Zach Cregger’s creepy Weapons is now available to watch at home, meaning folks who missed it in theaters can behold its horrors from the safety of their couch. Also, it means anyone in the midst of fashioning a Halloween costume styled after the movie’s most mysterious and memorable character can rewind and freeze-frame to get all the Aunt Gladys details just right.
Like everything in Weapons, Gladys’ looks are very carefully thought out. Her more vulnerable scenes reveal she’s a lot older than you might think—possibly even ancient—but the breakout style definitely comes through when Gladys (wonderfully played by Amy Madigan) has to make a public appearance. She’s got her red wig with the micro bangs, 1970s oversized sunglasses, a thick slash of lipstick, colorful outfits that scream “suburban eccentric,” and that all-important handbag stuffed full of sinister spell-casting tools.
Speaking to Collider, Cregger elaborated a bit on how this frightening style icon came into existence.
“She’s not based on anything I’ve experienced in real life, necessarily,” he said. “But … Gladys as an aesthetic, her aesthetic comes from Cindy Sherman and Twin Peaks and Boca Raton retirees.”
We would have guessed maybe a little Grey Gardens in there too, and perhaps The Witches, as well as hag-spolitation classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Cregger does go on to explain that Gladys, beyond her physical appearance, was influenced by aspects of his own life, something he’s previously discussed.
“Gladys, as a theme, is very autobiographical. And really, it’s about my childhood. And it’s not that there was an evil woman that came into my life, but it was more about just growing up in an alcoholic family,” he said. “And the idea of a new entity coming into your house and upending the family dynamic, and taking a safe place and turning it into a scary place, and what it does to children, and that sort of thing … But no, I never met a crazy woman with red hair.”
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