The terrified nameless citizenry of 1950s and 60s B-movies, dressed in colorful outfits, are caught in horrified poses as they scream, flee, and try to shoot their way out of certain death from off-screen monsters looking to squash them: natural disasters, giant crickets, and alien landings.
I’ve always been intrigued by the artifice and histrionics of acting styles from low-budget sci-fi and horror B-movies from the 1950s/60s and earlier. A blonde dame puts her hands up to her head and lets out a primordial scream, shaking her head in a close-up as the giant lizard man approaches her. The non-stop mugging of a grimacing astronaut in a Halloween-grade costume being zapped with a laser by the bug-eyed Martian. The contorted facial acrobatics of the scared scientist as he battles a 2,000-year-old extinct fish that he accidentally brought back to life.
There is something about being so fake, yet totally believable in an unbelievable way, that I just love. Once, when casting a project, an actor had on his resume, “fleeing citizen” as a film credit. I could not have been more impressed.
When I found the toy set of Horrified B-Movie Victims figurines over a dozen years ago in an odd shop in Burbank, California—full of joke and gag items, movie memorabilia, and other novelty products—I had to buy it. The figurines are crudely made, cheaply painted, and feature oversized white eyes surrounding big black pupils, big eyebrows, and lips, yet posed with inspiration. They were the perfect characters to bring to life and base a photoshoot on.
Shortly after purchasing the set, I had the idea to do a photoshoot based on these toy figurines. The idea to place the B-movie victims against brightly colored, saturated backgrounds came to me immediately, as I thought it was just a natural fit. Their larger-than-life facial features, reactions, and poses needed a big and bold setting. It was no place for realism.
At the time, I pitched the Horrified B-Movie Victims idea to a manufacturer of large LCD monitors, as they were looking for content to show on their huge monitors in retail stores and kiosks. They politely passed on it, which was fine for me, as this was a passion project and not something for a client anyway.
The idea was forgotten until the summer of 2024 when I pulled out the toy figurines for some reason. Their time had come.
I knew the biggest challenge was going to be how to transfer the look of the toy figurines onto real live actors. I got extremely lucky when I found Special Effects Makeup artist Gabriella Paredes Meza. After giving her the creative brief, she immediately got it. She zeroed in on the eyes, brows, lips, and hair. “Get those right, and we can pull it off.” She was right.
Not only a Special Effects Makeup Artist, Gabriella also makes her own prosthetics. The big white eyes with black pupils, eyebrows, and lips are prosthetics that she made. The hair on the actors consists of wigs she turned into stiff, plastic-looking helmet heads.
I cast the project in Los Angeles with the excellent actors Lindsey Normington, Kevin Michael Shiley, Sabina Francesca, and Matt Legg. All were tasked with creating poses that, although static, had to convey movement and imminent danger in their body language.
Another crucial element to the execution of this idea was styling. It had to be as bold as the look of the victims and the colored backgrounds. Wardrobe stylist Lorraine DuRocher pulled the clothes together, aiming for a 1950s/1960s feel.
Fortunately, you can find anything in Los Angeles. Lorraine wanted a royal blue sweater and searched everywhere online for it. Then, she walked into the local vintage store, Iguana, on Hollywood Blvd. There it was—the exact shade of blue she wanted in the pin-up style from the period we were drawing inspiration from. Inspired by the figurines, she stuck with mostly solids, with the exception of one irresistibly ugly pair of plaid pants that featured complementary colors to each victim’s background.
At the shoot, we all had a blast. You can tell the actors had fun with their characters, and for me, it was one of the best times I’ve had on a project.
The project was shot and completed in September and October of 2024.
About Greg McDonald
I take photos because I’m not good enough on the guitar. If I were, I would’ve formed a band and driven from gig to gig in my (now sold) black ’80s cargo van. So I settled. A camera could be fun, I guess. Photography, for me, is an extension of filmmaking—just another avenue for storytelling. Telling stories is the best way for me to communicate and connect with the world. My aim is to create stories through character, composition, environment, and color—all elements I incorporate to shape a story in an image.
Greg is a writer/director and photographer in Los Angeles. His filmmaking style is visual, comedic, character-based, and satirical. The Coen Brothers, Yorgos Lanthimos, Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson, Federico Fellini, and Pedro Almodóvar are just a few of his influences. His films have screened in numerous film festivals throughout the world, been broadcast on Channel 4 in the U.K., and featured on Fangoria and Entertainment Tonight’s website.
His short film Nowhere In The Universe won Best Comedy Film and the Audience Choice Award at the Los Angeles Underground Film Forum, while The Selfie That Changed The World, a look into the mind of a selfie addict, was nominated for Best Creative Direction and Best Narration at the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival. His actor in the film was nominated for Best Actor at the CinéFashion Film Awards, broadcast on the cable channel Cinémoi. He also won a Cult Award from TLA Releasing.
His still photography work includes full-page ads appearing in fashion magazines LA Confidential and Zink. His exhibitions and awards include the Surrealism Exhibition at Naturalist Gallery of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Photography Awards, Colour Exhibition at Glasgow Gallery of Photography, Mellow Yellow Art Exhibition at Ten Moir Gallery, Narrative Exhibition at Chateau Gallery, Praxis Home, Decagon Openings & Dreamscapes Exhibitions, and others. He has directed and photographed several fashion films for LCD manufacturers to showcase their large displays.
