For as many monsters as there were lurking amidst both the darkness and light of this park, they did an appealing job in the costume department. It’s not easy making monsters look this good in a short amount of time!
Killer Klowns: This year, the clowns have stepped up their game with more complete costumes, brighter colors, added accessories, and more skin coverage. Collectively, they were the best costumes in the park! A few of these clowns were downright scary to look at!
A mind-bending mixture of masks and makeup was utilized. We saw several clowns donning masks we’d never seen before. One of which was a grungy skull with clown paint on it, and another had an articulating jaw! Quite a colorful makeup pallet added details, such as candy corn and staggered colors around the eyes, striped necks, and exposed teeth.
Every color in the rainbow was applied to some of these clowns, and we loved it! They all had their unique flavor, too (don’t eat them; we hear they taste funny). Besides the twins, Toodles and Doodles, who were dressed nearly identically (and cleverly so), each clown looked a lot different. We noticed colorful pom poms, hair bows, patches, multi-colored hair, and paint on jumpsuits in shapes, splatters, and even a smiley face. Layered details such as hats, ruffles, clackers on gloves, horns protruding from the head, bow ties on necks, and weapons increased realism. One clown pulled a stretchy booger out of their nose! Now, that’s how you disgust guests with your costume!
Phobia: For the last few years, we’ve always had a bloody butcher greet us outside Phobia, and this year was no different. He had a lot more blood splattered on him this year, though! This attraction is very dark in areas, making it harder to see details, but they’re not always needed.
Most of the costumes we set our eyes on matched the areas we encountered them in. Sneaky stalkers in dark cloaks perfectly blended into the shadows, and they got us every time! Most costumes that we noticed fit into their scenes well. Doctor Death was certainly a stand-out with a super sinister look. Several distorted masks with words written on them creepily floated through the rooms. We also noticed a floating alien face that stood out and someone who appeared to have gotten into a fight with a meat grinder; they had some sort of small bones protruding from their face. Yikes! Sorry, we couldn’t tell what was sticking out of their bloody skin, but we got further from them as they got closer to us!
Temple of Terror: The Temple is another attraction where it’s harder to capture all the details due to its dark habitat. However, a lot of what we saw matched the environment well. Some costumes featured more distressing and finer details, while others appeared bare or untouched. A leather western duster on a demon, plain black clothing, and a black and white t-shirt took us out of the environment a bit.
There were a few get-ups that helped immerse us into the Temple’s environment. Melvin’s outfit seemed fitting for a mine shaft; the dark cloaks blended in well, a beaked mask and airbrushed features worked well together, and an archaeologist with a canteen and hat were a few of the standouts. We noticed mostly makeup inside, consisting of warmer colors, several sets of horns protruding from heads, and symbols. There’s a costume in here that you won’t see until it’s too late, and it’s been consistently getting scares for years!
Middletown Haunted Trail: Many denizens were dwelling along the paths of the trail, offering quite an array of looks. Most of them were humanistic, but a few other fiends were mixed in as well.
All costume pieces we noted appeared to have some sort of alteration. Whether it be distressing, rips, tears, blood splatters, added grunge, or poop (yep), no costume seemed to be obviously store-bought or untouched. The makeup also matched the outfits well (and scenes). Often, if there were large rips and tears, the characters had large gouges, scratches, or open wounds. We saw other unique touches, such as drawings on the skin, symbols, a spider, and airbrushed features that stood out in the lighting. In one area, glowing makeup, paint, and even hair made it obvious this character had been wallowing in some sort of UV substance. Amongst the nastiest things we saw was a very startling nun with blood dripping from her mouth all over her clothing. Her whited-out eyes gave her quite the disturbing stare, too. Just from looking at her, we knew not to sin… at least not for a few seconds.
Many masks were used that also added to the characters. Varying burlap monsters were aplenty, including a pig with tusks! Some of these masks had long hair, while others varied in color and shape, differentiating them. Michael Myers had the signature mask (although the black around the eye holes was a bit odd), a shiny knife, a proper jumpsuit, and perfect stature!
The witch area had some of the most elaborate costumes, and the asylum and steampunky area by the actual fire. Carefully applied makeup, headdresses, props, staffs, and weapons added realism. We even noted some costume accessories with lights inside! Tattered clothing and flannel seemed the norm, but we also encountered more unique getups. Additional standouts include the black leather outfit in the graveyard, the duo on the bridge, the harmonica player, and the puppeteer on stilts at the finale. Although effective, there were a lot of milk jugs this go-around. Could some of these characters get something to shake that matches their costumes better?
Dr. Psycho’s Haunted Estate: You just never know who or what you may come across when encountering “the good doctor.” For the most part, we saw many patients and workers. Some could be past patients, as one appeared to be a ghost with a flowing grey dress.
Although adhering to this theme is fairly simple for this category, we still saw some unaltered pieces that seemed out of place, such as the bright white earbuds someone was wearing and the black Nike track pants in the infirmary. More layering, distressing, and appropriate medical uniforms would help bring this score up.
Beta, Patient Zero, and Patient 23 had full costumes on and were some standouts. Of course, the doctor himself was fully fleshed out with lots of liquid all over him and all in his long beard (gross!). He also had wet hair and gross teeth. He clearly had been digging worms out of his current patient for quite some time, and his assistant also looked the part. We saw some super sharp teeth, darkened eyes, a security outfit, additional fresh blood, veiny makeup, and frizzy hair that helped add dimension to these characters, but adding more unique features would help bring more immersion and believability.
Dysphoria: The costumes we stumbled upon in Dysphoria were, uh… erm, different. There weren’t a lot of characters here, but they seemed similar to one another except for one. Interestingly enough, they wore primarily white clothing with lots of blood splatter and some distressing that made them look worn. However, the meanest of them all wore a dark work uniform, making him stand out, and for good reason. If you see one that looks different from the others, run!
Between the masks used and the style, it gave us sort of a hillbilly v. Purge vibe. There was a facial mask with “God” on the forehead. We noticed what appeared to be some burlap creations here, too. Grandma was indeed wearing (or not* wearing) her Sunday best! An unnerving mask encountered here, too, was an iteration reminiscent of Momo.
We would also like to point out a few looks in the midway area. From a well-dressed female Pyramid head dragging a giant knife behind her, Art the Clown, a zombie that had been shot and clearly just rolled out from beyond the grave, a patient, and a possessed lady roaming about on her mobile mattress, the costumes in the queue area will make you want to take photos with them!
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