Okay so I thought I'd post my pics of my costume up on this so that maybe curiosity would bring people to my blog... which is shameless and sad but that's the way it goes. But I did post it right at the top so you don't need to read this unless you want to see the detail that went into it (even if nobody likes this costume you can at least see the work I put into it). By the way, taking a picture of myself with all that shit on, pain in the ass, that's why it didn't turn out so great. So firstly the inspiration for my costume came from many different sources; mainly a horror movie that I rented at the video store in early October called
Trick 'r Treat and in this movie was a pint-sized patron of Halloween called Sam, who oversees Halloween traditions or something. But I decided that the burlap mask with an exaggerated smile was the way to go. It's very strange I made many changes to the costume (he is on the cover of the movie so you can look at Amazon) but it actually ended up to be almost identical to the Sam from the director's (Michael
Dogherty) short film that inspired the movie. It's just a coincidence, I didn't see the short film until the cowl was done, but it's funny to me that all the ways I reverse engineered it were the ways that they improved it for the movie.
But anyway, I call this costume "The Bad Man" and as I hope to spray paint it on the costume just as some sort of sacrilege to this character. I had a few people asking me what it was and I didn't know how to explain it, but then I thought of a back story for this creation. Thinking back to a T-Shirt Hell shirt that said, "I'm here to kill you, you should have kept that chain letter going" I decided to make this guy the guy who comes and kills you when you throw out chain letters. To me that's just a hilarious idea! But when I was making the concept sketches I was going for a combination of the Sam mentioned before and Scarecrow from Batman Begins but I wanted to make it my own creation. Now inevitably things change from when you have an idea and when it's finished; so if you think this looks like Jason Vorhees from Friday the 13th: Part II I really can't disagree with you, but that's just sort of how it turned out.
Okay so above are the stockade style handcuffs, I didn't want real handcuffs because I wanted this to have the overall feel of vigilante justice, no trial just judge-jury-executioner. I also wanted to make sure their weren't any sort of racial connotations as some might attribute to someone being hung; this isn't supposed to be any sort of message, just a scary costume. I think that handcuffs would show that he did something wrong (or someone thought he did) and not just some random violent act. It also speaks to the idea of he's a perceived threat still even while being hung. Me and my Dad decided to use oak since we had some there. The table saw cuts were easy enough but then cutting the circles proved to be like cutting fucking diamonds, we first thought we could just eyeball it and trace circles but the first piece was disastrous. We then decided to measure it; my wrists have room to breathe with 2.5" in diameter; the board was 13" (creepy) so 2.5 x 2= 5 13-5=8 so 2" from each edge and 4" between the hands.
Here's the noose; it's like a faux-manila rope but it was a little thicker than manila and didn't look too shabby unless you were really close. We walk in the hardware store and the clerk asks us, "How much do you guys need... let me guess you're making a noose, right?" We were sort of surprised and the guy asks how big it needs to be and how much hanging off at the end. Now I've had practically auditions for people to tie the noose since I can't do it; and this guy whips a perfect noose faster than most people tie their shoes. He then undid it and went to write up the length and ticket and saw us with our jaws still hanging down and he asked, "Do you want me to tie it again?" "Sure," I said. I thought it was best not to ask how he was so good at tying nooses, but I did ask what he thought I should do to make sure I don't accidentally get hung and he put a finishing nail into the knot so it wouldn't slide. If it's up to me I'd like to not actually be lynched on Halloween.
Here is the cowl that my aunt sewed for me, as you can see there is a menacing smile and one of the eyes is cut out; it couldn't have turned out better. Note there is a lining too, so I don't have to have burlap on my face... which would suck! But we were considering dirtying it up by putting it in a bag with coffee grounds but it was good enough as it was so we left it. I also considered finding a hat but then it would be exactly like Scarecrow from the Batman comics. I also put my mind into The Bad Man and I realized he's so revenge crazed he hasn't completely gotten out of his hand cuffs or the mask; he wouldn't probably be looking for a hat, his priorities are revenge, revenge, and revenge!
So I put blood around the eye, so as to show he had to claw or cut out the eye hole and so putting blood around it was the way to go. There is nothing scarier than bloody eyeballs to me so it's a persistent theme in my costumes. I was trying to be conscious of not putting too much blood on his eye, I think people go overkill with the blood in their costumes. If you really think it needs more blood let me know but as it stands I'm pretty content with it. By the way that's a tube of $3.00 fake blood, worth every penny in my opinion. And the jacket I got at the thrift store and washed it... twice!
I decided to paint the clothes because if you go to a costume contest and you have a "unique" costume you are just a free joke for the douche M.C., "And then we have... whatever the fuck this guy is. Ha ha ha ha." I was also thinking it would be creepy if someone spray painted a guy presumably hanging. But my policy is no freebies from me! Now it's very hard to read but this is the best I can get it. Never again in my life will I try to paint fabric with spray paint, this is a one time deal. So I'd like to thank Catie for sewing the cowl, my Dad for the hard cuts and many other things, and the hardware store guy for helping me put this together!
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