Published Date: 10-22-25
At CreativeFuture, our ideal Halloween movie would feature lone star ticks in our neighbor’s tinderbox of a backyard. It’s like Jaws, except tinier. You’re going to need a bigger can of tick spray…
We’re a few years from realizing our vision, because right now, we’re focused on something even more horrifying and all too real: massive piracy aided and abetted by Big Tech.
Fortunately, fellow members of the creative community have made numerous horror films in 2025 to entertain us, and they are sure to inspire costumes this Halloween. Here are some of the characters and creatures that have been brought to life by talented costumers, makeup artists, prosthetics designers, special effects technicians, and other professionals.
In addition to refreshing your memory of nightmare-inducing films, we’ll provide DIY costume suggestions you can try this Halloween.
A good mother never stops loving her children. So, what’s wrong with Laura (Sally Hawkins) trying to bring her daughter Cathy (Mischa Heywood) back to life? All it would take is a teensy-weensy sacrifice from Laura’s foster children, Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) and Piper (Sora Wong).
Unfortunately for Piper, her foster brother, Ollie, is at least as terrifying as their foster mom. In a harrowing scene, he gnaws ravenously on a table, shattering several teeth. As Variety reported, the filmmakers created a prop table out of chocolate and balsa wood and gave 12-year-old Phillips a set of dentures with breakaway teeth. The terrifying result will make you think twice before ever agreeing to become a parent yourself.
DIY costume suggestions: chocolate log, fake blood, Grandma’s dentures
M3gan, the deranged robot bodyguard, is back, and she still does not give a damn about her maker, Gemma (Allison Williams). But M3gan is determined to protect Gemma’s niece, Cady (Violet McGraw), from an android assassin named Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno) – especially if it means that M3gan will get to cause carnage along the way.
M3gan is voiced by Jenna Davis, but she is played sometimes by Amie Donald and sometimes by an animatronic puppet. To create M3gan’s faux-innocent doll-like appearance, the filmmakers meticulously designed the eyes so that they appeared to be looking nowhere, as well as carefully timing M3gan’s blinks and other eye movements. Thanks to their wonderful work, you will never know that M3gan is targeting you until it is too late.
DIY costume suggestions: tan dress, white long-sleeved undershirt and tights, blond wig, blue contact lenses, vacant stare (some tequila should help with this part)
It’s so lovely when a couple of many years wants to grow even closer, like Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie). After moving to a charming house in the country, they explore the nearby forest, take a magical nighttime swim inside a cave, and truly start to become one flesh, no matter how many times they saw themselves apart.
Franco and Brie, a real-life couple, used ingenious practical effects in their body horror film. For a bedtime scene, they were able to make it appear that Millie’s hair was slithering down Tim’s throat by gluing Brie’s hair extensions to an invisible mouthpiece worn by Franco. He really sold the scene with his gagging noises, so hold onto your stomach while watching!
DIY costume suggestions: disposable night guard, food-safe glue, your partner’s hair (ask first)
A witch hunt begins when seventeen third graders suddenly disappear. Elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Gardner) thinks her sole remaining student, Alex (Cary Christopher), knows something. But how could he? He has been so busy running errands for Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), a sickly old woman with big glasses, garish makeup, and a red wig.
The makeup artists drew inspiration for Aunt Gladys from many sources, such as Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, and photographs by Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman. They explained their craft and gave costume advice in this podcast interview, which could help you terrify the townsfolk, too, this Halloween.
DIY costume suggestions, courtesy of the film’s makeup artists: colorful pantsuit, red matte lipstick, tinted glasses, red wig
Behind a powerful man, there’s usually a powerful woman – his mother. It was true when Colin Farrell played Alexander the Great, and it remains true when Farrell plays Oz Cobb, known as the Penguin. Now, unlike Alexander (or Farrell himself), Cobb has a face that only a mother could love. But Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) wants her son to conquer Gotham’s underworld. She thinks his horrible face is perfect.
To make the Penguin’s Emmy®-winning look, the prosthetics and makeup team designed a bald cap, scarred cheeks, a beak-like nose, and sharply angled eyebrows. Applying all of it took three hours per day! But it was worth it, because these features helped Farrell make the Penguin someone we love to loathe – and fear.
DIY costume suggestions: fake eyebrows, face-painted scar, leather jacket, New York City accent, and your own lovely mother
A 40-year-old male professional athlete – nearly seven feet tall with eight visible abs and ZERO clothes – might sound like a marvelous sight. Yes, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) is an Alpha… Unfortunately, he’s infected with the rage virus, which turned him into a rabid hunter and grotesquely enlarged his body parts. You won’t believe the number it did on his… his… well, perhaps you should just see the film.
As Lewis-Parry reassured Variety, he wore a prosthetic, er, appendage on set. But he also had to lay off the gym so that Samson’s muscles would look more natural and less deliberately sculpted. Working out for a role is one thing… But skipping the gym? That’s commitment!
DIY costume suggestions: Please don’t.
When Todd (Shane Jensen) needs to recover from some mysterious illness, he can’t think of a better place than his grandfather’s cabin in the woods. It has a dark basement, plenty of old taxidermy videos to watch, and a nearby cemetery… The perfect place to get away with his dog, Indy!
Indy was played by director Ben Leonberg’s retriever, who is really named Indy. As Leonberg explained, he filmed his dog over a period of three years, because he could only hold Indy’s attention for two hours at most each day, even though Indy is quite well trained. Leonberg drew inspiration for his haunted-house film from Poltergeist, where the dog becomes aware of an intruder well before any humans do. Scary!
DIY costume suggestions: plaid shirt, fake blood, bring your dog
Which one is worse – a ravenous 25-foot shark, or the greedy mayor who won’t close the beach during peak tourist season when said shark attacks? Certainly, one looks cooler. Perhaps that is why Officer Brody (Roy Scheider) would rather chase the shark than get a warrant for the mayor’s arrest?
While we would consider a pitch for “Jaws: The Procedural,” we don’t think anyone can surpass what Steven Spielberg achieved in his history-making action thriller, which was just re-released in a 50th anniversary edition. As the production designer recalled, three animatronic models were made for the shark, which came to be known as Bruce. One model was attached to a crane so that it could be pulled out of the water at an angle. And that’s how Bruce unleashed screams around the world.
DIY costume suggestions: striped suit, mayor badge… Wait, you want to be the shark?!
Happy Halloween!
We bet your odds would be better tangling with the Penguin or taking a boat ride through shark-infested waters than working as a creative in today’s Silicon Valley-dominated world.
Fortunately, we can all seek refuge in a gloriously wicked but FICTIONAL film-inspired costume this Halloween. Let’s all show some appreciation for the creatives who have managed to make amazing art, despite the massive online piracy problem that threatens our world-class film industry.
Find legal viewing options for all the above horror films and more at JustWatch, and have a Happy Halloween!
