The Inside Story Of How 2025’s Wackiest Horror Villain Came To Life

It’s clear, just from looking at a film like Weapons, that it was the product of an exacting vision. So assured and specific was Cregger’s narrative, even in script form, that his future collaborators forgot they were reading a script at all.

“I was completely enamored with the script from the first few pages,” Leo Satkovich, head makeup artist for Weapons, tells Inverse. “I completely lost sight of the fact that I was reading it in preparation for an interview, and I read it almost as a book.”

That vision scarcely wavered after he landed the gig and joined Cregger’s production in Atlanta. And to Weapons’ head of special makeup effects, Jason Collins, that surety was one of the most refreshing aspects of working with Cregger.

“He said from the beginning, ‘No reshoots, no anything,’ and he got it all,” Collins tells Inverse. “I’ve never seen such a direct adaptation from the page to the screen. He went in with a clear vision. This is the film, this is what we’re shooting. And there wasn’t evolution from there.”

Still, there was some wiggle-room when it came to the film’s unassuming villain, “Aunt” Gladys. Played with delightful intensity by Amy Madigan, Gladys is Weapons’ wild card. Her role was kept under lock and key, even after Weapons began to dominate the box office, but her unforgettable look — complete with slippery, clown-like makeup and a wig that hair department head Melizah Wheat describes as “seedy and just a little awkward” — has delighted and horrified audiences. If Nicholas Cage in Longlegs was the horror icon of 2024, Madigan’s Aunt Gladys is his successor. The character embodies Cregger’s razor-sharp vision, and the sense of playful unease that makes Weapons the year’s best horror films.

A constant state of deconstruction

When 17 third-grade students disappear in the middle of the night, most residents in their small town assume that their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), is the culprit. In truth, though, it’s Gladys, who recently rolled into town posing as the aunt of one child, Alex (Cary Christopher), who’s behind the vanishing. Gladys uses witchcraft to “weaponize” and siphon energy from Alex’s parents, and eventually abducts his classmates when that’s not enough to keep her alive.

Only one image of Gladys, ripped from the Weapons trailer, has been released officially, but that hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of the year’s most talked-about characters. It’s safe to assume she’ll serve as inspiration for countless Halloween costumes this year; plenty have already recreated her disturbing look for a handful of hilarious social media skits.

“One of Zach’s early inspirations for us was a photographer named Cindy Sherman,” Satkovich says. “Everything was so abstract, and he liked that you had to really look at these pictures for a moment to determine what exactly about this was off.”

That disconnect served as a reference point for everyone as Satkovich went the extra mile to craft Gladys’ melted makeup look. It “didn’t look like it was being put on as much as it looked like it was almost in a state of being taken off, like she had lived in it for days on end,” Satkovich says. The team “teetered on the edge” of over-the-top while designing Gladys; despite her outlandish inspirations, it was important to keep her relatively grounded.

“If you saw [her] walking down the street, you would not jump to the other side of the street,” Satkovich continues. “You may err on the side of caution and push to the edge of the sidewalk and give her a second glance, but you wouldn’t be calling the Ghostbusters.”

“It’s such a challenging makeup, because it could go drag so easily,” adds Collins. “This is somebody that’s in a constant state of deconstruction.”

Satkovich was allowed to go a bit wilder with Gladys’ “Nightmare Look.” There are moments in Weapons where Gladys pops up for brief flashes in the dreams of other characters, and it’s here that her makeup is at its most garish.

“I don’t think I’ve had more fun in my life doing this makeup,” Satkovich says. “The [eyeliner] was a little bit more squiggly. The liner was darker… [We] just layered that mascara, really getting that Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? vibe… We really wanted to see a very uneasy texture to her skin, where if you touched it, it would almost feel like wax paper.”

The “bird of prey”

Collins’ work only heightened Gladys’ frailty and unease. He and his team designed “these beautiful dangly droopy earlobes,” a pushed-back, thinned-out hairline, and gummy “baby teeth” that gave Madigan an otherworldly, bird-like look.

“The idea is that she is always watching, and she is a bird of prey,” Collins says. “We narrowed down her irises so that she’s always looking right at whoever she’s staring down at — staring down her beak.”

Collins and his team also “sharpened” Madigan’s nose to achieve that beak-like effect. “When you see her without her signature wig, you want to get frailty and strength across at the same time. And how do you do that? For me, it’s always a bird. They’re these beautiful, majestic things, but they’re also soft and elegant.”

Those dueling qualities find a way to coexist within Gladys. “I love the predatory aspect of the character, and also the frailty and weakness of her at the same time,” Collins says. “And a lot of that goes to Amy, too. In one minute it’s that insanity, in the next minute it’s that focus and she’s going to tear your soul apart.”

Collins also credits Gladys’ wig as a defining aspect of the character, and for good reason. Wheat worked tirelessly to craft the perfect hair, once again walking the line between clown-like and practical.

Choosing the right red was the first hurdle. “I had a palette of many shades of red that I wanted to present to Zach,” Wheat says. She also had to work in tandem with Satkovich and Collins as they made progress on Gladys’ design. “There’s so many elements that just turn the look for a character… if makeup makes different shadows or tone changes, that would shift my direction.”

Cregger’s decisiveness helped keep the process on track: the director chose two different reds for Wheat to build on, and from there she crafted a handful of potential hairstyles. “I think I had 12 different wigs at the camera test,” she says.

“We all worked together harmoniously to really develop this character,” says Satkovich. Gladys’ makeup couldn’t clash with the red of her hair, just as Wheat’s wig design eventually changed to accentuate elements of Collins’ special effects.

“Jason made these beautiful, dangly, droopy earlobes that just kind of sent a little shiver up your spine,” Satkovich continues. “[But] we did the hair test and we were like, ‘Oh, we can’t really see the earlobes…”

Wheat found a quick fix by pushing the hairline and bangs back a few inches, and “then it was like creep central.”

It was a constant back and forth, but those “little things” done in the service of the story were well worth it. The team agrees that Weapons was unlike anything they’d done before, and the chances of doing the same thing again are pretty slim.

“That was a rare opportunity we had,” says Collins. “I just can’t wait to see the costumes this Halloween.”

Weapons is playing in theaters.