With Halloween fast approaching, I decided to do a little research and explore what will be some of the most popular choices worldwide for dressing up options come October 31st. The 5 most obvious trends that stood out to me will be available for you to buy and dress as wherever you are, on the Internet, in your local costume shop or party store. Each is part of an official costume range and is taken from film and TV, with the first, well over 20 years old!
Edward Scissorhands
Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands was released in cinemas in the US on December 6th 1990. At the time of writing, that’s over 2 decades since eyes were first laid upon the Johnny Depp character on the big screen. Google Trends shows that searches for Edward Scissorhands have increased throughout the month of October leading to Halloween night for the last 3 years consecutively. This suggests, that even if searches have already peaked, it will still be a popular costume for both men and women to transform themselves into again this year. To coincide with the large amount of searches on Google, a women’s Edward Scissorhands costume has been designed and created and is readily available worldwide. This will be a popular costume for Halloween. Fact.
The Walking Dead
TV show The Walking Dead first aired on television network AMC in the States on Halloween night 2010. Since then, ratings for the show have more than doubled, proving to be the biggest hit in the history of the cable channel. At the time of writing, over on IMDB, The Walking Dead is the 35th highest rated TV show in all of television. It’s ranked against all other shows that have received at least 5,000 votes. Out of the 35, It’s 1 of maybe, 5 shows that are actually still on the air currently. The popularity of the series is massive. The fourth season is due to start just before Halloween in America. This will lead to zombies everywhere as a costume choice. Men, women and children. Although there is a generous range of official masks, make-up kits and costumes available, the real crux of the popularity that will carry it through this Halloween season is that people can throw on any undead costume and claim to be a Walking Dead zombie. With zombie doctors, nurses and a pretty cool looking Rick Grimes costume, the official range will be popular, however, I feel zombie costumes in general, will be massively popular again this year. The proclivity to take some old clothes and tear them about and drench them in stage blood will definitely be a solid low cost dressing up option.
The Hobbit, Peter Jackson’s follow-up to The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, saw the first episode, An Unexpected Journey released in the US on December 14th 2012. Following the wave of fanatic support for LOTR, The Hobbit was always going to be a monster hit, and it was, as expected. According to Google Trends, searches for The Hobbit increased about tenfold following the release of the film. The books were always popular pieces of literature but the big screen editions appear to have reinvigorated the brand and breathed life back into the JRR Tolkien franchise. With 2 more Hobbit movies still to come out, and since the first was received so well, the anticipation of the next will be fresh in the minds of fans, and will surely lead to a common appearance of Hobbits’ trick-or-treating and attending Halloween parties this October. With more Hobbit costumes available for kids than adults, you’ll likely see home-made Hobbit costumes among adults while the kids will be decked out in the official outfits when trick-or-treating. Regardless, we’re digging the official range in the Jokers’ Masquerade offices and feel it does look authentic and worth a look.
With the release of Man Of Steel on June 19th 2013, it was the first Superman movie in around seven years. It’s pretty obvious that mass appeal of the character will inspire many to dress like Superman this Halloween. Especially with the costume change, it’ll mean most that wish to transform into Clark Kent’s alter ego will probably go out and get the new style outfit. According to Box Office Mojo, Man of Steel is currently the 4th biggest grossing movie of 2013. With a worldwide gross of about $650 million dollars, at the time of writing, Zack Snyder’s big screen modernisation of one of the world’s most famous superheroes has proven to be a big money spinner for Warner Bros. Pictures. The DVD and Blu-ray for Man of Steel are due to be released around October. With the advertising promotion coinciding with this, it’ll be sure to inspire people to dress like ma and pa Kent’s baby boy. The official Man of Steel costume range looks wonderfully unique in the new styling and the men’s deluxe muscle padded version will likely be popular for the guys heading out to a costume party.
The 1976 horror film Carrie, based on the novel by Stephen King has received the big budget remake treatment and will be released shortly after this coming Halloween. The timing is perfect for it to be topical and offer inspiration for women to dress up as lead character Carrie White. The paperback version of King’s Carrie novel sold over a million copies in it’s first year on sale. In 1976, the film starring Sissy Spacek generated over $30 million dollars giving the film studio a massive return on it’s investment of the film’s relatively low budget. The new film should generate enough publicity to ensure it’ll be on the minds of women seeking costume ideas. Obviously, the official Carrie costume would not be for every woman with the gore factor being quite high, however, for the right girl, this blood soaked prom gown is delightfully striking. It really is more than perfect for a Halloween party. I have a hunch Carrie costumes will be popular when the witching hour arrives. I’ll certainly be surprised if this isn’t the case.
