⚠️ Gore warning/ Sensitive Topics ⚠️

Research:

(Initial Research)

For my first image I wanted to explore the horror myth about Kuchsake-onna (the slit mouthed woman) which comes from Japan. The myth is about a woman who roams the streets, a normal looking woman wearing a surgical mask, asking men the question “Do you think I am pretty?” If you answer yes she will remove her mask and ask the question again, if you answering yes again she’ll let you go, if you answer no to either of the questions she will kill you or give you the scars she has. When removing her mask she reveals to the men she targets to slits from ear to ear. (Matt, 2018) 

Below is a video that i watched in further research that will explain the myth in more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfYd06YpfRE 

(Image Research)

For images I wanted to look into different interpretations of what people have described Kuchisake-Onna to have looked like through word of mouth and interactions with her. Below is my initial starting MoodBoard:

The next thing to do was what I wanted to include in the 1st final image so I made a list, in which would give me insight on how to draw up my face plan/ chart and final image editing. 

• The mouth slit (prosthetic)
• Scissors 
• Poltergeist editing 
• red under eyes 
• Creepy eyes 
• mask?
• image to be taken on a street

For my face plan/chart I wanted to create a full face look to give my guidance on how I wanted to create the look. For my final image I want to include to facial prosthetics creating the slit mouth. To create a creepy effect in the image I want to include red under eyes, creating bloody bags under the models eyes enhancing the character, along with that I wanted to keep the eyes as human as possible which will still create that confusion of if she’s human or not. 

A lot of the research material I have looked at either depicted this myth with human features with just the slit mouth or gone in the complete opposite way of depicting this myth as a monster. Taken all the research into consideration I wanted to incorporate different depictions into one. For the hair i wanted to keep it simple with just using the models hair and back combing some areas giving the myth a more human look.

Design:

(Face plan/ chart)

Figure 7: Face plan/ Chart of Kuchisake-Onna (Rutter, C. 2025)

(Prosthetic design)

for my prosthetics I wanted to create flat moulds for my look as I didn’t have a model chosen yet, as well with flat moulds I can reuse them in the future for similar looks or as open wounds for other looks. 

To start my flat moulds used a wooden board to use as a base for my clay wounds. I then started moulding the way I wanted the wounds to look using monster clay and sculpting tools.  Once i was happy with my sculpt I built a flashing wall and then a wall around the flashing so the flat mould was ready for sculpting. I then mixed part A and B of silicone (170 mls of each, 1:1 ratio) and poured the mix over the sculpt and waited for it to dry.

Figure 12: final outcome of flat mould, mould (Rutter.C, 2025)

After completing the mould I made sure too give it a good spray with MacWax release agent before doing x2 layers of a mix of acetone based baldise and acetone (3:1 ratio) I did this by painting it on with a small brush. The next thing I needed to do was mix my silicone mix, which I did by weighing the clay from the moulds which was 112g total. Which meant I needed 28mls each of part A and B of silicone with 56mls of Deadener (1:1:3 ratio) so when dry the silicone will be nice a squishy, like fatty skin tissue. Once that was mixed and poured into the deep areas of the mould I used a Woden spatula to scrape the excess silicone to make sure it was nice and flat. When the silicone had dried another x2 layers of the baldise and acetone mix was applied and left to dry. Then a dusting of baby powder was added on top to help with the stickiness of the prosthetic and was slowly taken out of the mould with a constant dusting of baby powder was applied to each part of prosthetic that was being removed. 

Once out the mould the prosthetics were mounted of some foam with pins so they kept their shape through transportation. This process was repeated x2 times so I would have a backup set of prosthetics just in case. 

Figure13 and 14: the two sets of flat moulds (Rutter.C, 2025)