Bride of Frankenstein

In the novel, The Creature insists that Frankenstein make him a bride so that he can be happy. Frankenstein makes the trip to Scotland in order to fulfil his request, but at the last minute destroys the body of the woman he has made because he believes that the female could wreak even more havoc than her male counterpart. Even though she is destroyed in the book, she is featured in numerous film adaptations of the novel and is a popular Halloween costume.

Below is Elsa Lanchester as The Bride of Frankenstein, in the film of the same name which featured Boris Karloff's second portrayal of The Monster. 

February 2014 at chapter (2014) Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/377669118723361435/ (Accessed: 19 January 2016).

This makeup is the typical look that we see for creating The Bride of Frankenstein in modern culture, especially the frizzed hair with white highlights on the side. In comparison to The Monster, The Bride is very pretty and looks as though she has minimal scarring - especially on her face. As the Bride was made because of the need of the male Monster, the way that she is made to look beautiful shows that her character is only there to look pretty for the male character. Furthermore the fact that she is so pretty in comparison, could be symbolic of the fact that the Monster doesn't even need to look good for her  but she does for him. Even her name shows that she is made solely for the males in the film, the use of 'of' makes her the property of both Frankenstein and the Monster.

Below is a look that MAC did in 2013 for Halloween, creating a Bride of Frankenstein. The entire look was done without using special effect makeup, just MAC products that are available to the wider public- as shown in the video below.

Panych, S. (2013) Oscar-Winning makeup artist scares up Halloween collection with M.A.C. Available at: http://www.allure.com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2013/10/rick-baker-collaborates-with-mac.html (Accessed: 19 January 2016).

MAC Cosmetics (2013) M∙A∙C Rick Baker - how to create the monster’s bride. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsfqJsv5w50 (Accessed: 19 January 2016).

In the Kenneth Branagh version of Frankenstein, he tries to reanimate Elizabeth after The Creature kills her on their wedding night. The transformation into the female creature makes her look a lot like  the male creature, and more realistic in terms of stitching together body parts to make another body. The use of the visible stitching makes her look disfigured, and so much like The Creature so that they almost look like their own species, and the product of Frankenstein. 

Davies, J. (2005) Horror makeups | Frankensteins’s brides | Helena Bonham Carter in ‘Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’. Available at: http://www.themakeupgallery.info/horror/bride/frankhbc.htm
 (Accessed: 19 January 2016).