My sister and I did that one year when we were teenagers. We said “Audit or Treat!”
I’m not sure what I’ll do this year, but I had a good, easy, cheap costume last year that people seemed to like. I’ll share it for those of you looking for something simple. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest white pillowcase they had, cut eye holes in it, then cut a bunch of other holes in it. Add a yellow shirt, black pants, and a bag with a rock in it, and voila! I was Charlie Brown as a ghost. Almost everyone got it (although one person asked if I was “The Holey Ghost”, which works too), and a lot of people asked if I had a rock in my bag.
If I can get ahold of enough of the proper materials, I might go as a male version of Kesha. I’d get all sorts of glitter and that black mascara stuff. Perhaps some war paint and fake dollar sign tattoos would enhance the look. Then I’d suck on a blue sucker to simulate the blue lipstick. I might add in some fake fur or feathers (because she only wears fake fur and feathers). The finishing touch would be a bottle of whiskey and a toothbrush so I could brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack.
Last year I went as a garden gnome for work. Black scrub pants, a navy blue scrub top belted at the waist and a red cone hat. It was a big hit, I’ll probably do it again.
Back in the 00s, I’d always wanted to go as an iPod commercial. I was gonna dress in all black, black nylon over the face, black hat, essentially a living silhouette, and of course my white iPod and earphones. My schtick would be to annoyingly dance to only one song from the ad, by getting into peoples faces to be as obnoxious as possible.
I was even planning on having a fluorescent blue or green foam board background. Alas, I never had much an opportunity to go that elaborate, and now the ads are defunct… might make a fun 00s call back one of these days though…
I bought a tricorn hat at a festival a few months ago, so pirate is a cheap option.
To mix it up, I might go as the pirate from all the pirate jokes, rather than just a pirate - ship’s wheel down the trousers, carrot on the shoulder, spray my face gold (what’s gold and sounds like a pirate? Pyrite!) and get a graphic of the film ratings so I can be rated Arrrrr.
I’ve wanted to go as Patrick Star (from SpongeBob) or as a minion. I just haven’t got the time to design & make something that’s functional enough to work in at a computer desk.
I’m going to be a kind of generic wizard type of guy. I made a long black robe with a hood and gold trim (the trim is sorta like the Greek key design, but not quite). I built two skeletons to represent my army of undead warriors. They’ll take up posts outside the door to my fake stone wall (made of styrofoam insulating sheets). I really want to rig up a little craft light on my wrist, pointed at my palm, so I can extend my hand and make it glow as thought I’m casting a spell, but I’m not sure I can pull it off.
My wife is going to be Medusa. I’m going to borrow a wig-with-snakes from my brother (a relic of his ex-wife), so I just need to make my wife’s clothes. I think I’m going to go with a snake scales motif for her gown and a stuffed snake wrapped around her waist and shoulders. But time is slipping away, so I don’t know if I can pull that off either. If all goes well I should be able to get a lot of it done this weekend.
Last year, I was Nosferatu. I had the shaved head and pointy ears and pallid skin and so on. On Halloween night, standing out in front of my castle wall, I was briefly the coolest guy in the neighborhood. When a couple of little kids wanted to have their pictures taken with me, it made the work worthwhile.
I’d been planning to go as the black swan ever since the movie came out but at the moment I have nowhere to go. Last year we went to our favorite bar which is always lively but my boyfriends’s father will be in town and I don’t want to be the only one dressed up.
TheKid is going as Luna Lovegood (she has the outfit and looks like her). She told me I should be Mrs. Weasley. I would rather go as Umbridge, as I can talk like her, but I’m too tall, she says. And she hates Umbridge.
Yep, Attack The Block, a very fun, very warped alien invasion movie. It’s a future genre cult classic a la Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim, etc. Edgar Wright, who directed those movies, was Executive Producer on ATB, and it was directed by first-time director Joe Cornish (remember the name). It was released in the UK in May, and it’s been playing in various US theaters for the past few weeks on a limited basis. It’s already out on DVD in the UK and it’ll be out on DVD in the US in October. I’m completely obsessed with the movie. I saw it 7 times in the theater before it left. It’s entertaining, funny, exciting, tense, twisted, silly, scary, goofy, amazing and awesome. And very very funny. It starts out seemingly serious but then goes all kinds of fun (and often very rude) places you don’t expect. I’m besotted.
Here’s a red-band trailer that’s spoilery, but it is one of those movies that, IMO, gets better and better the more times you see it, so spoilers aren’t the be all and end all. The trailer actually makes it seem much more serious than it is, and it doesn’t give away even a fraction of the really good bits.
Hayseed Zombie? Hillbilly Hat, Overallls, a Made up face, lots of modeling rubber, spirits, make-up and blood… a chainsaw, pitchfork, or Rotating Post Digger, bionic forearm… Straw/hay bud hangin’ from the lips.
Haven’t seen the screw, post digger, auger device in use since the “Toolbox Massacre” . Be a better prop in slow and deliberate, prosthetic, as compared to the popular “chainsaw hand” that is popular in modern haunted houses… got the Chainsaw massacre and Evil dead to blame for that one. Mostly, the chainsaw gimmick is a jarring and sudden noise and kinetic terror… noisy auger, might work. Maybe paint the salvaged, modified,mounted and motorized auger red and white, or black and white (reminiscent of the twilight zone and psychedelic rotation.)
I did that once, 2008 I think, compleat with the shaved head and pointed ears. I flew to Burbank, Ca. for a Halloween party and brought with me a pack of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Brewery’s Nosferatu Ale. Good prop. Lasted about 10 minutes.
