Twas the night before Halloween and in this screwed economy, you've had to work straight through the weekend. Not to be called an old lady/man, you've agreed to hit up six parties after working, as is the custom if one wishes to maintain a punk rock status. Disguise Costumes to the rescue. This year, our friends sent over a box of goodies that prove there are more options in the isles of Party City beyond "Sexy So-and-So" and "The Situation". Once more, the following awesomeness will no doubt be noted and purchased for year round convention fun by my excellent readers who refuse to let dust settle upon their asses. Let's begin!For the horror lot...Clive barker is back! Last year, our macabre buddy created a horde of monsters plucked straight from his horrific, yet still artistic mind. The peach of the batch was a white, plastic mask called "Faces" that covers the upper part of your face and, while simple in construction, held a great deal of detail and intensity. I'm still seeing pictures of this piece posted today, so I hope they are still selling it somewhere! This year, Clive went straight for the jugular with three Cenobite creations to round out an extended Hellraiser universe! As the topic is "quick fix costumes", I'll first mention that these creations take very little extra leg work to form a complete costume. The "Scorn Cenobite" and "Flay Face Cenobite" require only your best goth pants, boots, and perhaps an ominous black trench coat to complete the effect. Each kit comes with a
mask and stretchy top with the art printed right on it. The Scorn also comes with some vacu-form plastic weapons to slide into your flayed belly slits. From a distance, the effect far exceeds anything else on the market you can throw on in under 30 minutes. For the ladies, there is the "Tormented Nurse" and the "Hooker Cenobite", which honestly is not the most inspired name for a denizen of pleasure hell. One would assume there are plenty of hooker Cenobites down there already. The Nurse may not blow your hair back (as we expect more from a costume with Clive's name on it), but the Hooker has some sinister elements you can work with, or expand on with a flesh-less arm deco, perhaps? Just take note that the head piece on this one is vacu-formed and not very well constructed, so you would do well to add some padding behind it, lest you look like you've been wearing a crown of thorns after. Both require footwear. I expect some Barker fans will be hunting for the "Scorn Cenobite" kit on sale after our high holy holiday, if not to just put that sucker up on the wall!
For the rest of the world who need little excuse to dress up, but have no time and are looking for something a little less severe, we've got the following solutions.
Disguise's H2Go line is tailor made for the pop culture enthusiast (aka mega dork) looking to throw on a shirt and mask and get the drinks flowing as quickly as possible. Consider these the "costume in a box" kits from our youth, only more comfortable and not made of that plastic they construct dollar store table cloths from! A quick look on the Disguise website will reveal designs for Bert and Ernie, Cobra Commander, Nightmare Before Christmas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel Super Heroes and more. Each look generally involves donning a shirt and mask / head piece and you are free and clear for a night of debauchery as a character that is clearly not meant to be doing the dirty things you are planning.You are shaking your head. You say you've worked a long day and if you are going to fight your way through traffic to a decent party, your costume needs to be as simple as is humanly possible. How does an option where you don't even have to fix your hair grab you??!! Dig on Disguise's D Composed line! These are beanie hats with sculpted elements to turn you into a devil, zombie, werewolf or Frankenstein monster with just a tug over your extra large cranium. The most intricate is the Werewolf which includes a snout, while the rest range from ever so slightly cumbersome to "you won't even know you are wearing it after 3 drinks." These should be a big hit at year round horror conventions, so a note to vendors...stock up!
Putting on store bought items doesn't mean you can't be creative! To show you just how versatile these lines are, we brought in our Halloween expert Heather Buckley who created some mash ups we expect to see repeated at the hottest parties in LA tomorrow. She's quite the trend setter. My favorite of the bunch employs the Scorn Cenobite mask with the Cookie Monster hairpiece to form a creation I dubbed "COOOOOKIE HELLLLLL..Nom Nom Nom"!!! Second runner up is FrankenCap..with the obvious mash-up of Captain America and the Frankenstein beanie. The point here being that the only limit is your imagination. Disguise offers a wide range of comfortable and inexpensive costume options, so hit those last minute sales and create your own Sesame Street Cenobite today!!
