Village of the Damned

The scene is the English village of Midwich. The scientist Gordon Zellaby is having a telephone conversation. Mid-sentence he passes out. At the same moment, every single person and animal in town has passed out just as suddenly; some unknown force has put all the inhabitants of Midwich to sleep. When the army gets involved, they find this force has precise boundaries. One soldier, after being lassoed around the waist, walks past the boundary, loses consciousness and immediately revives when his fellows pull him out of the infected area. A few hours later, this strange force disappears and everyone wakes up. The mystery remains unsolved for weeks, but it has a sequel. All Midwich women of childbearing age are unaccountably pregnant. And the glowing-eyed children they have will prove to be worse than what they could have feared.  

I love the eeriness of Village of the Damned.  It is all about the actors, their poses, their stance and most definitely their facial expressions.  They all look perfect which is what I love, but that mean glare just gives you a chill right down your spine.  This is exactly what I would like to achieve in my looks.

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's baby is another great film with fantastic styling.  I love the classic films because they really emulate the styling of the era they were created in.  This film actually references the late, great Vidal Sassoon, who at the time was becoming increasingly popular.  Although the film has a twisted, psychotic storyline there is still a great element of style throughout the production.

Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. They discover that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet, and Guy begins to spend a lot of time with them. Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the laundry dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote and distant. Then Rosemary falls pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for her child.

The style that is current in fashion at the moment is very reminiscent of the 1960's.  Fashion houses such as Louis Vuitton are all over it on there catwalk shows.  I definitely want to bring some of this style into my interpretation of the chosen Gothic Urban Legend.

Barbarella

After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film's opening titles), Barbarella, a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man. You can't help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what few clothes our heroine seemed to possess. Based on the popular French comic strip. 

Barabarella is definitely one of my favourite of the classic horror/sci-fi films.  I love the over-styling and sexiness within the movie.  I am going to incorporate their use of styling within the looks for my shoot.  I want to bring the fear from the original story but make the fashion element glamorous and sexy. 

Classic Horror & Sci - Fi

 

Looking at classic horror and sci-fi is interesting.  Although the plots to the films are horrific, psychotic or extra-terrestrial they still have an element of glamour throughout.  The hair, make-up and styling really emulates this.

Rosemary's Baby

                                              

The Amytiville Horror

The Omen 1976

In particular I love the styling of the the film Barbarella.  It is more of a sci-fi film but is one of my favourites for the hair, make-up and styling. 

Barbarella

When a Stranger calls

I have watched two interpretations of the story of the babysitter and the man upstairs.  Both are called "When a Stranger calls".  The first was made in 1979 and the second was made in 2006.  Both have interesting twists on the original Urban Legend.  Each one has used the original story then played around with it, to give two very different endings.  When creating my looks I to am going to completely alter the looks of the whole shoot.  My looks will be made for a music video and not a film, they will also be fashion inspired so they need to have that kind of a feel to.

When a Stranger calls - 1979

A young high school student, Jill Johnson is babysitting one night for a physician and his wife. During the evening, a mysterious phone caller begins taunting her. Sometimes he simply says nothing, other times he asks, 'Have you checked the children?'. Jill eventually becomes frightened for her safety and calls the police. The police successfully trace his next call and discover something horrifying - the calls are being made from INSIDE THE HOUSE! Police are immediately dispatched and Jill narrowly escapes into the arms of Lt. Clifford. Officers soon discover that the children had been savagely murdered hours ago by the caller, who had been using a phone the parents never had disconnected. 7 years later, the murderer escapes from a mental hospital and resumes his demented mission - this time going after Jill's husband, Steven - and their children. And Clifford - now a P.I. hired by the father of the murdered children - is also hunting the murderer... Written by Derek O'Cain

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When a Stranger calls - 2006

A slick remake of the 1979 original, Simon West's WHEN A STRANGER CALLS is a contemporary update of a well-known suburban legend. When 16-year-old Jill exceeds her cell phone minutes, her parents force her to spend the night babysitting instead of attending a huge bonfire bash. As Jill's father drives her to Dr. Mandrakis's house for the evening, we are given the sense from the long drive, spooky music, and winding roads, that the home seems to be at the end of the World. Perched over the edge of a steamy lake, the mansion-like structure is made entirely of dark wood and glass. With an arboretum built into its center, the palatial home feels both Zen-like and forbidding. With the children already asleep, Jill spends the first hour indulging in secret babysitter pleasures like snooping and trying on Mrs. Mandrakis's jewelry. Without a cell phone or car, and all her friends' phones out of range, Jill is particularly isolated--the perfect victim for a psychopath on the loose. As she begins to get calls from a heavy-breathing stranger, what at first seems like a prank slowly becomes a real threat, creating a panic-filled evening that's any babysitter's nightmare. Using modern-day luxuries like caller ID, security alarm systems, and motion-sensor lights to its advantage, the film plays with themes of technology and wealth, pondering how much protection they actually provide. Clearly targeted at a teenage audience, the PG-13-rated film contains relatively little violence and instead uses unfamiliar spaces and a sense of the unknown to keep audiences scared. Written by Canis Lupus.

Gothic Urban Legends

A modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror: Are there alligators living in the NewYork City sewer system, or is that just an urban legend?

The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs

A married couple were going out for the evening and called in a teenage babysitter to take care of their three children.  When she arrived they told her they probably wouldn't be back until late, and that the kids were already asleep so she needn't disturb them.

The babysitter starts doing her homework while awaiting a call from her boyfriend.  After a while the phone rings.  She answers it, but there's no one on the other end - just silence, then whoever it is hangs up.  After a few more minutes the phone rings again.  She answers, and this time there's a man on the line who says, in a chilling voice, "Have you checked the children?"

At first she thinks it might have been the father calling to check up and he got interrupted, so she decides to ignore it.  She goes back to her homework, then the phone rings again.  "Have you checked the children?" Says the creepy voice on the other end.

"Mr Murphy?" she asks, but the caller hangs up again.

She decides to phone the restaurant where the parents said they'd be dining, but when she asks for Mr Murphy she is told that he and his wife had left the restaurant 45 minutes earlier.  So she calls the police and reports that a stranger has been calling her and hanging up.  "Has he threatened you?" the dispatcher asks.  No she says, "Well there's nothing we can really do about it.  You could try reporting the prank caller to the phone company."

A few minutes go by and she gets another call.  "Why haven't you checked the children?" the voice says.

"Who is this?" she asks' but he hangs up again.  She dials 911 again and says, "I'm scared, I know he's out there, he's watching me."

"Have you seen him?" the dispatcher asks, she says no.  "Well, there isn't much we can do about it," the dispatcher says.  The babysitter goes into panic mode and pleads with him to help her.

"Now, now, it'll be okay," he says.  "Give me your number and the street address, and if we can keep this guy on the phone for at least a minute we'll try to trace the call.  "What was your name again?"

"Linda."

"Okay Linda, if he calls back we'll do our best to trace the call, but just keep calm.  Can you do that for me?"

"Yes," she says, and hangs up.  She decides to turn the lights down so she can see if anyone is outside, and that's when she gets another call.

"It's me," the familiar voice says.  "Why did you turn the lights down?"

"Can you see me?" she asks, panicking.

"Yes," he says after a long pause.

"Look, you've scared me," she says.  "I'm shaking, are you happy?  Is that what you wanted?"

"No."

"Then what do you want?" she asks.

Another long pause.  "Your blood, all over me."

She slams the phone down, terrified.  Almost immediately it rings again.  "Leave me alone!" she screams, but it's the dispatcher calling back.  His voice is urgent.  "Linda, we've traced that call, it's coming from another room inside the house.  Get out of there!  Now!!!

She tears to the front door, attempting to unlock it and dash outside, only to find a chain at the top still latched.  In the time it takes her to unhook it she sees a door open at the top of the stairs.  Light streams from the children's bedroom, revealing the profile of a man standing just inside.  She finally gets the door open and bursts outside, only to find a cop standing on the doorstep with his gun drawn.  At this point she's safe, of course, but when they capture the intruder and drag him downstairs in handcuffs, she sees he is covered in blood.  All three children have been murdered.