Costumes for Possessed Girl

As we are looking at the idea of using a possessed girl in our supernatural film opening we need to explore every element to do with that idea including make-up, costume, special effects etc. I decided this week to look into costumes and what a possessed girl in a horror film is typically seen wearing so that we have an idea of how to dress our actor if we decide to go through with this as our final idea.
Firstly I did some research to see what was conventionally shown in films, this was what I found:

This is the little girl from 'The Possession' (2012). A young girl buys an antique box at a yard sale, unaware that inside the collectible lives a malicious ancient spirit. The girl's father teams with his ex-wife to find a way to end the curse upon their child.

 

 

 

The girl here is shown just wearing a plain grey t-shirt with wellington boots. This is effective as she stands out from any ordinary girl that age that would be expected to be wearing a normal outfit, it brings attention to the fact that she is possessed or has some kind of demon affecting her behaviour. It is also plain and simple, which suggests that is what we should aim to create for the costume of our girl in our opening.

Here are some more examples from films I looked at which featured a possessed girl including 'The Devil Inside' (2012) which is about a woman who becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms. 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' (2005) which is about a lawyer who takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl. And 'Intruders' (2011) which is about two children living in different countries who are visited nightly by a faceless being who wants to take possession of them.

All of these films also show plain and simple costumes used, nothing has been used which stands out and most of them are something that you would go to sleep in, plain pyjamas or a nighty. After finding this out I then tried to create some examples myself that could be effective for when we begin filming ourselves.

 

 

I used one of my little sisters as the possessed girl, firstly I tried the idea of using a plain grey coloured t-shirt like they did in the film 'The Possession'. I think this was effective as it was large on her so did not look natural for her to be wearing it, it also brought more attention to her and her features rather than anything else which is what we will want once we have done the special effects make-up etc.

 

 

 

 

I then tried using plain some plain clothes that could be pyjamas or something she has purposely been put in to wear if she was being observed for example, such as the film 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose'. I think this was effective as it was very simple and again brought more attention to her.

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 Finally I put in more pyjama styled clothing that looked more like something you'd typically see a little girl wear to bed, similar to the outfit the girl is wearing in 'Intruders'. I think this was effective as it adds realism to the scene that possession has happened to an ordinary child, there was also a rip in the trousers which I think made it look even better.