Written by Zachary O’Dell

Photos by Mindy Welland

While exploring dark, gruesome storylines that violate basic morals or sensibilities, this film genre inflicts fear and terror on its intended audience as entertainment. Capturing your biggest fear and bringing it to life—leading to the ultimate arousal of one’s psychological reaction. Welcome to the world of horror.

A major factor contributing to the continuous ups and downs in horror films originates from the costume. By adding depth and seduction, fashion supports horror’s fictional storyline. This  genre illustrates fashion differently than other competing genres, either through supernatural outfitting or exaggerating the costume. Not only does the enhancement of fashion portray the storyline, theme, setting, and each emotional response the audience encounters, but also the personality of a given character.

The way a character is presented impacts an audience’s emotional and intellectual perceptions. Uncovering a fear of clowns, vampires, domestic creatures, zombies, and ghosts starts with a costume. An axe murder wouldn’t be as terrifying without wearing ripped clothing covered in blood; the same goes for every single villain. Jaw-clenching horror films need creative costumes to execute those dark, gruesome storylines.

Drawing the audience in and allowing them to form that one-on-one connection with that fictional character is exactly why film creators exaggerate costumes. It gives the feeling of nostalgia, having a visual appeal, or even picturing yourself in that setting. These are all ways a costume pulls the audience closer to a character's final destiny. 

Forming an outfit that highlights the character and expresses the character’s aesthetic can be pivotal for the audience. The audience’s opinion of a character starts with the character’s visual appearance. It starts with you finding a piece of yourself tied to that character, which makes it even harder to watch them go through the torturous storyline ahead.

A true, focused attention on fashion and how the impact contributes to the development of the story comes from the effects of makeup. Unpleasant scenes involving blood splatter, brains, guts, and other gory elements become unbearable to watch after forming a relationship. In addition, blood puddles, random liquid splatters, scratch marks, bruises, and red undertones  add to the character’s costume, and connects the costume to horror.

Transitioning into a character and embodying that part is somewhat dependent on the costume. Imagine yourself walking up the stairs to your apartment after a long day at work when you hear a small creaking noise behind you, which you choose to ignore. Making that choice might have been your worst decision. Imagine throwing your bag on the table, changing into your robe, turning on the shower, and waiting until the temperature of the water is to your liking. While stepping into that shower, you find yourself unknowingly stepping straight into your final destination. The shower curtain yanks open, and instantaneously you are staring at the last image you will remember. A figure dressed head-to-toe in black, disguising itself with a white mask, truly dressed for murder.

Providing detailed aesthetics and relatability acts as a source the audience can use to define a character and their emotions. No one understands the fear of coming face-to-face with a masked murderer while taking a shower until they see it happen. The moment an audience witness an ordinary human being gruesomely murdered is the exact moment they picture themselves. The relatability a costume has on an audience is unpredictable until you witness it.

Horror capitalizes on the elicit responses of terror, disgust, shock, and suspense. From fearing satanic demons dripping with their victim’s blood, to being afraid of a group of doppelgängers impersonating your family, horror explores every fear and phobia that you might have. The structure of costumes will always outline that one fear you never thought you had, the one you never thought you could relate to. There will always be a cohesive beauty between horror and costume.