'I think my mask of sanity is about to slip.'
Patrick Bateman
FH viewers are keenly aware of my love of holidays, especially Halloween. Although I've visually celebrated Halloween beginning with the site's first year, it's gotten bigger and more elaborate over the last five years. In those early years, I was hunting down holiday themed images, and mostly using familiar images that most viewers had seen again and again.
As FH grew, I was fortunate to have many generous photographers share their holiday images, and some, shot specifically for the site. It has become a tradition to see Gordon Nebenkerns Christmas elves, and imagery from New Manhattan Studios, Lights On Studio and Studio1x over the holidays. Most of the creative ideas for the shoots come from the artists themselves, but often, I bug them with an idea or two, like my hunt for the perfect male witch.
This Halloween, everything beautifully came together. When I was talking with Tom from Lights On Studio, the theme was easy. If you check back on the 31st, you'll understand when you see the model, there was no other choice. When Jim from Studio1x and I began going back and forth on themes, we batted several ideas back and forth. I had an idea, but wasn't sure if I might be asking too much...
Last Halloween, I got it in my head to find images that paid homage to the iconic shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. (HERE:& HERE:) I spent more time than I should have looking for images shots that featured a male 'Marian', lathering up before Norman's arrival. It was too late to ask an artist to put together a shoot, but I did find enough images to finish the theme. I was also fortunate to have an original drawing from Classic Configuration featuring one of FH's most popular models soaping up.
I've had many movies and characters I've wanted to feature next, and I think most of you already know what movie was on my mind for this year. Patrick Bateman has become an iconic symbol and the ultimate stereotype yuppie greed, shallowness, narcissism and of course the violence and horror that often comes along with them.
Although Jim was game from the start, he was a little hesitate given he hadn't seen the movie. I quickly sent him a few images to help visualize what I was looking for. Basically, there only a handful of looks I was hoping Jim could re-created. Looks I think most fans of the movie and character associate with the Wall Street killer. Patrick is known for his see-through raincoat, his white underwear, his blade, and of course his chainsaw. Who have guessed the chainsaw would be the easiest part...
Jim had a chainsaw, but had to look for the see-through rain coat. The biggest challenge however were not the props, it was finding just the right model. Jim already had several models in mind for his Halloween shoot before I through my Patrick Bateman idea at him. He wasn't sure however, if any of them would be prepared to be washing fake blood out of their crevices days and days after the shoot was over.
As you can see, Jim was successful. model Luke London not only got into having the blood put on, he also welcomed Jim to shoot him washing it off. Luke also did an incredible job of getting into character and into the murderous mind set of the Manhattan madman. As hot as Luke is, those killer looks of his are beautifully, but utterly disturbing.
Did I mention there was a chainsaw involved.... Check out more of Jim's shots with Luke when the butchering banker picks up his chainsaw, and gets rid of those bloody undies on the NEXT PAGE HERE:.
