by Maggie Kruger

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Joel’s a little excited about Halloween. And why not?  It’s easily the coolest excuse for a party there is – everyone gets dressed up, you can get freaky with the décor, with the food, and let’s face it – the best movies are scary movies!

With that in mind, over the next few weeks I’m going to give you the props to throw the most awesome  Halloween party EVER – the best costumes, decorations, food, and of course, the best movies to watch – feel free to add your suggestions and comments!

Now, I’ve spent many a year running round the costume store the night before Halloween, desperately trying piece together some kind of costume, and let me tell you rushing it is no fun – the results are usually pretty shoddy too.  It’s worth planning your outfit in advance… here are 5 of the best!

1.       Edward Scissorhands

OK, so Edward Scissorhands as a character isn’t terribly scary, but you have to admit that it makes for an awesome Halloween costume – blades, white make-up, crazy wig – however it does take a little more planning than 20 minutes before you have to leave.

How to do it: The easiest way is to rent a costume. At the very least rent/buy the gloves and wig, and then make up your own quasi-bondage style outfit involving leather trousers (rrrwwwww) and belts (double rrrwwww).

Pros: Look cool; you’ll definitely get photographed; shows the host that you’ve made an effort.

Cons: Can be expensive to hire a costume; Going to the toilet will be nigh on impossible without outside assistance.

 2.       Witch

For the ladies, the Witch is the easiest costume, and is usually my Halloween outfit of choice – it means if I haven’t been able to plan in advance the makings of a costume are usually available at every shop within a 5 minute radius.

How to do it: Get a hat, some black eyeliner and lipstick, a wig, a broomstick and dress in black. Warts are optional.

Pros: Really simple if you’re short on time; it’s easy to find bits and bobs to cobble something passable together.

Cons: If you always dress as a witch it looks like you haven’t made an effort; there’s bound to be at least one other witch there who looks much better than you do.

 3.       Vampire

There’s loads you can do with a vampire costume.  You can be sexy vampire, lost boy vampire, hammer horror vampire, Bride

of Dracula – let’s face it: there’s a whole sub-genre waiting for you to exploit it for your own costume-related demands.                                                                        

How to do it: Decide who you want to be – personally I’d go for something involving white face paint, blood red lips and a pair of pointy teeth.

Pros: You’re going to look supercool.

Cons: Twilight- the vampires in these movies are about as scary as a bowl of chocolate mousse.

 4.       The Mummy

If I’m honest, I’ve never found mummy movies particularly scary, but there’s no denying the costume is very visually striking and ensures you’ll stand out.

How to do it: The easiest of easy costumes, all you need is a quantity of white material and someone patient to wrap it round you. Bed sheets are great for this.

Pros: You don’t need to worry about any additional makeup.

Cons: Like the Edward Scissorhands costume, this makes relieving oneself difficult; if you tear up the wrong white bed sheets you could find yourself in a world of trouble.

 5.       Zombie

I couldn’t very well do a piece on costumes without mentioning our lovely Joel’s monster of choice, the Zombie. And it’s pretty easy to do too.

How to do it: Decide on your outfit of choice, rip it so it looks suitably distressed, apply fake blood and fake skin (makeup wax is great for this), use makeup to give yourself some bruises and cuts etc. Adopt a zombie pose and you’re good to shuffle off into the night!

Pros: Again, this is really simple – you can be a zombie anything so all you really need to do is buy the makeup.

Cons: Overzealous gamers may get confused and try to take you out if you aren’t incredibly careful.

Happy costuming guys and gals! Next week… decorations!