The Abject, She Made: The Hidden History of Women in Special Makeup Effects

Horror’s reliance on visceral, corporeal imagery has historically been read as misogynistic, with repeated attention drawn to the genre’s graphic treatment of women’s bodies in particular. The very processes that produce the genre’s most transgressive and affective moments – its special make-up effects – have similarly been framed as a traditionally masculine domain: in practice, in authorship, and in terms of fan interest. While male artists such as Tom Savini, Rob Bottin, and Rick Baker have been celebrated as auteurs of the abject, their female peers have so far been largely overlooked, despite their significant contributions to the same visual landscape of gore, blood, and bodily disruption.

This chapter begins in the 1980s, contextualising the masculinisation of special makeup effects within the decade’s effects boom and the concurrent canonisation of selected male artists through fan publications such as Fangoria. Through archival research and close analysis of industry discourse, this chapter traces how special makeup effects artists such as Nancy Howe, Isabel Harkins, Jennifer Aspinall, Jill Rockow, and Elaine Alexander contributed significantly to horror’s abject aesthetics during this era, yet were frequently under-credited, marginalised, or framed through gendered language that frequently emphasised femininity or novelty over artistic expertise.

Drawing on theories of the abject – which describe the rejection of that which disturbs identity, system, and order – this chapter argues that these women were not only key creators of disruptive imagery and art within the genre but were themselves positioned as abject within the cultural and industrial structures of horror film production. Their labour was essential yet obscured, and this double positioning – as both producers of abjection and abjected subjects – speaks to broader patterns of gendered exclusion and the difficulties of tracing women’s creative histories in collaborative or below-the-line roles.

Bringing this discourse into the present, this chapter explores how contemporary artists – including Missy MM Fabrications – are reclaiming women’s position in the field of special makeup effects, where their abject creations find new audiences and forge alternative routes for visibility and recognition.