Amy Peterson in Fright Night (1985)

The Movie

The dominant movement within the horror genre in the 1980s may be the slasher, but the popularity of the genre on the whole led to quite a few non-slasher classics. Fright Night (1985) is one of these. It’s a teen horror comedy that is one of the most self-reflexive non-slashers from the decade. That’s all to say that Fright Night goes as far as setting itself apart from slashers in its dialogue.

Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall): “…nobody wants to see vampire killers anymore, or vampires either. Apparently, all they want to see are demented madmen running around in ski-masks, hacking up young virgins.”

Charlie Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a horror-movie obsessed teen. He’s avid viewer of Fright Night, a local horror movie TV show hosted by washed-up actor Peter Vincent. One night, Charlie notices someone’s moved into the vacant house next door. Charlie’s new vampire neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) quickly sets off his monster radar. Of course, Dandrige and his thrall, Billy, are shielded by the modern-day skepticism about old-world monsters and no one believes Charlie. Amy (Amanda Bearse), Charlie’s girlfriend, conspires with Peter Vincent to help cure Charlie’s delusions but Vincent inadvertently learns that Dandrige is, in fact, a goddamn, sh*t-sucking vampire. Unfortunately, Dandride sees something familiar in Amy and sets his sights on turning her.

Fright Night is a great horror comedy and a melding of classic horror-suspense stories with the teen-centric nature of horror movies in the 1980s.

The Look

Amy has the raised-by-grandparents, straight-A-earning, girl-next-door schtick on lock. Her makeup is minimal. Her hair is slightly teased, but not fussy. She sticks mostly to solid colors, either pastel or bright, and her outfits tend to be conservative. There’s not one unifying silhouette to her outfits, which is pretty realistic for a teen, honestly.

The Clothes

Amy dresses a lot like I did in the 80s. I was a toddler though. All of her outfits are meticulously color coordinated; from her hair accessories to her white hi-tops. This is the basis for my casual-cosplay look.

As I mentioned in my post on Irena from Cat People, I am a big fan of the horror movie convention of people undergoing visual transformations in accordance with their closeness with a force of evil. Fright Night has wonderfully choreographed dance scene with Amy and Jerry Dandrige where she gets progressively vampier while also discovering that Charlie was right about Jerry being a vampire. As they cross the dance floor, Amy’s shirt unbuttons, her hair gains volume and her makeup gets deeper.

After Dandrige succeeds in abducting Amy, he changes her into a long white halter gown. Vampire Amy has mega-glam makeup and her hair grows long over the course of a few hours. This is the basis for my full cosplay. Maybe next year I’ll try my hand at a tutorial of shark-mouth Amy, but it’s a bit much for this challenge.

The Makeup

For the casual-cosplay, I went very natural and minimal with the makeup as Amanda Bearse is made up to be very young and fresh faced.

For the base, I applied a bb cream in my skintone then took a matte bronzer all over the high points of my face since Amy is a little bit tanned and I am a Pacific Northwesterner. Use whichever complexion products you feel most comfortable with, as long as the finish isn’t too matte.

For the eyes, take a warm brown shade (or neutral if your undertones are cooler than mine) and blend it thinly over the lid and upward and inward toward your brow bone. Take what’s left on the brush and bring that lightly under the eye. This is just meant to add some dimension to your eyes. Finish off with dark-brown or black mascara and the eyes are done!

The eyebrows are 80’s thick, but very natural. Take a powder shade close to your hair color and fill in where necessary. Blush should be a warm pinky shade applied lightly across your cheekbones and blend it all the way up to your temples.

For the lips, a tinted lip balm goes a long way.

For the full cosplay, I started with the same bronzed base but went full glam.

The eyes are the only really complicated bit here. (1.) Start with a light-blueish gray shade for the base and blend it from the lashline up to the browbone. (2.) Layer that with a deeper blue-gray shade and blend upward and inward. (3.) Take dark, navy blue shadow to deepen the color further still starting at the lashline then take a small angled brush and map out a line and wing. Take what’s left on the brush to blend it out across the lower lashline. It’s okay if it’s a bit messy at this point. (4.) Take the same navy shade on a wet brush (or use a navy blue liner) and sharpen and darken the winged liner.

Finish the eyes off with black liner in the upper waterline, apply black mascara, and thick black false lashes. If you’re not into false lashes, make sure you curl your lashes and consider a fiber mascara to get the length and thickness for the look.

Amy’s brows are the same naturally straight shape from the casual look, but here they are fully filled in and a bit darker. I used a pencil to get a sharper shape and finished it off with a brow powder. Likewise for the blush, I used the same color form the casual look, but applied it more heavily.

Finishing up with lips, take a deep red shade and apply it lightly as a stain. Go over that with a healthy amount of pink gloss.

Bonus for getting to the end of the post: that time a few weeks ago when I closet cosplayed Jerry Dandrige!

Item: Snow Angel

Create a piece using the item above as inspiration. You DO NOT need to reference the GIF below for this prompt unless you want to!

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boys

boys

I was busy dreamin’ 'bout boys

boys

boys

After the huge shitstorm on twitter and even in some media about J2 after SPNNOLA, I had to watch the panels myself though. I recommend that to everyone btw, who only builds their opinion on just a small video snippet of a panel or even just a single tweet.

And I genuinely recommend everyone to watch the panels anyway, because they were FUN!

Gold panel:

The boys joking about Jared’s “n’awlins” accent is so cute. Them doing accents is always great entertainment!

J2 thanking the fans for the EW covers. They are so thankful and appreciative of our support. No matter what they accomplish, they always credit us fans and take time to thank us for our devotion. That they’re still so humble about their success is amazing.

Jared: “I don’t know how subscribing a magazine works anymore.” – Jensen: “You sign up and they send you one.”  I just love Jensen’s deadpan humor! Jared talking about how his mom is so happy for him being on the cover - awww <3

Ahhhhh noooooo don’t kill the kitty, Jensen!! Bad Jensen. LOL.

“Jensen is a master of his voice.” – of course he is. What the hell isn’t he good at?!

Really interesting hearing them talk about voice acting. And I must say, I do enjoy the image of Jensen doing it with just his coffee in his hand and in underwear ^^

J2 being like “come here” to Alex, when he asked about cons. YES!! Bring him to one!

Jensen saying he already likes the holy water joke, because there’s a pun in there. And Jared doing the interrupting sloth. Gotta love those dorks!

The way Jensen immediately perks up and is really attentive when the fan mentions Danneel!

Dean “Boom Boom” Winchester. YES!!!

Jensen talking about home is the cutest!!! Danneel handing him the keys to “EVERYTHING” once Jensen gets home and then driving off… the way Jensen fondly jokes about it and then says that sometimes it does feel like it (wahhh they must miss home and their families so much and the little time they get together must feel too short all the time) and then he gets serious and says it’s actually him asking Danneel “what do you need me to do?”… such a good husband and dad <3

JENSEN MENTIONING FIREFLY – I LIVE FOR THIS!

“Potty words.” Oh Jared. LOL.

The pirate joke is always cute.

And now to that moment: now that I’ve seen it, my thoughts on it: First of all, Jensen genuinely tried to shut Jared down, his “no” was definitely serious. Jared then warned everyone that his joke is “really offensive”. People still kept cheering him on and asking him to tell it. He did. And yes, it was offensive. But yes, it was also a joke. Nothing more. Just to get some perspective on this: How many of you who are now dragging them over the coils for that joke, have played Cards against Humanity for example? How many of you have laughed at all those horrible, inappropriate things that came from that game? Knowing exactly how offensive it is? Just think about that for a second. Also Jensen’s “Mr. Cosby” … how many of you are still making jokes about Trump and retweet memes and stuff about Trump? In all seriousness, there’s nothing to joke about what Trump is doing. But sometimes people have to laugh. That’s it. SO WHERE THE HELL IS THE DIFFERENCE? The double standards of some people are astonishing and it always gets me.

Jared talking about how Odette likes to play with his beard. CUTENESS ALERT!

“Alex has plenty of stories to tell already.” – Then let’s get him to a con ASAP!!!

J2 are always so thoughtful answering the acting advice question. No matter how many times it gets asked, they don’t look bored by it and they always take it serious. They want other people to succeed and give them the best advice they can. Every single time. It amazes me sometimes that they don’t get fed up with questions like this that get asked so often, but they’re always gracious and genuine in their response and I think it’s really sweet and a testament to their characters.

We as a fandom could learn from that, in my humble opinion.

Main panel:

Jensen’s chant. DAMN!! Great mood from the beginning. Love him!

Jared’s story about getting lost in New Orleans and meeting that person who thought he’s only dressed up as Sam Winchester had me laughing.

I know prank questions are getting old, but this time there was actually a good prompt to ask it with Alex being new on set. I giggled at Jensen describing it as “welcome package”. Also let’s hope we get that extra long gag reel!!!!

J2 teasing Misha. I know some people don’t like it. But the thing is, I see most people who say they’re done with it blaming J2 for giving fuel to the Misha haters and that being the reason they don’t like it. Two things that go through my mind at that every time: You shouldn’t blame friends joking about each other for the actions of other people! And the haters will ALWAYS find something to use for their agenda. Everyone with two eyes can see that J2M are true friends. Just watch the jibcon panels and their live streams and stuff – these guys love each other. No matter WHAT J2 might say about Misha, it won’t change a hater’s mind. Nothing will. So let the boys joke about each other. Like Jensen once said: “We prank you as maliciously as we do, because we like you the best.” 

Also here we go with the double standards again: Everyone getting so offended over the offensive joke in the gold panel, but laughing about Jared calling Jensen Misha’s toy? Sexualizing and dehumanizing him? So to those who get angry about the first one and start laughing and squeeing about the second one: Please explain to me why that’s okay? I guess when it fits shipping purposes everything’s fine? Idk… but that’s what I get from it. Jensen’s initial reaction was a double take and a “you did not just say that”-look. But of course Jensen went with the joke and that’s what I love about all of them: They can take a joke, they laugh about each other and even more about themselves, they make us laugh in the process, they aren’t afraid to makes themselves look silly. It’s all in good fun. I’m so done with fans trying their hardest to turn everything into a bad thing. Isn’t this supposed to be our source of fun and sometimes an escape from reality? 

“I shift myself.” Oh Jared. LOL. Jensen stopping Stephen from making the badum tsss at that joke and then apologizing for their lame jokes. PLEASE DON’T EVER CHANGE GUYS!!!

Loved the question about Dean and Jack, Dean’s emotional state and how Jensen thinks about it. I seriously live for hearing Jensen talk about his acting choices and about Dean’s headspace. How he describes anger as a stage of grief – everyone who calls Dean a meanie for his behavior with Jack: Please listen to Jensen here, he’s really an emotionally intelligent man and has a great understanding and instinct for human emotions. I’m also curious about him teasing that the relationship between Dean and Jack will change.

Jensen’s instant reaction of “NONONONONO” to destroying the Impala in episode 2x02 makes me so emotional. This scene is one of those that will always stick with me, it’s so raw and brutal and Jensen was incredible!

It’s also interesting to hear about how they filmed that motel room scene in episode 10x23. That they trashed the room first and then Jensen had to match the destruction they already created for the first takes. I’m laughing at him describing how he threw something against that picture frame and instead of crashing it was hanging perfectly after it. - “He is the one.” – DAMN RIGHT! :)

And Jared chiming in how funny it would’ve been if it had been on purpose and them miming how they put everything into place. LOL.

Look how sweet and happy they look for that girl spending her birthday at the con and having the time of her life. They love seeing other people happy. Adding something to their happiness. They’re good beans.

Jensen admitting that he’s an awful liar and to ask his wife. LOL. Someone ask Danneel about it at the next con she’s at!! (She needs to come to more, pleeeease!!)

Jared fangirling over Sam’s hair, Jensen joking that it’s gray and then making all those faces behind Jared (what an adorable clown!) and then going on to say “I pinch my… side”, that pause and his face after it!! Jensen has such amazing comedic timing, it’s gold!!!

Jensen explaining his reaction to when he sees his own performance on screen, especially emotional ones is so great. How he feels and taps into that emotion again when watching the scene and how much he loves his character (HE’S DEAN’S NUMBER 1 FAN!!!). Also their approach in preparing for a scene and how it fits their characters so well was truly interesting. Jared endlessly preparing and researching, just like Sam. While Jensen does it more on instinct, just like Dean. Gotta say here, that this is why I’m a Jensen/Dean fan. You notice that in his performance all the time and the authenticity he brings to each of Dean’s emotions is always tugging at my heartstrings.

Remembering Kim is always so sweet. They have so many nice things to say about Kim and I found it touching that they’re honoring him so much and credit him for their success.

JENSEN LOVES STRANGER THINGS!!! :D

The boys teasing Heather… from… Colorado. I’m laughing so hard. I love that they do this kind of thing (though I’d probably die if they started teasing me like that at the mic). The tease and joke with us fans, like we’re really friends/family.

Jared sharing so much about his struggles and his family is always special. I admire him for being so open and I’m thankful for everything he shares with us.

Jensen acknowledging that it’s good that people don’t feel ashamed of getting help, that it’s not about that person being crazy or that there’s something wrong with them. Acceptance is the biggest thing he wants to teach his children and I admire that. Also how his children should feel love and give love is a beautiful thing to say and to live by.

That they use gifs of themselves so often, especially Jared with the Loreal one, is so funny to me.

Jensen geeking out that they’re so popular because there’s so many gifs of SPN – WHAT A CUTIE OMG!

Jensen joking with that girl when she says her favorite gif is the one of Crowley saying “I torture all my friends, it’s how I show love.” His reaction: “What does that say about you? I like it. Text me. Colorado Heather has my number.” I’M DYING HAHAHAHAHA

Jensen & classic rock – YES! “I named my kid Zeppelin!” LOL.

“I like big butts.” – “I’ve put everything I have into Sam.” … Lots of dirty jokes and innuendo. Gotta love them.

“What would Dean do?” … Jensen totally is Dean’s number 1 fan.

I like how respectful Jensen speaks about Bob Singer’s directing. No matter what you think about Singer personally, I love how much Jensen admires other people’s skills and praises their good work.

Good points from Jared about Sam and Jack’s relationship as well. Especially liked how Jared said we don’t actually really know where Sam stands right now. It’s truly unclear how much Sam is about using Jack or caring about him and what he expects from taking Jack under his wing.

LET’S KEEP PUSHING FOR THE SPN MOVIE!!

The last question: Love that the scene with Baby’s backseat wasn’t scripted!

Just :

Granted, I expected it to be a waaay bigger shitshow, but in the end it was just the weirdest cringe-fest ever. Want some highlights?

well, everyone just looked… a whole lot uncomfortable. Which is unsurprising, given the enormous public backlash the team had to face in the past weeks. But still. You could basically see the clenched buttcheeks.

The Pittsburgh Penguins official Twitter was completely silent, and so was their Instagram. Weird…

You will also notice that Sidney Crosby was nowhere near Donald Trump. Which is odd, because last year…

But this year - well, let’s just say it was a bit of a “Where is Waldo” situation. Find the Sidney in the sea of constipated looking white dudes:

Btw, he is on the far right. Just like the president. (Heyyooooooo!)

In fact you might notice that only officials from the Penguins were surrounding the president. Probably a last minute effort to shield the players from any backlash. Not that it helps. You know what would have helped? Not going to see a white supremacist!!! 

Oh well, moving on:

“Man, can you play,” Trump said of Crosby. “Sidney do you know how to win or what? Look at him, he’s shy.”

(I seriously hope Sidney Crosby was just as uncomfortable as me during this!)

Donald Trump started his “speech” by pointing out that everybody wanted to be there today. Thirty men with frozen smiles in the background. Cue clenched buttcheeks clenching even harder.

Aaaand of course it wouldn’t be old Donny Horndog if he didn’t say something derogatory about women. Lovely.

Oh yeah, Trump also called the Pens “true patriots”, even though only 9 players are actually American, couldn’t pronounce Evgeni Malkin’s name (which is embarrassing, especially since Donald has had SO MANY opportunities to work on his Russian pronounciation. Vladimir will be terribly disappointed!) and said something about how handsome the Penguins were, which was oddly homoerotic. And not even in a good way?! I dunno, it was strange.

If you can stomach a lot of uncomfortable nonsense, go watch the video of the entire ceremony. I had to click through it, because I was scared of dying from second-hand embarassment. So I might have missed a lot of bullshit… No regrets.