I had every intention of posting this several days ago, but life has a tendency to get in the way. But wanted to make sure I did get it posted, even if it’s a little late. Rosanna Norton is a name that few of us horror fans might know. She was a costume designer and had passed away on May 7th, at the age of 80 years old. She had gone to UCLA as a painting major but got into costume design. After she retired from film, she went back to her love of painting.

When I saw the news of her passing, it made me realize there yet another part of the filmmaking process that tends to get very little credit from fans. Sure, there is an Oscar category for it, which Norton got a co-nomination for her work on Tron (1982). But as deviant cinephiles, where we often recognize the cinematography, the makeup effects, the story, and of course the direction and acting, but how many times have we brought up costumes in those conversations.

Norton worked on some horror titles earlier in her career, such as Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (1973) and Messiah of Evil (1974), before working on Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and Carrie (1976). Just thinking of those titles started to make me thing about what we see on screen, and how the characters are dressed. Think about the thought process going into the Phantom’s look. Think about the thought process in picking just the right dress for Carrie White, knowing it was going covered in blood and how it would have to appear on screen in what would become one of the most iconic sequences in horror. So, I’ve started to add that to my own personal checklist to look for when I am watching a film. Just something to take note of when watching films.

Our thoughts go out to her and her family.