Story highlights
Every Halloween, horror fans take the opportunity to scare others stiff
Now, hardcore Halloween aficionados are creating horrifying new costumes
Oh no! Is... Is that woman's face coming unzipped?!
I think I'm going to be sick...
Still think Halloween is just for the kids? You won’t – not when you’ve seen CNN’s gut-twisting, down-right disgusting mob of morbid maniacs.
It’s that time of year when revelers can let loose with their desire to shock. Getting dressed up ready to terrorize friends, family and strangers in the street has long been the goal for the holiday – but a few partiers are taking it to another level, with masterfully executed, Hollywood-standard disguises.
This Halloween, CNN Celebrates challenged you to scare us stiff. And iReporters from across the globe delivered – with a ghoul’s gallery of ghastly getups, macabre makeup, and grotesque prosthetics, guaranteed to cause some sleepless nights .
This Halloween, there’ll be tricks…
“What is a Halloween costume if not to be scary?” asked 26-year-old Californian Amada Kroon, whose ripped-off flesh makeup shocked and turned stomachs.
Jennifer Kirkland, an amateur paranormal investigator from Kentucky, agrees:
“I love scaring people!” She says. “For my costume, I wanted something that would send grown men running to their mommas.”
Read: Hogwarts fan? Follow the trail of real witches
Her creation “Sightless” succeeded – a blood-dripping horror with gouged-out eyes, which she turned on unsuspecting visitors at Devine’s Haunted Corn Maze in Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
There’s a perfect form of trickery and illusion required to create a properly adult scare – although, children and (ahem) dogs aren’t afraid to get involved – but Kirkland says the secret behind truly terrifying outfits is all too simple:
“I think the more realistic the costume is, the better. Sure, vampires and zombies are cool, but what is really freaky are the costumes that are basically normal people, but with some type of creepy or disturbing element added.”
…and treats
But there’s more to the night than shock and disgust. For Jeff Wickliffe (a photographer for 364 days a year – Pirate Zombie for October 31st) it’s an outlet for his gruesome creativity:
“I’m a creative person and Halloween allows me to let my imagination run wild and display it in a very public way that can’t be done the rest of the year,” he says. “It’s a chance to change into someone else entirely and take a vacation from yourself and enjoy being a character for a night or more”
Read: New Yorkers get their nerd on at Comic Con
For others, Halloween holds the opportunity to get together and share in the scares: whether in a family group (like the gloriously grizzly, undead Rausch family), or in a terrifying mass with Berlin’s Zombie Walk mob.
There, hundreds of undead tricksters gathered together – ready to groan, share their common interests (like braaaains), trudge menacingly through sightseeing spots, and dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
And, in the true spirit of the holiday, scare strangers to death.