In an expressive mise-en-scène, settings, sets, props, and other physical dimensions of the mise-en-scène take on lives of their own to illustrate emotional or spiritual elements permeating the material world. This technique is employed in many horror films—such as in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), where the birds become antagonists—but is also present in other genres, such as the independent film Lars and the Real Girl (2007), where a blow-up doll becomes the main character’s companion and love interest.

When costumes and make-up support scenic realism, they reproduce the clothing and features of people living in a specific setting and time period. When make-up and costumes function as character highlights, they point out important parts of a character’s personality, such as the starched collars of high society gentlemen or the hairy warts of witches. When costumes and make-up act as narrative markers, their change or lack of change helps viewers understand the progression of the story, the development of the characters, and the passage of time. Finally, when make-up and costuming are used as a part of overall production design to signify genre, they can be surreal in nature—as in horror or fantasy films—and involve prosthetics and elaborate designs that evoke the themes of the specific genre.