Top 10 Horror Movie Costumes
Halloween is fast approaching, and this year TV programmers and many movie theaters are using the unofficial holiday of carnage to show show the most intense horror flicks in movie history. We can’t wait. We’re also taking the opportunity to answer one of the most important questions in human history: who is the most wicked horror movie villain of all time? Perhaps our Top 10 will help you decide what you’ll wear this year on Halloween.
10: Count Orlok (Nosferatu)
Nosferatu was one of the first horror movies ever. Film history isn’t the only reason the bald Count Orlok has an honorable spot on this list. Beyond his pioneering achievement it goes without saying that the pale, ghostly vampire, Orlok, with his pointy ears, long claw-like fingers and distinctive incisors is – plain and simple – a horror genre icon.
9: Ghostface
Old favorites die hard. Ghostface, however, from the teenie slasher series, Scream, dies all the time only to reappear yet again at just the right moment – simply because someone else puts on the costume and starts slashing away. Talk about persistence! Inspired by Edvard Munch’s classic painting, The Scream, the mask is a staple of Halloween, right up there among jack-o’- lanterns and screaming trick or treat.
8. Jason Vorhees
Almost as tough as Ghostface, and much more brutal, Jason Vorhees is the scourge of the Friday the 13th series. In the course of the plot Jason goes through many different stages. In the first two parts he is nothing more than a malformed, traumatized young man looking for revenge. It takes him until the third part to remove the legendary hockey mask in front of one of his victims. After the masked machete killer kicks it in the fourth part, lightning brings him back to life in part five as a superhuman Frankenstein zombie. Freaky.
7. Frank (Donnie Darko)
The psychedelic giant rabbit from the indie cult flick, Donnie Darko, is a borderline case. The creepy hare plays a key role in the college mystery time travel flick with Jake Gyllenhaal, and if there is in fact a villain in the film, then it’s definitely Frank. What does the alien-like rodent really want anyway? His scariness owes precisely to his ambiguity, and depending on what kind of horror you’re into, ambiguity can be much more eerie than the nastiest chainsaw massacre.
6. Michael Myers
If you all but obliterate your family at a tender young age, you definitely have a spot in our Top 10. Michael Myers is psycho to the core. He is the archetype of the frigid, entirely unsympathetic psychiatric ward runaway. The expressionless mask he wears and the glint of the steak knife in his hand have etched themselves in the collective unconscious of generations of horror fans – and rightly so. Mike Myers is the man.
5. Freddy Krueger
“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you…” In the wake of the 2010 remake, the pizza-faced maintenance man from Elm Street has seen a revival. He’s no one-hit wonder, but the clawed nightmare dweller had already proved that – eight movies and a remake are no small feat. If you live in nightmares and you can kill people with your subconscious mind, you can’t not be in the top five.
4. Pinhead
“I will enjoy making you bleed. And I will enjoy making you enjoy it.” ‘Normal’ movie villains such as Jason, Michael or Freddy seek merely the lives of their victims. The Cenobites in Hellraiser do things a bit differently. In their bizarre parallel dimension the sadomasochistic priests of pain experiment with the limits of bearable torture in order to bring themselves to a new level of consciousness. That’s why they’re constantly on the lookout for fresh souls. If you summon them by mistake, you’ve got the high priest of S&M, Pinhead, and his evil, disfigured community of scarier than hell Cenobites on your hands – and they’re not so easy to get rid of. These nasty creeps get extra credit for their S&M costume design.
3. Leatherface
Entirely this-worldly and brutally real is how it all goes down in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With his stitched mask of human skin and his blood-stained butcher apron, the chainsaw-swinging Leatherface is an absolute icon of horror cinema. He doesn’t say much (anything, actually), but who needs words if you’ve got a chainsaw in your hand?
2. Billy
“I want to play a game.” The disturbing hand puppet from Saw (2004) likes to be clear who makes up the rules. Billy is a toy that plays with real, live people – and what a crazymaking premise. Similar to horror clowns, Billy is even more scary because he’s been painted in bright, cheerful colors. If you’ve seen the deceptive, sadistic shocker, you know very well its visual effects, especially Billy’s psycho gaze, are unforgettable.
1. Regan
Brutal serial killers, sadistic parallel dimension priests – that’s all child’s play compared to possessed little girls! Granted, not all little girls are spooky, but if they have inner demons and should these inner demons suddenly rear their ugly heads, put them together and you’ve got the most shocking moments in the history of horror movies. Ever. Little Regan, possessed by an evil spirit in The Exorcist (1973), gradually turns into an obscene, rank monster and continues to be the creepiest creepy little girl in the history of creepiness in movies to date. She’s the reason why there’s a bottle of holy water in every first aid kit at the maskworld.com headquarters. Call a priest!
We hope you get into the ‘spirits’ of things.
The Halloween freaks @ maskworld.com
