Photo: PrincessFroglips / Flickr

‘SCREAAAAMMMMMM’! If that, or ‘chuckle’ or ‘WTH?’ is the response you want to get when you walk into a friend’s party on 31 October – that’s Halloween for those not in the know – you need to bring your A game with regards to your costume. Fortunately for you, there are a bunch of fantastic costume stores making frighteningly frightfully frightful (yes, that scary) suits you can buy or rent, or if you’re more a DIY kind of person, you can make your costume yourself over several weeks. However, we know some of you are last minuters, so here are simple costumes you can make yourself at home in a hurry.

The super simple, cliché costume

Okay, hands up if you leave your costume ideas to the last minute and are just looking for a quick simple, yet effective costume idea? Yeah, thought so. This isn’t creative, but it still works like a charm – take a sheet, size it properly, and make ghost-shaped slits in the eyes and mouth region. If you want to take it to the next level, use liberal spreadings of red food colouring to suggest you’ve been through a bit of a war.

The super simple, somewhat slick costume

Another trick that isn’t as common and is probably more effective is to find a pair of overalls – orange ideally – as well as handcuffs, white paint/ink and a stencil. Draw a prison number on your costume, clip your handcuffs and rough yourself up a little bit to show up to the party as a death row escapee.

The super simple, lazy costume

If you’re particularly lousy at Halloween fancy dress, or getting ready in time, there is one technique that is widely frowned upon – perhaps more so than the Casper suit. That’s the black suit with black sunglasses Men In Black/Reservoir Dogs look. The only way you’ll save yourself from the lazy yet effective Halloween costume jokes is if you show up with a replica revolver for cinematic effect. Seriously.

Bonus: Light-hearted kid-friendly costumes

When it comes to dressing your kids for Halloween, there’s only so far you can take the whole ‘ghoulish’ theme. When it comes to Halloween costumes for kids, we always recommend you go for a princess-esque theme for little girls, and a superhero theme for little boys. It’s not Halloween fancy dress cutting edge, but we’re talking about our kids here, right?

Do you have any other suggestions for super simple Halloween costumes?

Tags: halloween, Halloween 2010