Tag Archives: scary

STAGE MAKEUP CLASS PAGES 72: Watch Gothic Horror Makeup Video(s)!

[This page is part of a mirror of my Canvas learning system pages I created for my Drama 112 Intro Stage Makeup class at DVC.  If you want to use this content for another Canvas class shell you can find it in Canvas Commons by searching for “Tara Maginnis” and you can download all or part of this directly into your shell with all the extra cool formatting of colored divider lines, right side embedded Giphy animations, etc. already put in, if you are working with a different system, it is ok to copy and paste from here, and then customize the pages as you need  for your classes].


Conrad Veidt as Cesare in The Cabinet of Caligari
Kitty Lester in Blacula
Bela Lugosi
Lady Gaga in skull makeup

The Gothic Horror project is one where you get to choose any sort of makeup that might be considered Gothic, or Horror, or Halloween, or Day of the Dead as long as it on some level makes you scared.  It includes, but is not limited to:

  • Classic Movie Horror characters like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Man Who Laughed, Phantom of the Opera, Pinhead, etc. 
  • Scary Clowns, The Joker, Pennywise.
  • Gothic Beauty Magazine/Goth Band Makeup/Gothic Lolitas.
  • Ghosts, Ghouls, Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, Weeping Angels, etc.
  • Day of the Dead, Chimbu Bugamo Skeleton TribeLinks to an external site., Krampus
  • Pretty much anything that pushes your fear buttons and makes you want to wrestle it into scaring you less.

The Official Required Video:

Below is the (short) official class how-to video.  It is for a creepy makeup of a creepy character in the 1919 film, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, seen below on the actor Werner Kraus

Even if you are not a white middle aged female, nor do you wish to do this type of makeup today, you should put the time into viewing this video to learn how to do makeup that works in unnatural colors.  The base is a layer of white applied thinly so the skin color peeks through, the brightest highlights are true white, the medium shadows are violet, and the darkest shadow lines are black, illustrating the very important point:

  • Any Dark color can be a Shadow
  • Any Light color can be a Highlight

This applies regardless of your skin tone!

However, if you are not creeped out by silent film makeup, you may well wish to ALSO watch other videos, in addition to this required official one:

Required Makeup Video for Doctor Caligari:


More Video Options!


Happily, I have found a number of other videos of different sorts of scary theatrical makeup that you also may find helpful! Scroll down to see if you find any you think you’d like to watch!

8 Halloween looks applied in fast-forward

Top 15 Halloween Tutorials

Yet more options at Gothic/Horror Makeup Tutorials!