Pink Dream
~ A Cautionary Tale ~
By Grace Lovera
6/23/24
“Your life line – It stops, suddenly, and then it starts all over again. And then it goes on, almost forever.” Madame Olga (She Freak)
I watch in wonder at the woman on the screen. She’s dressed in 60s magic. I’m scared to learn why she will fail, ready to prove to myself that somehow, I won’t end up the same by the time the credits roll.
I’ve been flipping cards lately. Fanning a deck of all 78 and pulling small fortunes. Setting the year in a new direction, or at the very least, a practice in ritual repetition. Reading a vision for the day. That alone might get me somewhere.
The truth is, a card is just a card, and it means nothing. Yet we ask ourselves if there is meaning in life just as we ask if there is meaning in the marks on our palms, in the patterns of our dreams, or in the tarot we choose to pull. They are the artifice to the query of fortune. Because as we all know, it is both beautiful and terrifying that within the question of fate, there is no real answer.
The stories that linger the longest are often the ones that reveal our deepest fears. She Freak from 1967 is the kind of film that lingers. It’s the kind of film that stays, reminding us how fully capable we are of becoming everything we don’t want to be.
Sometimes, the best stories are the ones with lessons we as the audience must learn. It is far too late for the characters themselves to do so.
Fortunes aside, at least we can choose not to settle. But you have to want something bad enough in order to get it. That will always be true.
I know what it feels like to watch the sun go down across empty farmland. The horizon line is so finite in the openness. As the sun cuts into the earth a million miles away it feels like you’ve missed it all. The world was somewhere else while you were stuck trying to figure out how to escape. Knowing all along that you wouldn’t be able to become who you want to be if you stayed there.
It’s clear that Jade knows how this feels from the second we meet her in that shitty small-town diner. I’m pulled in immediately by empathy.
Jade is behind the counter, wearing a form fitting white diner shift dress with a white apron. The white is angelic. It’s pure. It’s the calm before the storm. Jade turning her back on the immediate past in this all-white palette is a beautiful visual. This might be the exact outfit all of us should wear when we’ve had enough.
The sheer cotton is only an added bonus, it’s just enough spice for Jade, a character wanting more. It makes perfect sense. I’m thankful to Lynn Halote, as she was the wardrobe supervisor for this film. Somehow, this is her only known costuming credit.
Jade is saying goodbye to the life she had, heading straight towards what she wants. Following the signs, chasing the dream, running away to the carnival. From here we all know things are going to get more colorful. Indeed, they do.
“I’m starting a whole new life, and I ain’t gonna remember the old one.” Jade Cochran
When you’re risking it all to follow your dreams, it’s dangerous ground. Jade’s choice to wear a powder blue knee-length skirt is a confident decision and it’s not over-the-top. She’s comfortable, and therefore, so are we. If I was on my way to meet my destiny, I’d wear gold heels and a matching gold bag too. Hands down.
The fuchsia palette for Jade from here on out is a great flow. We see her in these pinks again and again, this striped shirt with the solid trim is a wonderful pairing with the skirt and shoes. It’s feminine, it’s simple, it’s wholesome and bright. It’s soothing in a way. It allows us to trust her, to root for her.
The stripes are significant. They come up again, in a pivotal moment in the end and we accept the full-circle dynamic in styling choice.
It doesn’t take long for us to see Jade start to change. This unraveling of her character is paralleled with the shedding of her clothes after getting the job. She wears a Jade-green robe and this styling choice shows us her ambition is cutting too close to her ego. She is going to fly too close to the sun.
She’s got hungry eyes and we all know what green represents. We realize that she’s willing to get it all at any cost.
As the story unfolds, every second she gets closer to what she wants, we like her less. Not because we root for her to fail, but because she’s a conceited, hateful, self-centered bitch. No matter how you swing it, no one likes that kinda babe.
The blue skirt and belt from the beginning of her story are back again. This time in a special moment Jade has when her palms get read by Madame Olga.
This outfit is a beautiful warning paired with the scene and the reading she receives. The skirt and belt are put together with a green polka-dot blouse. It’s a message of the unspooling of Jade getting too close to the darkness of her own desire. She still doesn’t get it; that our dreams can end up being the very things that can turn us. And she’s well on her way.
A true shift is made in her arc when she reveals to stripper babe Pat that she’s engaged to the carnival owner. They both know that Jade doesn’t care about him. She flashes Pat a smile and a wink, dressed in that fuchsia yet again, revealing that we can no longer root for her.
She’s dressed in pink at almost every move, in almost every scene. When she’s cheating, when she’s lying, when she’s taking money from her husband.
Pink is a playful color, but the closer she gets to the end, the more urgency and uneasiness we feel when she’s in this bright shade. It elevates the tension every step of the way.
The only time we ever see her in all-black is in a soft and intimate moment that should make us feel good, but it doesn’t. The long black nightgown is a spectacular way of foreshadowing the obvious. Jade is a dark and selfish person and the black resonates this without her having to say anything at all, especially when it's shortly after the just-married scene. It’s terrifying. It’s effective.
We see Jade in white for one final moment right before things truly spiral out of control. She tells her husband how she feels about the “freaks” they work with in the carnival. She hates them. She wants nothing to do with them. She sees them as monsters. Having such a disgusting way of talking about people who are different, while dressed in white, is a sure-fire way at getting us to dislike her even more.
It’s the fateful twist, the beginning of the end, and she’s effortless in her pride. We get Jade in a satisfying new color that veers closely to her pink palette. A bright red evening dress that she wears during the night her new husband is stabbed to death by her carni-lover.
Jade smiles down at her husband as he dies while she stands looking stunning and horrid all at the same time. Remorseless in red.
The last time we see Jade is right before the predestined words of the oracle become the reality. She’s dressed in her signature pink, a dusty fuchsia dress and coat set with a bright orange inset trim. By now we can’t wait to see her fall. And the worst fate of all is becoming what you hate the most.
Maybe Jade didn’t deserve it, or maybe she was too hateful or too full of herself to realize what was coming for her all along. She is the cautionary tale, forever living in the monster of her own making.
Possibly, the road to getting what you want is the same one that can lead you to what you never expected. It’s a slippery slope.
When you’re already burning too close to the fringe every day, a fortune is pretty meaningless. No amount of crystals, horoscopes, oracle cards, or life lines will help your brain or keep you away from becoming the worst version of yourself.
I often wonder if I’ve already been dealt my hand. The cards laid out, destiny foretold, and I just get to be the fool who dances near the edge each minute thinking I’ll be able to make life into something different. Something more.
The lesson is this; A ticket to the top might look exactly the same as a plummet to the bottom. Maybe the wanting is enough, and fate is meant to stay hidden in obscurity.
My palms are probably too sweaty to read these days, but if my kismet is set, at least I’ll know that I didn’t hate anyone and I didn’t become a monster bitch while I was on my way down.
Xo,
Grace
Join me for the incredible AGFA re-release of She Freak at the Idaho Film Society, Sunday June 30th (Tickets available here)
Grace is a curator at Idaho Film Society’s Station Theater. More of her writing can be found at Horror Fashion Review