One of the heroes of the series fallout, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, is called the Ghoul, a bounty hunter ravaged by radiation from the outside world. In video games, some Ghouls are much scarier.
In the universe of Fallout, popularized by a video game saga born in 1997, ghouls exist. These are humans — or animals — that resemble zombies due to prolonged exposure to radiation. They have immense longevity. In theory, they are meant to be frightening, representing the horror of a post-apocalyptic world. This is not really the case for the character played by Walton Goggins. A choice made by Amy Westcott, in charge of costume design for falloutwho expressed herself in the columns of Polygon on April 25.
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The Fallout Ghoul has kept his head
The Ghoul's softened appearance, compared to some of its peers, is linked to its past and its place in history. Unlike the others, he hasn't completely lost his mind yet. Amy Westcott explains: “ I think the reason we didn't go for too grotesque an appearance has to do with the fact that he hasn't lost his mind. When ghouls are disgusting, they've really lost their minds. »
She adds : ” For Walton to be a central character, that is to say capable of expressing himself like us, it was imperative to see him at this early stage of goulification. He couldn't be wild. » Everything is therefore only a question of consistency: for the Ghoul to be credible as a sensible human and with a motivation to defend (it is linked to a great mystery of the games), it was not necessary that the makeup goes too far into the terrible. A very physically affected ghoul is normally suffering from dementia, which is not the case with the Ghoul.
Therefore, the creators of fallout had to imagine different stages of “goulification” — the transformation of a human into a ghoul. Which means that the more ravaged a human is, the scarier their appearance will be. On the screen, this allows you to differentiate: “ The wild ghouls have lost everything. We had to go further regarding them. » Which also means: the character of Walton Goggins will risk seeing his condition worsen in future episodes.
Finally, Amy Westcott wanted to keep the human side of ghouls, even those who can now be considered monsters. To do this, she thought of small accessories – a shoe, a tie or even an earring – vestiges of a distant past. “ Then you have this remnant of the person she was. I think we all have empathy for them “, she summarizes.
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