where the normal male would perceive a lack.”

   Men only stay on the screen long enough to show their inability, unless they are seen to be a true form of patriarchy. The repressive patriarch is often dressed as a female and because he does not represent patriarchy at its finest, the final girl is his “homoerotic stand-in”.

   The “masochistic monster” revels in acts of self-mutilation before the audience sees the harming of others being done. Briefel looks at films like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), The Fly (1986), Hellraiser series, Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). All these horror films show examples of masochistic monster’s that take pleasure in the pain they inflict on themselves. It is something they must endure to be monstrous.