Fake Eyelashes and Fake Blood or: How Aging Can Be Murder

By: Owen Sound

FAKE EYELASHES AND FAKE BLOOD featuring horror films made during the late 1960’s to the mid-1970’s starring the great actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age

The first real hint of this unique genre came in 1950 when aging silent screen star Gloria Swanson portrayed the unlikely femme fatale in Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BLVD. However, the popularity of the genre really blew up when infamous rivals, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis, were pitted against each other in the 1962 horror film WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?. Playing bitter and violent sisters in the film turned out to be a huge success in box-office numbers and critical acclaim, and even earned Davis an Academy Award nomination, thus inspiring many more films of the same nature. From then on a number of actresses from Hollywood’s Golden Age, now older and having a hard time finding scripts that equaled in quality from their earlier studio days, basked in all scene chewing glory in thrillers and horror films. This sub-genre is often referred to as psycho-biddy, hagsploitation, hag horror or Grande Dame Guignol.

Notable omissions from the database

Connie Stevens in TWO ON A GUILLOTINE (1965)
Zsa Zsa Gabor in PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (1966)
Agnes Moorehead in DEAR DEAD DELILAH (1972)
Bette Davis in SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY (1973)