The X trilogy is ever a love letter to cinema. Though the first installment is built around a cluster of young people making pornography, it still highlights its love to the craft of filmmaking by having characters directly refer to the art and also by being set in the late-70s and dressed up in that era’s horror aesthetic. While various crafts are highlighted, the series makes a lot of room for the art of painting faces for a collection of effects. With MaXXXine, the third installment in the Ti West and Mia Goth franchise, now gracing the silver screen, the love for classic eras of cinema is ever palpable. Within that is the love for all things cinema makeup, beauty and FX.

X was perhaps unassuming when it snuck up on 2022 audiences with its distinct 70s look. It didn’t at all lack period appropriate hairstyles and eyewear. Though Bobby-Lynn (Brittany Snow) is built as the standout bombshell, it’s Maxine (Mia Goth) who steals the styled spotlight, us first seeing her under the lights of a vanity mirror. The denim clad farm girl is almost never without her signature powder blue eyelids, even as she takes a solo dip in a dangerous pond. And where the beauty makeup stops, Maxine’s freckles begin, meant to be real though applied meticulously to Goth before the actress stepped in front of the camera.

Speaking to Bloody Disgusting in 2022, trilogy hair and makeup department head, Sarah Rubano discussed the process of creating the looks with the detail-oriented director. “Maxine and her freckles and her eyeshadow […] I just worked with Ti back and forth. He said, ‘Listen, I want to make them beautifully colorful. I want you to lean into the aesthetic here.’”

It’s the beauty makeup that distinguishes the double-triple-quadruple franchise roles of chameleon, Goth. But then there’s the aged Pearl hiding in plain sight. At the time of the first film in the series, there’s almost no reason to suspect that the creepy old lady at the farmhouse is anyone but an actress with thinning hair. But it’s Goth in yet another costume. Setting up what would end up being Goth led follow ups, the film used makeup to keep her in plain sight and lay the foundation of connection that would hold the series together. Where X could have started and stopped at 70s hair and gore FX, it leaned further into its reverence for the art of filmmaking by allowing different types of makeup to shine. Framed by the velvety lyrics of “Landslide,” Pearl is seen touching her own aged skin surrounded by vintage makeup packaging. Shortly thereafter, a youthful Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) is seen getting painted up for her turn in front of the camera.

Returning quickly as a younger Pearl, Goth comes back into frame in the second feature with a completely different look. With makeup (and perhaps color grading), Goth’s skin is warmer and deeper, the freckles washed away, and her face dressed in darkened lashes and a hot lip. Pearl is fresh faced with pops of color, and one of her big moments has her stained with running mascara. (Though it has ancient origins, the products that propelled Maybelline and Rimmel in the 1910s were early versions of mascara made from petroleum jelly and charcoal. They were messy).

Pearl is a completely different sort of movie, shedding the aesthetic of a 70s slasher for a sparkly classic Hollywood look with plot elements evocative of The Wizard of Oz. Pearl is in technicolor, dropping the muted blues and cool-toned freckles for pinky cheeks and opaque lip color. Goth’s reappearance is buoyed not just by her acting ability, but by Rubano and company’s artful work to give her a completely different look, thereby distinguishing the characters.

Wrapping the trilogy comes MaXXXine which brings back Goth in her original role as Maxine, this time as an 80s broad looking to paint over the version of herself she left at the bloody farmhouse. As Hollywood Maxine, she is arguably someone completely new, having committed more fully to her ruthless nature and being adorned with bleached hair that she lets set into natural waves. The signature blue shadow is gone, her face now painted with a less hastily applied gun metal eye. But her looks don’t start and stop here. Where all three installments in the franchise are about a love for film, leaning on meta-elements, MaXXXine further highlights the spectacle by having Maxine prepare for a studio picture that echoes her reality with a fundamentalist reaction to satanism. Goth, who prepared for X by sitting for a life cast to be made into Pearl, is seen as Maxine sitting for a life cast to prepare for her movie role in The Puritan II. And it pays off, not just in-world but for more meta gags. “Real” heads roll, and a “fake” head is in the center of the feature’s closing shot, Maxine having gazed upon it in awe.

When we’re first introduced to her in X, Maxine is sitting at a makeup mirror. In MaXXXine, she’s seen applying her makeup similarly before her adult film shoot, and later with an airbrush to splash on a beauty look that ends up functioning as war paint. Makeup is treated with a reverence beyond just creating signature looks, but also by reveling in the technique to create character, beauty, and horror, all which hold the real movie and the in-world one together.

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Two previously released Bloody Disgusting titles have made their way to our SCREAMBOX streaming platform, one is a creepy found footage horror for those with a fear of clowns, and the other is an absolutely stunning A24-esque chiller reminiscent of The Witch.

Drawing comparisons to The Witch comes German gothic folk tale Hagazussa, which The Hollywood Reporter hailed as “a spellbinding audiovisual symphony” and earned a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes upon release.

Hagazussa, which has a stunning atmosphere mixed with brooding terror from start to finish, takes place in the Austrian Alps in the 15th century when people feared witches and ancient magic.

In the 15th Century in the remote Austrian Alps, the orphan Albrun (Celina Peter) grows up to be a simple goatherd living in solitude…and a marked woman. As a scapegoat of ancient myths and monstrous misogyny, Albrun (portrayed by Aleksandra Cwen as an adult) finds herself tormented by the local townsfolk, driving her to unleash the inner darkness that swells within her. A self-styled witch, Albrun soon exercises her other-worldly birthright and conjures a plague that makes the surrounding human cruelty look pathetic and small by comparison.

Stream right now on SCREAMBOX.

GAGS THE CLOWN

Pennywise and Art the Clown are going to make a new friend in Gags the Clown, now streaming on SCREAMBOX.

The film takes place eight days after the clown arrives in Green Bay, WI. Now, throughout one night, four different groups of people cross paths with the clown everyone calls “Gags” and his true intentions are finally revealed.

Our very own Patrick Bromley reviewed the film, celebrating “the streak of incredibly dark humor that runs through it,” while also promising quite the payoff.

The feature film debut for director Adam Krause was inspired by the viral media frenzy and worldwide phenomenon of ‘clown roaming’ sparked by his sixteen-minute short film “Gags” in 2016.

The post Bloody Disgusting’s ‘Gags the Clown’ and ‘Hagazussa’ Now Streaming on SCREAMBOX! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Just a couple days after we learned that Godzilla Minus One is headed to 4K & Blu-ray here in the United States, Netflix has announced that the black & white version is streaming soon.

Godzilla Minus One / Minus Color will be available on Netflix beginning August 1!

The full-color version of Godzilla Minus One is also currently streaming on Netflix.

Watch the trailer for the monochrome version of Godzilla Minus One below, which evokes the classic black & white spirit of Toho’s original Godzilla movie from back in 1954.

Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, written and directed by Takashi Yamazaki, sees an already devastated post-World War II Japan facing a new threat in the form of Godzilla.

Yamazaki previews the black & white version of the film, “Rather than just making it monochrome, it is a cut by cut. I had them make adjustments while making full use of various mattes, as if they were creating a new movie. What I was aiming for was a style that looked like it was taken by masters of monochrome photography. We were able to unearth the texture of the skin and the details of the scenery that were hidden in the photographed data. Then, a frightening Godzilla, just like the one in the documentary, appeared. By eliminating color, a new sense of reality emerges. Please live and resist further fear at the theater.”

The film stars Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando, and Kuranosuke Sasaki, with music by Naoki Sato.

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Relativity Media has acquired Warren Skeels’ thriller The Man in the White Van for a wide theatrical release on October 11 from Garrison Film and the fan-owned entertainment company Legion M, Bloody Disgusting has learned this week. In addition, we’ve been provided with a first-look image from the upcoming film. Read on for everything you need to know.

Starring Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Stranger Things), Ali Larter (ABC’s The Rookie, Final Destination), Madison Wolfe (The Conjuring 2), Brec Bassinger (CW’s Stargirl), Gavin Warren (Night Swim) and Skai Jackson (Jessie), The Man in the White Van delves into the harrowing experiences of Annie Williams (Wolfe), a spirited family girl, whose carefree existence is turned upside down as she finds herself stalked by an ominous man in a white van.

Prone to exaggeration, her parent’s disbelief in her tales of being followed leads to a terrifying Halloween nightmare.

The Man in the White Van is a “gripping exploration of terror, paranoia and the fragility of security in a place where darkness lurks beneath the surface. Based on a series of true crimes that shook the nation in the 1970s, the film captures a bone-chilling story of a young girl’s unimaginable horrors, and every parent’s worst nightmare.”

“The Man in the White Van is a flat-out frightening story with an incredible ensemble cast, and the teams behind it have produced a film that’s both visceral and topical,” said Michael Arrieta, Chief Operating Officer at Relativity Media. “Watching this in a crowded theater is truly the best way for viewers to experience this tension-packed thrill ride as realized by Warren and his talented crew.”

“I’m thrilled to partner with Relativity Media to bring this important story to the screen,” said writer / director Warren Skeels. “I love this cast and crew. Together we have taken great care to ensure that this narrative is told with respect for those who experienced these horrific events firsthand. Our aim is to shine a light on a dark time in the 1970s and the extraordinary story of one girl’s unimaginable ordeal with a serial killer.”

“We are beyond excited to team up with Relativity to bring this film to theaters nationwide, where every suspense-filled moment and heart-pounding scare is magnified by the collective experience,” said Legion M co-founder and CEO, Paul Scanlan. “Our Legion M community craves theatrical experiences and this film delivers on all fronts.”

“Relativity’s ongoing commitment to delivering exceptional cinematic experiences aligns perfectly with our vision for this chilling thriller,” said executive producer Gary Kompothecras, founder of Garrison Film. “I can’t wait for audiences to experience this film on the big screen.”

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