by L.S. Watts

Created on: October 16, 2009

Many scary Halloween costumes are inspired by horror films, or science fiction. Because of this, many of these costumes are licensed and can be expensive if bought from a store or online shop. However, many of these costumes are simple to make with items you may already have or just buying a few accessories.

Headless Person

This is an inexpensive way for a person to create a scary costume. This is great for kids or adults. This idea has won several costume contests. The cost ranges from $5.00 to $50.00 depending on what you have on hand already. You can use almost any theme with this idea. You could be a headless bride, mad scientist, or chef. The possibilities are endless. There are several ideas for construction at the

Coolest Homemade Costumes website.

Zombie

All you need is a little bit of Halloween makeup and some old clothes to make yourself into the undead. This is one of the more popular homemade scary costumes. It is easy to assemble and apply the makeup. If you are unsure of how to apply zombie make up properly, YouTube has plenty of videos with different techniques that should make your undead look appear realistic.

Scarecrow

Scarecrows are designed to scare off crows that damage crops. They have made it as villains in popular horror films and even a Batman movie. To make your own mask, take a burlap sack and cut out eyes and mouth. Then, using thick black cord, sew the mouth almost closed. You can also use tan cord to create other stitching in the mask for a more frightening appeal. To have the mask shape your head better, you could use a loosened hangman's noose around your neck. This adds to the scary effect.

The clothes are of a personal choice. You could use a flannel shirt and jeans to a suit and tie. You could also wear a trench coat to give a more mysterious look. If you would like you could add some straw hanging out of the cuffs of your sleeves and wear workman's gloves.

Skeleton

You could use a hooded black robe for the outfit or create your own skeleton outfit if you are feeling artsy. Simply paint a skeleton on a black sweat suit with white fabric paint. Some stores carry glow-in-the-dark paint that you can use over the white paint to make it glow when the lights are off. As far as the make up for your face goes, Youtube has a great tutorial that takes you step by step on how to make a full skeletal look or a half face skeletal look.

Vampire

This is a simple costume to assemble. No longer do you have to have capes and blood dripping down your mouth to be a vampire. All you need is a pair of fangs. You don't have to spend a fortune on fangs if you are only going to vamp out on Halloween, but buying a pair that can be used again and again is a better investment. VampFangs.com has great prices on their fangs and they last a long time.

As far as clothing, you can choose your own style of clothes. Whether it be a suit to a dark dress, you really can't go wrong. If you would like to lighten up your skin tone you can use Halloween makeup such as grays and whites but this isn't a necessity. You could also go with the idea of adding glitter to your skin if you are going for the Cullen look from Twilight.

Making your own Halloween costume gives you originality. While everyone is wearing the same store bought costume, you have a creative costume that will stand out above the rest. Besides, why pay high prices when you can do-it-yourself for much less.

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