Thursday, 24 March 2016

Women of Horror - AHS Coven

Women Of Horror - AHS Coven

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/67342956901872012, 24.03.16 

Women play a major role in the American Horror Story series; most of the actors are female and most of the major roles are played by talented female actors. Above is an image of the major female roles played in Coven, each has a strong personality and a different sense of style; this shows through the makeup and personality traits of the individual. I think AHS is generally female and encourages more female roles, without being prejudice about the male roles.

Witches are always presented wearing pointed hats; in the Coven series the hats worn by the witches are all different depending on the person wearing it. I think each hat illustrates the personality of the witches; Zoe wears a large hat with a fashionable rounded top and a large buckle that imitates the buckle from hats from the traditional American thanks giving setting. Madison is seen wearing a fashionable smaller hat, also with a rounded top, with small decorations around the rim. Queenie is seen with a long black veil that covers her hair and no hat, this may be to suit the actor. Nan wears a small version of a top hat, and Fiona is seen wearing variations from Zoe's large hat to a small clip in hat to a large pointed traditional style hat. There isn't a specific hat for each character as they are seen in many variations, but all are black, as are their clothes. Marie Laveau often wears her hair up in a scarf, and Papa Legba wears a large top hat decorated with skulls.  

Myrtle Snow

Myrtle is a lady of superiority; she is the one to go to about new witchy happenings, she takes charge when a witch must be burned, and has to make this decision for herself late in the series. She has acted as a mother to Cordelia, who she loves very much and becomes a loveable and honest character throughout Coven. She plays a strong and powerful role. 

Her hair is dark orange and crimped, it is very bouncy and big, her makeup is less extravagant keeping to a natural look but she wears large pointed glasses in baby pink, her look reflects her quirky personality.  

Cordelia Foxx

Is also an honest witch, she has trouble mixing with Marie Laveau due to her personal wants and wishes, but she comes to term with her disappointments in life and grows as a person. She gains and looses her powers but becomes the supreme witch in the end. Cordelia is the mentor and head mistress of the school for witches, where students can practice and learn to control their gifts.   

Cordelia's look is smart, she has long blonde hair that is fairly straight, her makeup is natural to accentuate her features. In some shots she is seen wearing red lipstick and once her sight is lost she has badly acid burnt eyes and face. This special effects makeup is red with cool blue tones in the eyes, her actual eyes are white and the skin around them is coloured pink, red and white tones for skin tissue. 

Zoe Benson 

Is the main character in the series, she is powerful and honest, makes friends easily and can take charge. Known to have potential, this creates problems with jealousy throughout the series with her powers and her boyfriend. She has a curse that causes her sexual partner to haemorrhage and die, this was found out with her new boyfriend and he was managed to be brought back to life with the help from Zoe and Madison. The girls compete with magic to find the next supreme witch. 

Zoe has very straight hair, it is long and a dark blonde. Her makeup is subtle and used to give a pale complexion and to accentuate her features. 

Misty Day

Is a free spirited witch, once dead she brought herself back to life by burying herself in soil. She is one of my favourite characters of the coven series because she is so 'free' and 'love' orientated, she would never hurt anyone with or without magic. She is troubled and when competing with the coven witches for the supreme title, she dies, trapped in the world inside her mind. Her power is to brig souls back from the dead.

Misty Day has long blonde hair that is styled in messy curls, she is seen in some shots with feathers and small things mixed in with the curls, her makeup is more free than the other witches, she has darker eyes and is sometimes seen with pink lips. 

Madison Montgomery 

Believes she is superior to everyone else, she lives by her own rules and believes she has the perfect life. She is jealous of Zoe and wants her boyfriend, who she successfully steals on many occasions. She also dies and is brought back to life, then onwards thinking she should be the next supreme. Her power is telekinesis.  

Her hair is long and blonde, her makeup is more glamorous, she has slightly darker eyes and a pink or red lip, she loves to take on the witchy look, and fashions her outfits with different hats, always wearing black. 

Madame Delphine Lalaurie

Once alive in the 1800's as a powerful woman of money, she had many slaves that she would torture, the torture would involve bad burns, skin peels and the draining of blood. She would then brush the blood onto her face believing it was good for the skin, (she also has some psychotic issues). Due to Marie Laveau, she is kept alive and for years buried beneath the ground, but uncovered by Fiona, she lived on in the coven house learning the news ways of the modern. This topic brings up many moving racial issues that relate to the audience and shock.

She is a plain woman, large with short brown hair and natural makeup, in keeping with her era.  

Marie Laveau 

A voodoo Queen, ageless, timeless and forever unforgiving, she practices in the art of black magic. She is a protecter of her people, and will stop at nothing to destroy someone who tries to destroy her. She and the coven are born enemies but changes when she finds friendship with Fiona. She is fearless and from the 1800's where she first met Madame Delphine Lalaurie, a slave master and abuser. She takes her revenge and buries Delphine alive cursing her to stay alive forever. She is visited once a year by Papa Legba, a spirit that guards the boarder between life and death, for her power and eternal life she must repay him with a babies life...once a year!

She wears colourful dresses, but when practicing magic she wears white, her hair is in havana twists, but mostly up in a scarf or colourful headdress, her makeup is natural, with the occasional colourful lip.  

Fiona Goode

Is the supreme and believes she suits the role, she is beautiful, powerful and graceful and witty, she is also very vain about her looks and age; she dates many younger men and constantly belittles everyone around her to make herself feel better. she wants to live forever as the coven supreme but time and age has a different plan, she lives a long life, full of evil and betrayal but in the end dies and gives the title to her daughter, Cordelia. After finding out she has cancer, Fiona had the thought of killing all the witches in the coven, for punishment of youth, she also tried to sell her soul to Papa Legba for more power, but was turned down for she had no soul.  

She has short, shoulder length blonde hair and her makeup sculpts her face; she has red lips and dark eye brows. 

Queenie 

Queenie is a human voodoo doll, she has the ability to make someone else feel pain when it is inflicted on herself. She has the bloodline of both the voodoo people and the witches and is constantly at a crossroads of which magic to follow. She is feisty, stands up for herself and tries to always be good. 

Queenie is the biggest size of the witches and her skin is dark, her makeup is subtle and very natural, only slight correction makeup needs to be used.    

Nan

Her gift is to get into the minds of others, she has down syndrome and is constantly undermined and considered simple, but redeems herself by showing her strength. Her clairvoyance controls her sometimes and led the coven to Madame Delphine Lalaurie whilst in one of her 'moments.' 

She also has very subtle and natural makeup, her face is pale and plain, her hair is medium length and a light brown. 

Claudia

Claudia suffers from a non curable illness called agoraphobia, this makes her feel scared all the time of people and of going outside. She has an imaginary boyfriend who is on the side of voodoo, this causes problems in the coven as no one understands or helps her. She constantly self harms her face and neck, coping with unwanted stress and illness. Her power is working with spells, she is a master of them and can conjure anything with the right words. Her illness effects her and sometimes it can be too much, she causes magic corruptions with her unwanted spells when under the influence of her disease, this has caused her boyfriend to turn half voodoo doll and half human when she tried to make a spell to turn a doll into her beloved.    

She is pretty, but it is veiled by her dark circles under her eyes and the redness that comes from being tired snd overwhelmed. She has scars on her face and neck that are red and unbecoming, but she cannot stop feeling or thinking this way and it shows through her appearance.  

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