Heads-up, bookworms: we've got the perfect list of Halloween [1] costumes, just for you. Do you eschew horror movie villains [2]? Would you rather curl up with a bone-chilling scary book [3] than watch any of this year's horror movies [4]? If you answered yes to these questions, join us as we dive into the literary classics of the horror genre. We're sure you'll find the perfect costume between these lines.
Regan MacNeil From The Exorcist
- How to dress, according to the book: William Peter Blatty wrote, "His eyes locked, stunned, on the thing that was Regan, on the creature that was lying on its back in the bed, head propped against a pillow while eyes bulging wide in their hollow sockets shone with mad cunning and burning intelligence, with interest and with spite as they fixed upon his, as they watched him intently, seething in a face shaped into a skeletal, hideous mask of mind-bending malevolence. Karras shifted his gaze to the tangled, thickly-matted hair; to the wasted arms and legs; the distended stomach jutting up so grotesquely; then back to the eyes."
- How to act: I mean, Regan is literally possessed by a nasty demon. Don't go too crazy, but just know the character speaks in many tongues, uses a low, guttural voice, and liberally slings out insults and swear words.
Norman Bates From Psycho
- How to dress, according to the book: Robert Bloch wrote, "Lila turned to stare at the fat, shapeless figure, half-concealed by the tight dress which had been pulled down incongruously to cover the garments beneath. She stared up at the shrouding shawl, and at the white, painted, simpering face beneath it. She stared at the garishly reddened lips, watched them part in a convulsive grimace. 'I am Norma Bates,' said the high, shrill voice. And then there was the hand coming out, the hand that held the knife, and the feet were mincing down the stairs."
- How to act: Bear in mind that the killer in Psycho is Norman Bates dressed up as his mother, Norma Bates. You're a violent, schizophrenic, cold-blooded killer. That should be enough for you.
Annie Wilkes From Misery
- How to dress, according to the book: Stephen King wrote, "She was a big woman who, other than the large but unwelcoming swell of her bosom under the gray cardigan sweater she always wore, seemed to have no feminine curves at all — there was no defined roundness of hip or buttock or even calf below the endless succession of wool skirts she wore in the house (she retired to her unseen bedroom to put on jeans before doing her outside chores). Her body was big but not generous."
- How to act: Annie Wilkes is clearly insane, and she'll do anything to keep her favorite author in captivity. Make demands, feign courtesy and politeness, and unleash your unbridled rage when something doesn't go your way.
Mr. Hyde From The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
- How to dress, according to the book: Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "'He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere; he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point. He's an extraordinary-looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way. No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory; for I declare I can see him this moment.'"
- How to act: Mr. Hyde is the manifested form of the evil side of man. All he does is commit crimes and murder and misdeeds. Make sure you always have that evil gleam in your eye.
Pennywise the Clown From It
- How to dress, according to the book: Stephen King wrote: "It was a clown, like in the circus or on TV . . . the face of the clown in the storm drain was white, there were funny tufts of red hair on either side of his bald head, and there was a big clown-smile painted over his mouth . . . The clown held a bunch of balloons, all colors, like gorgeous ripe fruit in one hand . . . He was wearing a baggy silk suit with great big orange buttons. A bright tie, electric-blue, flopped down his front, and on his hands were big white gloves, like the kind Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck always wore."
- How to act: Pennywise isn't really a clown; he's an ancient, demonic entity, and he'll do anything to lure children to their untimely deaths. Try to toe that line between jovial and maniacal and evil.
The Monster From Frankenstein
- How to dress, according to the book: Mary Shelley wrote, "His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips."
- How to act: The monster in the novel is actually quite smart. He's a tortured creature, so be well-spoken and plagued by unhappiness.
Rosemary Woodhouse From Rosemary's Baby
- How to dress, according to the book: Ira Levin wrote, "Rosemary got out of bed, slid her feet into slippers, and put on the blue-and-white quilted housecoat she had bought for the hospital . . . She then went into the kitchen and, from her knife rack, took the longest sharpest knife — a nearly new carving knife with a curved and pointed steel blade and a heavy bone handle with a brass butt."
- How to act: Rosemary is so paranoid and terrified, and for all the right reasons. Carry that knife around and determine that you'll get to the bottom of your mysteriously vanished child.
Count Dracula From Dracula
- How to dress, according to the book: Bram Stoker wrote, "Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere . . . he moved impulsively forward, and holding out his hand grasped mine with a strength which made me wince, an effect which was not lessened by the fact that it seemed cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead than a living man . . . His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth. These protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed. The chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor."
- How to act: Dracula is creepy but polite. He has a mighty thirst for blood, and he's got a mysterious, unsettling air about him.
Carrie White From Carrie
- How to dress, according to the book: Stephen King wrote, "She was a chunky girl with pimples on her neck and back and buttocks, her wet hair completely without color." He described her dress for the dance as a "crushed-velvet prom gown with its princess waistline, juliet sleeves and simple straight skirt — and her tea roses pinned to her left shoulder." In another passage, her mother says, "I might have known it would be red."
- How to act: Carrie is meek and timid, but if you get on her wrong side, she'll mess you up. Depending on which Carrie you're channeling — before the prom-pig-blood debacle or after — you can be as fragile as a fawn or as vicious and merciless as a lion.
The Invisible Man From The Invisible Man
- How to dress, according to the book: H.G. Wells wrote, "The stranger came early in February . . . carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose . . . his forehead above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his face exposed excepting only his pink, peaked nose. It was bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first. He wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-lined collar turned up about his neck."
- How to act: Be curt, almost to the point of seeming impolite. Don't let anyone touch your bandages, or even your clothes for that matter.