Like any self-respecting horror lover, I hightailed it to the cinema upon the release of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu — a remake of the 1922 classic, silent film, and a thinly-veiled Dracula story, for the uninitiated. There’s much to be said, but especially about Lily-Rose Depp’s breakout performance as Ellen, a troubled young bride, and the subject of the vampire’s twisted obsessions. But what piqued my interest amongst the jump scares was the actor’s make-up, on-screen—which perfectly embodied the modern-day conception of Victorian-era, gothic beauty—and off-screen, which updated and sexed up the look for 2024.
Female beauty in the 19th century, as depicted in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and more recently by Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, is completely at odds with what we’ve seen over the past few years. Far from the clean-girl aesthetic, this is an inversion of the fillers and botox look that has dominated our screens. It's largely barefaced and defined by a vision of deathly (pun-intended) tiredness: sunken eyes and eye-bags, pallid skin, muted brown colours on the socket and lips, and absolutely no blush.
