The Cabin for Grooming

Morginal

Posted: 2024 Updated: 2024-11-11

Turning a Beauty Case into a Monster Cabin, like in Cabin in the Woods

What You’ll Need:

• Transparent cosmetic case;
• GPT chat license or another AI generator;
• Color printer.

Background

My wife’s birthday is in October, followed shortly by Halloween. These are two great reasons to surprise a loved one with something special.

My wife needed a new makeup bag, so I looked up different options online and found this transparent beauty case.

At first, I was just going to gift it as it was, but the Halloween spirit took over, and I convinced myself that this case could perfectly resemble a monster’s camera from Cabin in the Woods.

Alright. But which monster?

Creating a Character in the Cabin in the Woods Style

I spent some time working with the AI (specifically, GPT chat) to create an unnamed character inspired by the movie that would reside in the beauty cabinet.

Character References:

• The robotic half — inspired by Hel from the film Metropolis. In the German movie Metropolis, the robot is a reference to the Germanic-Scandinavian goddess of death, Hel.
• The human half — inspired by Marilyn Monroe.

Thoughts on Summoning This Monster

If you’ve seen Cabin in the Woods, you’ll remember that each monster has a unique way of being summoned. To summon my character, you need to decide to put on makeup.

I came up with a brochure detailing the monster’s summoning after I had already given the gift, so I can’t show it, but it could be styled after the kind of religious pamphlet the priest hands out in the film The Wind.

Setting Up the Monster’s Chamber

All the monsters in Cabin in the Woods lived in simple transparent chambers, but that’s not enough for our heroine. At the very least, she should have her own bathroom and dressing room.

Lady Dimitrescu’s Bathroom

The bathroom reference — Lady Dimitrescu’s bathroom from the game Resident Evil Village, as well as an image of a vintage bathtub and a photo of a curtain with the Resident Evil logo.

Dressing Room

The dressing room with shelves lined with masks is a reference to a conversation between my wife and me about “wearing masks in life”. Some are for family, others for work, others for something else… there are many.

The Person Inside the Mirror

The person inside the mirror was initially meant to be a simple reference to myself, watching as my wife changes her masks, and to a scene from Cabin in the Woods, where the characters find a room behind the glass.

Unfortunately, it took on a more metaphorical meaning: perhaps the person in the mirror is simply observing the monster, or perhaps they are the monster themselves.

Naming

There were many options to play around with The Cabin in the Woods in the context of cosmetics, but The Cabin for Grooming turned out to be the most resonant. Additionally, there’s a subtle wordplay here regarding Grooming—a term also used in the context of predatory behavior.

And of course, on the bathroom curtain, we should be wary not of biohazard but of desire hazard.

Creating the Logo

The most interesting part here was the font used in the movie’s logo design. I searched for something similar for a while and eventually chose the font “Optimus Princeps” by Manfred Klein, which is free to use.

Printing

Choosing the right print format isn’t too difficult. My printer is currently living separately from me, but I used to be into printing and would print various images, even on glossy paper… though I never printed PNG images on film.

I measured the box and went to the local print shop. I requested images of a specific size, but as a programmer who forgot that the alpha channel works a bit differently in real life, something unexpected happened.

Firstly (oh, really?!) transparent stickers are printed on film. We live in a small town where printing on film requires a week’s notice, so I had to quickly add a background. Ah well.

By the way, because of this, I decided against using brushes for logo styling and kept the movie font style without additional distressing. The effect wouldn’t have been conveyed deeply enough on a white background.

Secondly, I recommend to everyone who, like me, spends 70% of life in front of a monitor, to occasionally do something hands-on. Managing to stick an image crookedly with double-sided tape requires real talent!

However, that’s exactly why I planned to use these suction cup mounts:

But they were out of stock by the time I arrived. Double sigh.

Oh, yes. As soon as we want to update the art, we’ll face the saga of removing double-sided tape residue from the glass.

The Cabin For Grooming

This is a large case that barely fits in the closet. It houses our soap-dish bathroom, and suddenly, the appliquéing became 3D.

Perhaps you’ll find this guide useful, and you’ll want to place your own monster in a bottle, mug, or somewhere else.

Would be happy to have you follow me on Instagram!

The story of glamorous Hel from the cabin will continue, and she will appear in some of my upcoming projects! 😉

The inspiration for the music during Hel Monroe’s appearance came from a song by a German rock band, which I’ll talk about later.

Read also

• The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
• Metropolis (film, 1927)