The Five Most Iconic Glamour Ghouls to Celebrate Halloween in Style
She’s a dark madam, a goth icon, a chillingly statuesque woman in black (and white). It’s glamour ghoul season and these are our queens.
When someone says “fall fashion”, do you automatically think of long, black gowns and your most haunting stare? It’s the season of the goth queen! If screaming relaxes you so, then pull up an electric chair and come on in! Please, grab someone to eat while we highlight our favorite iconic glamor ghouls.
The Bride
Storyteller and iconic real-life goth queen Mary Shelley basically invented sci-fi. This ghoul-wonder is lovingly portrayed by actress Elsa Lanchester in James Wale’s sequel to Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein. Elsa also portrays the Bride and turned in some of the most striking frames in the original Universal monster movie series.
The Bride’s got no speaking lines–just a few piercing screams. Much like Frankenstein’s Monster that came before her, she isn’t ALIVE until the final act. Her beautiful face was wide-eyed and bewildered, her poses breathtaking in a panicked sort of way. Her look was so iconic she’s forever stamped her presence in pop culture history alongside Dracula, the Wolf Man, and her rejected beau, Frankenstein’s Monster.
Morticia Addams
The Addams Family has been a mainstay of delightfully macabre pop culture since its first publishing in 1938 by Charles Addams. She was tall, slender, and absolutely haunting. When the New Yorker comic strip became a TV show in 1964, it was Carolyn Jones who turned Morticia into a charming homemaker, romantic wife, and a loving, attentive mother (to two or three homicidal maniacs).
But for 90s kids like me, it’s the glowing eyes of Angelica Huston that will forever haunt our darkest dreams. She and her Gomez (played exquisitely by Raul Julia) portrayed two fiery lovers, nurturing parents, and absolutely terrible neighbors.
Vampira
Inspired by Morticia’s appearance in the comic strips, showgirl and cheesecake pinup model Maila Nurmi created the character Vampira for an audition for a local television show. With her bloodcurdling scream, ghoulish sexual energy, and delight in everything dark and deathly, she was the it-girl of Hollywood for a little while.
Very little footage of her B-movie host show still exists, but that hasn’t stopped Vampira from becoming one of the pop culture influences you didn’t know you knew. She’s been made immortal in the music of punk bands like The Damned and the Misfits.
She was the live-action model for Maleficient in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. And she also appeared alongside Bela Lugosi in Ed Woods’ Plan 9 from Outer Space, notoriously known as the worst movie ever made.
Lily Munster
The glamour ghoul has always been known as spooky and stunning, of course–but she’s also very funny. And Lily Munster is a certified queen of horror comedy. Named after the flower that is the symbol of death, Yvonne De Carlo’s portrayal of a vampiric matriarch of the Munsters was made in the spirit of the wholesome family comedy shows of the mid-late 50s.
While Lily wasn’t written to be as spicy as Morticia, there’s no doubt that Yvonne brought elegance to her own dark matriarch. And unlike Gomez and Morticia who constantly doted on one another, Lily is often depicted as a little put out by her husband Herman’s shenanigans. She’s the wise-cracking glue that holds her home together, and will always have a place in our black, decrepit hearts.
Elvira
After a studio couldn’t come to terms with Vampira for a new horror movie host show, Cassandra Peterson became the late-night vamp for the MTV generation. She looked like a character from a hair metal band’s music video, but her bawdy jokes and love of all things macabre have earned her a place in the glamor ghoul Hall of Fame.
Cassandra based her character Elvira on a Valley Girl character she’d created previously. She’s sarcastic and ready to roast the evening’s B-horror offering right alongside the audience. She hosted her show and a few special presentations and even starred in her own movie. Through the 80s and 90s, Elvira successfully branded her image and won our undying love along the way.
The Boulet Brothers
These two drag superstars are the dark queens of the alternative drag scene. Their drag competition shows Dragula and the champion spinoff Titans pit the vilest, bloodiest, most punk rock drag performers from across the globe against each other in a battle for the title of Drag Monster. The show does an excellent job of spotlighting the intersection of queerness and horror. Contestants are judged on the three unholy tenants: glamor, horror, and filth.
The brothers themselves sport some spine-tingling looks. Dracmorda and Swanthula Boulet mirror one another like two evil twins? Lovers? Both? Fuck if we know, we’re into it. These ladies are ushering in a new generation of glamour queens, kings, and themporers.
Once you’re into the series, it won’t be long before you’re imagining all the terrifying ways the Boulet Brothers could kill you–which is what happens to contestants when they’re eliminated.
Season 5 will appropriately be premiering on Halloween this year.
