My Halloween costume this year was Shaun.
Based on a co-worker's brilliant suggestion, I seized on this idea because it had the perfect blend of cult popularity, relative rarity, and ease of execution -- by which I mean, the costume components and props were easily obtained and/or duplicated, and the makeup would be comparatively minimal.
Plus, I decided early enough so that I had enough time to grow out my whiskers a bit. The hair ... well, not so much. But I think it worked.
Step 1: the props
The cricket bat took the most time. I first considered buying one, but used models are a little scarce in the Pacific NW. A few folks generously offered to let me borrow one, but I had to get the thing bloody, and my co-worker found an
DIY cricket bat instructable, so I chose that route. I tweaked the design a bit to make mine look a little less blocky, and was happy with the way it turned out. Maybe 90 minutes time invested.
Bloodied it up with a little paint, and it was ready to smash up some zombie head.
The nametag was a cinch. The dude with the cricket bat instructable also
created a replica of Shaun's nametag, which I printed on some photo paper and stuck in a pin-on holder. Viola!
Step 2: the hair
For reference, here's who I was trying to look like:
Here's a progression of images to show what I did.
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| L to R: before, during, and after, dying my hair. |
The ammonia smell of the dye in my beard and moustache just about knocked me out, but the color took perfectly on the first try!
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| L to R: before and after trimming the goatee. |
I hadn't groomed my whiskers since growing them out, and it felt great.
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| L to R: before and after on the coiffure, and a close-up of the final version. |
Didn't have quite enough hair, but I did what I could.
And then some final touches, because what's a zombie slayer without a bit of blood'n'gunk on him?
Step 3: the clothes
A trip to Marshall's and I had a red stripey tie close enough to read as the real thing, and a shirt ready to be bloodied up with some zombie gore (Shaun's costume gets progressively bloodier and dirtier through the film, and I was going for the advanced stages). The rest of the costume was generic: black pants, shoes, and belt, which I already have.
Discovered that the color of the hair dye, once it was ready to be washed out of my hair, was the exact rust color of soaked-in blood ... so I did most of the staining by rubbing the dye out of my hair, and also spattered some paint on for good measure.
Step 4: putting it all together
Left: makeup and costume. Right: practicing the confused, aggreived expression Shaun wears for most of the film.
Hmm, I need to give it some more work. I look like a homicidal maniac:
Here's a side-by-side, in the pose from the movie poster ...
Ready to PARTAY.
I went to a co-worker's costume party first and had drinks with the likes of Dick Tracy, Breathless Mahoney, Drew Carey and Mimi, a few gnomes, and a couple covered in brown fabric (he had horns and she had a halo and wings; they were "bullshit" and "holy shit," respectively) ... then headed over to an LJ-heavy party at Big Jeff's place, whereupon I was immediately beset by Olaf, King of ... Gnomes? Fairies? Trolls?
Anyway, a mighty battle was fought. At some point during the fracas we managed to exchange weapons.
I didn't have a camera, but several folks there did ... these are pretty much for my reference.
Here are links to:
Culled from the above, here are some of my favorites from the party (um, plenty of adult humor herein ... some might be locked for precisely this reason):
- Our host, Walter Sobchak (Big Jeff)
- Me, about to whack a furry (Andrea).
- Betsy and Steve, the quintessential 80s couple.
- Erin and Nicole, celebrating the creation of a new drink, the Sandy River Gang Bang. Erin easily won the most creative costume contest, as the Urban Growth Boundary.
- A priest and a boy scout, doing what they do.
- The pirate's harem (Jeff, Sandi, Noe, Erin, Nicole, B).
- Olaf's about to GO DOWN.
- Olaf and the priest about to GO DOWN.
- Erin's about to GO DOWN on the priest.
- Betsy kissing Kris, Kris kissing Erin, and Erin kissing Nicole. I get invited to the best parties.
- Jeff considers the spank potential of the bat ... when Bliccy approaches.
- Exploring this idea, Sandi spanks Betsy, and Betsy returns the favor.
- Sandi says to Jeff, "I'd hit that."
- Noe and Erin licking my ... bat. Note to self: bring cricket bat to EVERY PARTY.
OK, that's enough. I need to get rid of this hangover. Happy Halloween, everyone.
accomplished
