Goths on film: 18 of the best-dressed doomers in pop culture

Choose a Girl

In 1989, artist James O’Barr created The Crow, a superhero comic book series which followed a rock musician’s quest for revenge after returning from the dead. Four years after the series was released, actor Brandon Lee was channelled to bring the character to life in an on-screen adaptation, and with his full leather looks and pale face paint, Lee did just that. Sadly at the age of 28, Lee was fatally killed on set of filming The Crow by a faulty prop gun. Rouge the Bat has always been one of the stranger aspects of the Sonic franchise. Where most characters in this universe exhibit wildly inhuman proportions, she comes equipped with very distinct features that denote her as the series’ de facto alluring character. Pastel Goth emerged in the 2010s influenced from Japanese and Korean street style, as a mixture of goth and the pastel colors of the kawaii aesthetic.

• With Halloween right around the corner, it’s the perfect time for us to immerse ourselves in the signature styles of video gaming’s greatest and most fashionable goths, as well as those whose fashion sense makes them goth-adjacent.
• While you are caught off by his flair, he’ll slash into you with his fingertip-like claws.
• Characters on the lower tiers simply wear the clothes, while characters higher up exude “big goth energy,” sporting clothes that have become an integral part of their personality.
• Her subsequent possession gives her that real edge as she’s pushed along by her darker urges, making her all the more dangerous, and certainly hotter in the process.

S Tier: The Cream of the Crop

Whatever their purpose may be, these goth characters are some of the best known and loved on television. Winona Ryder’s casting as the goth girl Lydia in Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice was an odd one. So enduring was her appearance in the film, that Billie Eilish, Bella Hadid, Alexa Demie, and Beyoncé continue to resurrect her spiky baby bangs and backcombed updo. Despite what the Addams family might attest, nobody is born wearing alabaster face paint and black gowns.

• Everything that will make people who just see goth people as just a freaky sex thing to turn their noses because jfc I’m more than that.
• For every suit you sell, you’re gonna send 30 customers fleeing out of the store.“ In the end, she got the job and a heartfelt friendship out of it, so it’s a win for the goths.
• Often, we realise who we are and what we’re about by assuming the identities of other people.
• He’s based on British rock stereotypes of the 70s/80s, so I always think of him as a Clash wannabe.
• It’s almost like her designers dug deep into a box labeled “SEXY” and threw a bunch of pieces together willy nilly.

“Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” (

Just before her brutal murder, done Scream-style, she is seen sitting in a mesh long-sleeve black top with matching fingerless gloves on a goth dating sight – so at the very least, she went out in style. Panned by critics as a truly terrible sequel to The Blair Witch Project, perhaps the only redeeming feature within Book of Shadows was Kim Director, who played Kim Diamond. The actor originally auditioned for another role, but director Joe Berlinger saw a goth girl peering out from the actor’s strikingly pallid visage. And she embraced the archetype – a stinking attitude, deadpan humour, never without a cigarette between her teeth – to such an extent that her studded collar sold for $225 on icollector.com back in 2015. The weird outsider who makes wigs from other peoples’ mum’s chest hair was obviously going to be a goth.

As long as you approach her with respect and use the right openers, you can get her to notice you. We’ll help boost your luck in the game of attraction by demystifying gothic subculture and the ways to signal your interest to a goth girl. Follow these steps and you may walk away with a mysterious beauty on your arm.

“It’s about everyone who has been outcast in their life coming together,” as one attendee at Whitby’s most recent Goth Weekend told us. Much to the dismay of “real” goths, the reemergence of a dark aesthetic has been well documented in pop culture. Below, we travel over some of the hottest goths to have appeared on-screen – from Andrea in Daria and Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice, to Brandon Lee in The Crow. Piers pretty much hates everything besides Marnie, his pokemon, and rock ‘n’ roll. He’s the only dark-type gym leader in the series (unless you count Marnie, who technically takes over for him), which in itself is pretty goth. He’s based on British rock stereotypes of the 70s/80s, so I always think of him as a Clash wannabe.

Sure, her background as a succubus may give developers license to go a little overboard with the sexiness at times, but Morrigan’s looks are almost always used to underline the power she wields in the Darkstalkers mythos. And while most eyes might be drawn to her outfit, I gotta give it up for the small set of wings on her head. It’s a bold design decision that could have come off as goofy in the wrong hands, but the various artists who have depicted Morrigan throughout the years nail the look more often than not. As the female protagonist of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander is the epitome of a grunge intellectual. Played by Rooney Mara in the 2011 English film adaptation of the Swedish novel of the same name, sees Mara only ever in full black, accessorised with facial piercings and a jet black gothic haircut. While Mara never returned as Lisbeth is the sequels, her successors followed suit, reinventing on Lisbeth’s iconic look while keeping it as goth as can be.

Late-Victorian goth style is more similar to the costuming featured in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Even though he’s wearing his guild’s uniform, Venom manages to bring his own style to it by rocking an open vest, showing people that he doesn’t slack on abdominal crunches or in his wardrobe. Not many fighting game characters are skilled enough to coordinate their outfits and tie their look into a billiards gimmick, but Venom pulls off a masse fashion fit.

Her fit came to step on necks, yet she’s always there to lend a helping hand, making her all the more deserving of all the nectar you earn in Hades, and of being at the top of this list. A bit more of a softie than her brother Piers, Marnie is also perpetually angry. However, helping her hometown was the reason she became a pokemon trainer in the first place, so she clearly cares about her fans. Here, we’ve explored four of the main goth fashion styles, but if you don’t identify with any of the ones we’ve mentioned, there are a plethora of other subcultures to explore. What is a good slasher film without at least one good goth character whose overall vibe predicts the impending doom? In Jamie Blanks’ 1998 film Urban Legend, Tosh Guaneri is a manic-depressive goth who unfortunately becomes subject to the killer’s rampage.