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Official Article

Halloween Costume Hide and Seek in Movies

Lots of movies have scenes taking place on Halloween night. Trick or Treaters running around seeking candy or adults letting loose for a night of fun. But have you ever really paid attention to the costumes in the background? Filmmakers hide some pretty fun stuff in the darkness of the night. So let's take a closer look at some hidden Halloween costumes in movies.

The Addams Family, 1991

To be fair, this whole movie features characters in perfectly Halloween appropriate attire throughout, but towards the end of the film, we see a group of costumed candy seekers approaching the door of Gomez and Morticia's haunted home. Leading the pack is a kid who is just as much Mr. T as Ziggie Stardust, with his jean vest and spiky red mullet. But flanking him on either side are 2 of Marvel's most iconic super heroes, Spider-Man and Captain America. Their masks look to have been purchased on a trip to Tiajuana and the fact they are both wearing capes shows that the costume designer was was clearly not a comic book fan. Unless it is the choice of an out of touch director that added this finishing touch, "Hey, how come Super Spider and Commander Cody aren't wearing capes? All super heroes wear capes!"

Hiding in the background is a creature I can only describe as the love child of Beast Man from Masters of the Universe and Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera. Just look at the nose and teeth on that kid, combined with his Grand Poobah worthy horns, he's quite a sight to behold. He's really got that deer in the headlights look down. Why they decided to shove him behind Punky Bewster's long lost twin, I'll never know.

Son-In-Law, 1993

Say what you will about Pauly Shore's movie career, he has one movie that shines above all the rest and that's Son-In-Law. The college dorm Halloween bash at the beginning of the film has a lot of of wild characters running around, but when Carla Gugino's Rebeckah character returns to her room she enters a freak show. But first she is stalked by the world's scariest clown. Tell me that guy isn't Pennywise level creepy. Something about the stare from his dark eyes tells me he is up to no good. What you can't see is that "Poppy The Clown" is running by spraying a fire extinguisher. Jason Voorhees has a machete, Leatherface a chainsaw and Poppy, his fire extinguisher. Poppy will surely be back after the party to terrify some drunk co-eds.

Inside there is a guy who looks to be a swamp zombie creature of some sort, puffing away on a cigarette the whole time. He obviously put some time into the outfit and his make-up, but I'm sure all night he was getting, "Cool costume. What are you supposed to be?" Unfortunately another guy in the room really steals his thunder, the man I call Captain Chihuahua. Are you seeing what I'm seeing? That guy is wearing an American flag t-shirt and cape, topped off by a ski-mask with a protruding rubber dog head on it. Is he a defender of patriotic canine's? Is he the official super hero of the ASPCA? Regardless of his true origins, I applaud this man for his originality. Who could possibly top that?

The Karate Kid, 1984

The debut of Daniel Larusso’s shower costume is a memorable moment from an iconic film, that often makes the viewer miss the myriad of other weirdo’s hopping around the dance floor. In this shot alone you can see a pretty impressive skull mask, a couple Zorros, but wait, what is that guy carrying around his waist? It’s a cannon with little feet sticking out of the end! This bizarre and completely inconvenient costume should be grabbing our attention, but have you ever noticed it before? Probably not.  If you think too hard you start to realize that the physics of the costume don’t make a lot of sense. Is he the human bullet in the cannon? Is he the one firing it? Either way, he gets points for the concept, if not the execution.

Next up is a strange case of 2 different guys wearing the same costume. When Johnny, leader of the Cobra Kai chases Daniel out of the bathroom after being soaked with a hose, he skids past a guy in what looks to be his little brother’s Spider-Man costume. Apparently the mask was sold separately because he is sporting a hood and domino mask in lieu of a fully licensed one. When the rest of the Cobra Kai burst out of the gym in pursuit of Daniel it’s then we see another guy wearing a Spider-Man costume with no mask at all and backwards! Was there a sale on these things at Sears in October of 1984? Was this the school’s official football uniform? So weird.

Also visible during this moment is “The Pig Man”. Clearly a real schmoozer with the ladies, Pig Man has his shades on over the eyes of the mask, resting on his prominent snout. The moonlit shadows really give Pig Man’s mask a realistic look, which may be why he decided to spend the evening away from the dance floor. He is clearly heavily invested in the intellectual discussion going on outdoors or is simply asking a sexy nurse, “Hey, you wanna see my curly tail?” It must be important though, because after the gang of skeletal thugs bumps into him, Pig Man is only briefly interrupted before jumping right back in to his party chatter.

Big Daddy, 1999

Nothing about Adam Sandler’s final decent film, Big Daddy screams Halloween, except for the fact that his youthful ward calls himself “Frankenstein”. Perhaps this was inspired by his love of Halloween, but either way the two take to the streets of New York City and join the weirdos for a night of fun. First, a giant mouse holding a maraca crosses their path. This kid shows up in the background several times and is clearly too old to be knocking on doors and expecting a fun size Three Musketeers. When you’re over 6 feet, it’s time to get rid of the Mouse pajamas, is all I’m saying. The less said about Frankenstein's Kangaroo outfit the better.

The eagle-eyed observer will recognize the real madness is going on behind “Frankenstein” in this scene. Just look at that giant head with legs that appears to be Mimi from The Drew Carey Show merged with comic book villain M.O.D.O.K. out for a moonlight stroll. But the true Halloween gold comes from the freaky “Pumpkinhead Killer” who saunters by. Again with the clown costumes! I can only imagine that this is the re-animated corpse of the kid from Halloween III: Season of the Witch whose head was turned to bugs by Celtic magic, back for revenge on trick or treaters everywhere.  Forget little Jamie from Halloween 4 and 5, “Pumpkinhead Killer” should have been the new star of the franchise.

Now wasn't that fun? Keep an eye out this Halloween while watching your favorite flicks and see if you don't notice a few more fun costumes in the mix than you expected.

While your at it, tweet me your finds @hojukoolander on Twitter.

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pikachulover Posted on Oct 01, 2015 at 09:05 AM

Somebody wrote an article about this, but with an episode of the Winx Club.

http://www.michaelsfavorites.com/winxclub2_02/hallowinx.html

jkatz Posted on Oct 01, 2015 at 06:04 AM

Those sh*tty Spiderman and Captain America costumes from The Adams Family remind me of the ones in 3 Dev Adam. Wouldn't surprise me if the filmmakers for both movies got them from the same source.

Vaporman87 Posted on Sep 30, 2015 at 05:45 PM

LOL. It is funny to see all the very well thought out costumes going on in the main area where the dance is (in Karate Kid), and compare them to the garbage that the poor extras outside of there were forced to wear.

It was as if they took everything that was of decent quality and dressed the extras dancing in those, then they robbed somebody's yard sale for the rest. Then they couldn't even be bothered to put the costumes on them the right way. So funny!

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