Stir of Echoes: Samantha Kozak

This is another deep cut from the 1990s. If you haven’t seen this one but still plan to at some point, skip this post until you’ve seen it. There will be spoilers all over the place, and the content of this post will be darker than some of the others as well. Today, we’re covering Samantha Kozak from Stir of Echoes.

Now, if you’re looking for a comfy Halloween outfit, you’ve come to the right place. However, once you know Samantha’s story you might not want to recreate this outfit. Samantha Kozak is an intellectually disabled 17 year-old girl that went to an empty house with the neighbor boys. I’ll spare you all the details, but just know there is both tooth violence and fingernail violence shown that has fucked me up all these years. Even though the plot has similarities to other movies like Gothika and The Sixth Sense, as a(n undiagnosed) disabled teenage girl who also had some trouble with boys in the neighborhood, this one really stuck with me.

This outfit consists of a black Under Armor Racer Tank that is one of my favorite tank tops and I have no idea where I acquired it. On top of that is a grey Flirtitude long sleeve scoop neck shirt. The bottom is a Jag Jeans Elastic Waist with Faux Fly and No Button Jean Stretch Skirt on top of thick black tights with low top black Converse Chuck Taylor All Star shoes with tiny pastel hearts all over. (I’m pretty sure I got them at Target for like $20, but I can’t find another pair on the internet.) If I had Samantha’s orange jacket with the fur lined hood, I would have worn that on top too.

For my hair, I just used the aftermath of the braids/crimpy look for The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Magenta to get close to Samantha’s hair texturally even if the blue color wasn’t anywhere close to the hue. For my makeup, I started with Magenta’s base but removed the red lip. I put a tiny bit of Maybelline Dream Wonder Powder in 10 Porcelain Ivory on top of the white base and over my lips. I also hit my eyes hard with Ink colored eyeshadow from the Avon For the Love of Makeup Artist Palette because if I can’t use the big brush for black eyeshadow when I’m dressing as a dead girl, when can I? You could also make the bruised mark on her forehead or black out some teeth, but as someone with teeth trauma in my past, I don’t particularly like to see myself without teeth after I paid so much money to get some put in my mouth again.

For my accessories, I just grabbed a few random bracelets and a fabric hair scrunchie. My other arm still has my wish bracelets tied on to it at all times. You could also add Samantha’s glasses and hair barrettes too.

For my prop, I used one of those extra large zip top plastic bags that probably came into my life with something liquid inside it being delivered to my house in a package. I initially was going to use a plastic sheet, but all the ones we have still are really dirty and gross.

This is where I say, Don’t Try This At Home. If you’re gonna be messing around with plastic sheeting or plastic bags or any kind of breath play, make sure you have a trustworthy partner on hand to help. My spouse took the photos of me so I didn’t have to try to do two things at once and could focus on breathing. It was still scary for a hot sec when I sucked the plastic into my mouth tight against my face.