Justice For Horror Movie Costumes!
Monday, February 10, 2020 at 4:14PM by Jason Adams
Outside of the sort of sex parties lovingly depicted by Stanley Kubrick in Eyes Wide Shut the majority of us only get to dress up in costumes once per year, on the high unholy night of Halloween. And like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls I am personally of the mind that bloody brides are the only way to go -- forget Sexy Pirates or Princess Dresses, I wanna be Frankenstein's Monster! I wanna be Freddy Krueger. I wanna be the May Queen from Midsommar or the Untethered from Us.
Which brings me to a realization I had during last night's Oscar ceremony's opening number with Janelle Monae...
... where the iconography of 2019's horror movies was appropriated -- yes I said appropriated -- to deliver an immediate pop, a wow, on stage. Front and center were the flower dresses and blood red jumpsuits that I also saw all over the sidewalks this past October 31st. And yet neither Andrea Flesch for Midsommar nor Kym Barrett for Us were deemed nomination-worthy by the Academy.
It's been twenty years since a Horror Film has been nominated for Best Costume Design, with Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, and even that's a bit off-mark as far as Iconic Horror Movies Outfits are concerned -- as much as I love those goth costumes they lean harder on the period factor than they do the wow; you (unfortunately) don't see many people doing themselves up as a sneering Miranda Richardson come dress-up time.
You have to go all the way back to 1992 and the undeniable psychotic oomph of Eiko Ishioka's Bram Stoker's Dracula regalia to find not just the previous nominee (and winner) overlap between the genre and the category, but to find the first bunch of nominated horror film costumes that actually feel iconic, like something you'd actually see somebody wear for Halloween. Somebody with outstanding resources obviously -- so much velvet and lace and red metal! -- but do-able, and iconic, with those resources on hand.
And yet in the three decades since that much deserved trophy the Horror Genre has been churning out Iconic Costume after Iconic Costume, without the slightest bite from the Academy. Every year we complain that great Horror Movies get ignored for the top-line categories, the Best Pictures and the Best Actress Toni Collettes, but their allergy runs deep, and it seems especially egregious when humanity's go-to when it comes to Costume Designing ourselves is so inextricably linked with the scary stuff. How many statues for flouncy gowns that could have happened in any year do we need? When I think of 2020's costumes twenty years from now I will see Florence Pugh in that mountain of flowers, Robert Pattinson in chunky sweaters and semen-soaked top-coats, I will see Lupita with her golden scissors and the voluminous crinoline of In Fabric, well before any other.
Here are just a few of the horror movies, besides the just mentioned examples, I would have nominated for Best Costume Design from the past two decades:
American Psycho (2000) -- costumes by Isis Mussenden
Crimson Peak (2015) -- costumes by Kate Hawley
The Witch (2015) -- costumes by Linda Muir
Thirst (2009) -- costumes by Sang-gyeong Jo
Silent Hill (2006) -- costumes by Wendy Partridge
Black Swan (2010) -- costumes by Amy Westcott
The Babadook (2014) -- costumes by Heather Wallace
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) -- costumes by Natalie O'Brien
Suspiria (2018) -- costumes by Giulia Piersanti
Ohhhh that last one stings. And I could keep going. There are a dozen more examples of absolutely stellar work -- work that is often done on the extreme cheap, with all of the outlandish creativity that that demands -- that have wormed their way hard into our forever cultural consciousness. What horror movies would you have nominated for Best Costume Design?
Best Costume Design, Costume Design, Horror, Oscars
Reader Comments (13)
Wasn't Black Swan ineligible? Rodarte designed a few or something to that nature?
Just this year, "Ready or Not" had some awesome costumes. And if they're gonna nominate Mark Bridges for Tilda Swinton's closet in "Joker", then they could have nominated Pennywise's duds in "It". Hell, "It" for Hair and Makeup. The Academy is so biased it's ridiculous.
It is appropriate to mention the 1954 Japanese film Ugetsu, the first horror film to receive an Oscar nomination for its costumes. In a story rich with spirits, a severed head and an exorcism, the costume design of Tadaoto Kainosho are memorable.
Arguably, the first win in costume design for a horror movie was Norma Koch for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Interesting. Yesterday I watched El año de la Peste (1979) and i was thinking that the movie has some interesting things in the costumes.
Talking about contemporary movies you basically already mentioned most of my options, (particularly surprises me that Black Swan hasn't been nominated) but i would like to mention the design of the dresses that Angela Bettis wore in May.
Well, the original Carrie, natch.
And Dressed to Kill, duh.
Midsommar was my costume win this year. Us was my hair and makeup win. Both films were nominated in both categories.
It's a deep dive that never stood a chance with major awards, but American Mary had fabulous costuming that was integral to the narrative of the film and really elevated a pretty standard revenge film. May also, quite literally, has costuming as part of its plot and it works so well. Dario Argento's films always have strong, definitive costuming for the characters. I've frankly forgotten more horror films that have award-worthy costuming than the Academy has ever nominated.
I think that best makeup is even more egregious. So many good makeup on the cheap for horror movies and they almost always are ignored.
Good article. The academy has so much to answer for.
You have evidently forgotten about "Sweeney Todd!"
I had a sentence about Sweeney Todd that I deleted, I couldn't decide if I really considered it Horror in the same way. I could be swung either way but at the moment I decided not to... although that was probably a weird decision given how open and welcoming I normally am when it comes to Horror, and just because they are singing and making jokes... yeah okay you should def yell at me for that one, I have it coming ;)
If we lived in a perfect world, Midsommar would have been a shoo-in for costume design, production design, and cinematography. It was a stunningly crafted movie.
The only male costume is a basic retro office uniform in countless films/series lol. Gays like you who obsess over women's clothes without having a style of your own are one of the great mysteries of life to me :)
The scariest costumes are the ones that look completely normal except for one small detail. Like a knife or blood, for example.