Weapons' make-up team share huge clue about Aunt Gladys' origin story and it's hidden in plain sight

*Warning: Contains major spoilers for Weapons*

Since Zach Cregger's Weapons released in cinemas, film fans have been frantically dissecting its flame-haired and red-lipped villain, Gladys Lilly.

The mysterious character (played by Amy Madigan) is introduced to audiences as the sickly aunt of Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), the only child in Justine Gandy's (Julia Garner) class that doesn't go missing. Whether she really is Alex's aunt is up to audiences to decide, but as the film's bonkers third act plays out, it starts to seem unlikely.

While there are rumours about a prequel film that could dive into Gladys' backstory further, fans may be able to score some key clues on a second watch instead thanks to Weapons' make-up department.

In an exclusive chat with the Mirror's Screen Time team, make-up department head Leo Satkovich and special make-up effects designer, Jason Collins, shed some light on how they made Gladys so unsettling, and in the process dropped some major clues about her true nature.

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"One of his [Cregger's] big inspirations [for Gladys] was the photography work of Cindy Sherman. She always has these washed-out sixties vibes," Jason began. "The way the lipstick is going beyond the lip line almost feels like it could be your crazy aunt or somebody that doesn't really understand make-up per se but is trying to assimilate to fit in, but they got stuck in the sixties."

Leo added: "We wanted to make her period ambiguous, because we don’t really know how old Gladys is. It was really fun to play around with those periods.

"We wanted her to feel like she could have come out of anywhere, she could have come out of any period and we don’t really quite know just where she came from."

The pair refused to confirm or deny outright whether there were clues for viewers to find in the make-up, but outlined how they honed in on the idea of creating a "bird of prey", and added prosthetics that would produce an uncanny valley effect.

"What we did was we narrowed down her nose a little bit - for lack of a better word, gave her a beak - and narrowed down one of the pupils in her eyes so she's always staring down," Jason explained. The team also created extended, sagging earlobes in an effort to further create an unsettling feel, as well as giving her small baby teeth.

Given the number of decidedly non-human elements in the character, is she really a sickly family member, or a total imposter?

"I love watching and reading everybody's feeling after watching the movie," Jason admitted. "There's a whole bunch of theories and I love it, because is any theory really wrong? That's a credit to Zach's writing really.

"He obviously has an intention, he knows where it's going and what he wants to do, but he's letting the people participate who watched it.

"It's such an audacious character that all of that was welcomed, and that's the thrill of the movie right?"

Weapons is out now in cinemas