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Halloween Is The Time For Scary Costumes
It isn’t Halloween unless you see people dressed in scary costumes. Sure, some parents won’t let their children go out dressed as the reaper or any popular horror movie villain. But, there are plenty who do. Scary costumes are a fun way to get into the spirit of Halloween.
Halloween is usually associated with all things horrifying and scary. Some dress to confront their own fears. Others want to scare people. No matter the reasons, it is mostly done in a spirit of good fun.
If you do decide to dress in scary costumes you have a choice as to how elaborate you want to be. Do you want to simply don a mask and go from door to door or do you want to make your look as realistic as possible, complete with theater makeup and authentic clothes?
Here are some tips that will help you find or put together perfect scary costumes.
Decide on a Theme
Before you get started, you need to do some preplanning and make some decisions. Do you want to model your costume after a familiar character or do you want to create something on your own? You also have a lot of choices. Scary costumes come in all different forms such as ghosts, monsters, and villains from popular horror movies.
Find Your Costume
If you do decide to go with a familiar character you can either purchase the costume, borrow it, rent it, or put it together yourself using theater makeup and a little creativity. Check local costume shops, department stores, and ask around. If you are on a budget you may consider making the scary costumes yourself with items found around the house.
Make Your Costume
You have two main choices when it comes to making your own scary costumes. First, you can model the costume after a popular character. Second, you can create your own character based on your own imagination. If you do decide to model the character after something, make sure you get it is accurately as possible.
The Character
You’ll also want to give some thought to creating the character. Think about the mannerisms, what they’ll eat, they way they talk. Pretend you are that character for an evening. But only you can decide how far you want it to go. For example, if you are at a party, it might get tiring pretending to be the character the whole time.
Get more ideas for your pirate costume on the Get In Costume website. Plus, get a free copy of my special Halloween Safety Guide at http://www.getincostume.com/freereport
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It is nearly Halloween once again, and the huge range of Halloween goodies available in mainstream stores made me think- why isn’t Halloween made into more of an event? Like a creepy Christmas or something suchlike. Seriously though, it could be turned into much more than just Trick Or Treating and bobbing for apples. Plus, there’s more out there than just toffee apples to give out as Halloween gifts for everyone.
It isn’t just kids that can celebrate Halloween. Taking it as the commercial version of Halloween and not the religious festival observed by the pagan community (Samhain, prononced ‘Sow-en’ or ‘Savven’ depending on who you talk to), Halloween can be a blast for kids and adults, and can serve as a bonding experience for families. Involving children in Halloween styled games can be a great way to entertain youngsters and educate them on traditional pastimes (even when their origins have become so obscured by popular culture). Dressing up, getting made up as witches and monsters and the like can be fantastic fun for all involved, and properly supervised Trick-Or-Treating is a great thing for making memories.
Another great method for making a Halloween night memorable for children would be to gather a group of them together for a mini Halloween party before Trick-or-treating. read them a spooky story from the proliferation of kid‘s horror series that are on the market, or show a suitable movie.
But Halloween isn’t limited to the domain of kids, and nor should it be. With all manner of themed events on in clubs, cinemas and so on there’s a ton that the adult Halloweener can sink their teeth into (sorry). There’s a great deal of Halloween themed merchandise that would make great gifts for loved ones, such as licensed horror movie memorabilia and other horror merchandise such as action figures, posters, statues, and the movies themselves. You could check out things like the ever-creepy Living Dead Dolls figures, or the movie collectibles created by MacFarlane Toys, NECA and Sideshow Collectibles.
Want a great Halloween evening in? How about you gather a selection of friends, some suitably kitsch horror movies (Go for the cheese more than the hardcore dark stuff- zombie films, cheap B-movies, Chucky, Underworld, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and its billion sequels, films you can shout at), Halloween snacks (stock up on kids snacks and themed sweets- there’s nobody saying the grown-ups can’t have some fun too), add some suitably camp music (I recommend ‘Project 1950′ and ‘American Psycho’ by the Misfits, and anything by the Cramps) and voila, you have the makings of a fun Halloween party in your own home. Granted, that sounds like a typical night in at our place, but still, there are people out there who are actually normal. Somewhere. I think. get your place decked out with cobwebs and skulls and make an event out of it.
When choosing movies for your Halloween night, I’d suggest finding a bunch of 80s horror titles, as they really do capture the right fun atmosphere you’d need for an evening making fun of everything with your friends. Why 80s? Listen. While some may argue we are enjoying something of a resurgence in ‘true’ horror movies, with your million SAW sequels and million remakes of classics, I am left wondering what happened to the horror films that would have you yelling ‘COOL!’ amidst your screams. The 1980s are a fine example of an era in which horror films had all the horror stuff down pretty well yet mixed in a liberal dose of humour and fun without becoming parodies. While horror has become either more serious or more bland in recent years, with endless repetitions of the same old themes, old schlock fiends like myself are left wanting something that isn’t being delivered, namely films that you want to see again.
You see, a major problem with current horror cinema is that companies are making PRODUCT instead of FILMS. You can go into any DVD outlet and find rack upon rack of Wrong Turn/Scream/Hostel/Halloween knockoffs that are cheap and easy to make, and there’s barely a memorable title amongst them.
I’m not just craving the old days though- contemporary horror is missing something. Look at the 80s. Evil Dead 2. Fright Night. The Lost Boys. Pumpkinhead. Elm Street. Hellraiser. Vamp. Return of the Living Dead. Hell, even Rawhead Rex was better than much of the current output masquerading as horror. All of these horror movies had their scares and their gore, but there was a definite fun quality to each of them. They hit their beats so well you could almost pick out the rhythm. I’d love to see a return to that sort of structuring. Many recent films and their subsequent franchises don’t seem to want to do anything new with the format they are beating like a particularly dead horse.
Want a fun evening’s viewing? Check out any of the following horror flicks for some entertainment with your gore:
Creepshow, Day of the Dead, Trick or Treat, Poltergeist, The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, An American Werewolf in London, Bad Dreams, Hellraiser, Evil Dead 2, Return of the Living Dead 2: Hellraiser II, A Nightmare on Elm street, Re-animator, Scanners, The Burning, Class of Nuke ‘Em High (okay, this is a spoof but it still kicks ass), From Beyond, House, 976:Evil, Witchboard, Warlock, The Thing, Bad Taste, Cat People, Child‘s Play, Cat’s Eye, Chopping Mall (BEST. TITLE. EVER), Dead Zone, The Gate, The Hunger, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Monster Squad, Society, Sorority babes in the Slime-ball Bowl-O-Rama….. Jeez, there’s thousands of ‘em. Go seek out some fun.
There are so many ways to make your Halloween a fun night to remember. Start off with a movie night as suggested above, then go along to a themed party or concert. Preferably in costume. Check local listings for events in your area that you can go along to and take part in. If all this sounds like a no-brainer, that’s because it is. With a little effort you can transform what has become a relentlessly commercial day into something you can genuinely enjoy without a massive amount of cost. Halloween celebrations shouldn’t be all about handing out sweets to bored kids on your doorstep- it should be enjoyed and relished. I mean, how often can you actually run around with a plastic trident and horns on during the rest of the year? Actually, don’t answer that.
Want to make yourself look at white as a ghost or as undead as a zombie?
It’s really easy to make yourself look like you have just come out of a horror movie with th…
On Halloween, you can be whomever. Kids go trick or treating, dressed to the nines, and come home with an admirable stash of treats. However, Halloween isn’t just for kids. Plenty of adults go in for the spooky event. Adult Halloweeners might be frowned on if they go trick or treating … taking candy from kids? Halloween part gatherings are better suited to adults. If you’re thinking of hosting a Halloween party, here are some group Halloween costume ideas to help liven things up.
Let’s say you’re inviting twenty or thirty people. Develop several group Halloween costume ideas, each with a different theme. For example, one theme might be period costumes, such as Medieval, early American, French Revolution or ancient Greek attire. A celebrity theme might include Elvis, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and Ingrid Bergman. Famous horror movie characters are yet another theme. The trick is to suggest themes which will promote a diversity of characters within each group so you get a good mix of costumes.
When you use the group Halloween costume idea, members of each group tend to be more creative in terms of making their character recognizable, with greater detailing. Everybody wants their theme group to outdo the rest. It’s as simple as that. Halloween parties not using a contest type format can result in lazy partyers who show up wearing regular clothes and a scary mask. Not nearly as much fun.
Once you’ve developed your choicest selection of group Halloween costume ideas, divide your guest list in groups of four or five. When you send out invitations, let each guest know it’s a theme party and assign one of the themes to each guest. Once you’ve got all your RSVPs, let everyone know who’s in their group, so the collaboration begins!
If you have specific characters you’d love to see, you can include them as suggestions. Maybe someone will take you up on it, but at least your suggestions help to spark imaginations. You can also get more enthusiasm going by letting your guests know there will be prizes for best group and best costume in each group. Prizes can be silly, inexpensive and fun. A prize can be as simple as a gold net bag of chocolate coins on a ribbon, mimicking a ‘gold medal’. You can design cool medals on your PC and print them out.
You can also help your party to succeed by giving your guests leads on local and online places to find obscure costume accessories. For example, theatre and dance supply houses carry extensive lines of makeup, feather boas, sequined sashes, rhinestone tiaras and wigs, at affordable rates. Other inspiring resources include period fashion websites with photos of authentic attire of the times and retro shops.
The group Halloween costume idea makes for an outstanding and entertaining Halloween party your guests won’t forget.
Halloween is the ideal holiday occasion for admirers of the scary, horror movie genre. With scary movies and horrifying special effects, some of these folks think they’re scare-proof. However, advances in technology have kept pace with the movies, such that truly scary Halloween costumes are within your reach. Let’s look at a few ideas you can use to scare the pants off these smug people.
Masks are an essential element of the scary Halloween costume. Plastics technology has evolved to a point where one must question reality. Some of the masks available today are so realistic, your movie-jaded friends might well be shocked and afraid. They’ll think you do indeed know what they did last summer. Perhaps worse yet, they’ll believe you’re a movie nightmare come true. The best scary masks are the high tech ones, with the look and feel of a nightmarish face composed of skin, bones and maybe a few maggots for good measure. A mask can make or break your scary Halloween costume.
All scare movie fans know that clowns are associated with serial killers. Such clowns are not the funny Ringling Brothers types. They are morbid, obsessed and entirely scary characters. You can capitalize on this notion with an appropriately deviant clown costume. The mask is supremely important in pulling off this scary Halloween costume, but the devil is also in the details. A little fake blood on an otherwise innocent costume never hurts, and a fake hunting knife tied at the waist helps your gruesome image too.
Attending a Halloween party as a head on a platter is sure to evoke distaste from the most hardened of horror fans. Here’s how it works: Find a cardboard box that’s just large enough for you to be comfortably seated. Carefully cut a hole that allows you to stick your head through the opening. Use face paint to make you look as though the worst has been done. Think killer dentist, psychopath with a drill, that sort of thing. Cover the box with a satin tablecloth and arrange food around your head. This scary Halloween costume is best displayed at the entry to the party.
Latex body suits are ripe with possibilities. While you can find an ordinary latex body suit intended for Halloween use, you can embellish these with all sorts of gruesome additions. Stab wounds, fake blood of the most realistic sort and plastic bugs permeating the suit are a sure sign of disgusting and horrifying imaginings.
Last, but not least is the headless Halloween costume. Remember the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? The trick with this costume is to hide your real head, while holding a reasonable facsimile.
If you’re intent on a scary Halloween costume, you’ve got to be willing to go the extra mile and put those scare fans in their place!
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