Tips to Make Halloween Costumes Scarier

Looking for some new ideas to spice up your Halloween costume this year? Maybe take the scariness up a notch? 

Check out these freaky tips to get unstuck and really wow/ scare a crowd with your next creepy costume.

Absolutely Nail the Depiction of A Frightening Movie Character

If you are excited about bringing the fear this Halloween, chances are good you have seen a horror movie or two. So you probably have a good grasp of which iconic characters have the power to scare the pants off people.

But – the devil is in the details! The most infamous horror movie baddies have a signature look. You need only capture the most crucial elements of this look so that passerby can tell unequivocally what sort of evil you are projecting.

That means matching their clothing, hair, and makeup to the letter as much as you can. Or even better (faster), pick up a well-produced mask specific to your costume. Examples might be:

• Michael Moore from Halloween: dark clothing and the frightening pale mask
• Joker: Green hair, smudged makeup, alarming painted smile
• Any dead/undead bride: old white/wedding dress, veil, dark makeup

Act!

A creepy costume is great, but combine it with creepy behavior and you might actually chill some spines. Sometimes, a lot of theatrical makeup or a specialized costume is not even needed with the right presence.

Even a simple black-and-white painted mask (the happier the better) combined with a dead quiet, slow manner will have all the devils, ghouls, zombies, and their mamas crossing the street to give you space.

Bonus tip! Bring along friends to match your theme. This will simultaneously turn up the impressiveness of your costumes while making it clear that you are doing a bit and probably not a serial killer in reality.

Bring Props

A good prop or two can easily be the cherry on top that takes your costume from “heh, pretty good!” to “DAMN. You went all out!” Like acting, it adds another layer or dimension that really commits you to your scary alter ego.

Some tried and true ideas are:

• Fake knife, ax, or another weapon
• Brightly colored contacts (WHITE contacts especially are terrifying)
• Fake fangs or rotten teeth
• An item strongly associated with the character you are trying to portray

Hello Darkness

One thing that totally screws with our core instincts is anything that looks somewhat human but also fundamentally not. This is not such a hard feat to achieve, all you need is a lot of deep, dark, black makeup. Use it to make aspects of your appearance vague, blurred, or disappear altogether.

Add big dark splotches around the eyes to great effect for a variety of costumes, including a murder-y nurse, nun, zombie, sunken-in skull, etc.

Apply as dark as you can to make holes or voids where other features should be such as your nose, eyes, or mouth.

Or, try a different color makeup that matches your skin tone (or your costume’s skin tone) to fade out those features another way (think Slenderman).

So there you have it! These ideas for scarier Halloween costumes will hopefully smooth your way to distressing your parents and impressing your friends next time you take a stab at it. If you’re in a hurry, you can always visit sites like Party City for some help.