2025 Horror Movie Halloween Costumes You Can Put Together With Very Little Effort

The second Amy Madigan's Aunt Gladys stepped onto the screen in Zach Cregger's Weapons, a new style icon was born, nabbing herself a prequel before the box office-busting horror hit was even out of cinemas. Although drag artists around the world have you beat on style, it's easy enough to put together an accurate Aunt Gladys costume with minimal effort, and you don't even need to kidnap seventeen children to do so. All you need is to raid your local thrift store for a hideously clashing sweatsuit and some oversized glasses, head to Party City for a garish orange wig, smear your lipstick and you're good to go. Bonus points for carrying around a bowl of water and some twigs all night.

With only 11 days left until Halloween, unless you have some contacts in a costume department, you're probably not going to be able to source an authentic 19th-century ballgown fit for a princess. However, if you're wanting to pay homage to Emilie Blichfeldt's stomach-churning body horror The Ugly Stepsister, thankfully there's a much easier, more revolting way to do so. We've spared you a pic of the offending bug here, but if you've seen The Ugly Stepsister, you'll remember the film's jaw-droppingly disgusting pièce de résistance in which the titular stepsister, Elvira, vomits up a tangled mess of tapeworm that she's been harboring in her stomach as a way to achieve a snatched waist. With no facial features, limbs or any other intricate details, dressing up as a tapeworm couldn't be easier. You don't even have to go full Heidi Klum – just wrap yourself up in saran wrap and toilet paper, throw a crown on your head as a nod to Elvira's noble dreams, and you're good to go.

It may have been released in the summer of 2025, but 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle's highly-anticipated sequel to the zombie horror classic 28 Days Later, has a bunch of low-effort Halloween costumes among its motley crew of plague survivors. If you're feeling confident enough, you could go as Samson the Alpha (but maybe nowhere in public), or even the Bone Temple itself if you're feeling brave (note: we very much do not advise dressing as Jack O'Connell's Sir Jimmy Crystal – ask your British friends why that's a terrible idea). But the easiest option among them all is definitely Ralph Fiennes' Dr Kelson, a former medical practioner who has been exiled by the rest of the Holy Islanders due to his tendency to paint himself with iodine and play around with corpses. All you need for a convincing Dr Kelson is a dirty tank top, a (fake) skull and something to orange yourself with. Don't have gallons of iodine to spare? Fear not, as diluted watercolor paint could work just as well – just make sure it's non-toxic and skin friendly.

Wanna make a tech bro real mad this Halloween? Grab yourself a pink headband, some pink shorts and a pink shirt – then douse yourself in fake blood galore for the ultimate fuck you to patriarchal ‘ideals' of femininity, as demonstrated perfectly by scream queen Sophie Thatcher in Drew Hancock's tech-thriller Companion. If you can learn a little German before you hit the party, that'll make your Iris even more authentic.

Now, you may be asking, “how the hell am I supposed to attend a party or Halloween event dressed as the ghost from Steven Soderbergh's supernatural POV horror Presence when the titular presence never even appears on screen and is entirely invisible to both the characters of the film and the viewers of it too?!” Easy.  Just don't show up.

Jaume Collet-Serra's The Woman in the Yard is one of the creepier ‘metaphorrors' of the last few years, thanks in part to Okwui Okpokwasili's eerily understated performance as the titular Woman, who sets up camp in a family's yard for seemingly sinister reasons. Dressing as The Woman for Halloween is not only seasonly appropriate (draped in black is always a chic and classic look for the season), but also incredibly easy. Get yourself a floor-length black dress from your local thrift store and a black veil (or even just a piece of long, lacy fabric) and you're ready to sit at the party looking ominous. The best part? You don't even need to wear any makeup or paint because your face is completely covered!

Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth expanded the canon of terrifying sci-fi horror creatures with a whole new roster of freaks battling the Xenomorph for the crown of Most Horrifying Intergalactic Being. Trypanohyncha ocellus, aka the Eye Alien, is up there as one of the most skin-crawling creepy crawlies this side of the Facehugger, and, when living inside of a poor unsuspecting sheep host, is lightyears easier of a costume to pull off than anything else in the Alien universe. Sheep costumes are ten a penny on Amazon, and if you're not in the business of supporting Bezos, you can still craft something convincing with a black long sleeve, cotton balls and a dream. As for the eye, may we direct you to friend of Fango Dr. Rebekah McKendry, who may have already won Halloween with her take on T. Ocellus already.

As is standard for all games in the survival horror series, Silent Hill f has no shortage of horrifying monsters that, with more time and dedication, you could make a kickass cosplay out of (Oi-omoi, anyone?) Unfortunately, you have neither of those things, which is why you're reading this list. But never fear – you can still show off your love for Silent Hill f relatively easily by throwing together an outfit representative of the game's protagonist, Hinako Shimizu. If you can't get your hands on an authentic Japanese school uniform, a navy blue skirt and sailor-style shirt, or even just a red bandana fashioned as a tie, will do just fine. Grab a rusty steel pipe and you're good to go.

Not only did the Philippou Brothers' sophomore feature Bring Her Back make the once-innocent fruit of cantaloupe an object of eye-watering horror, it also made Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins, Paddington‘s adopted MOTHER no less, one of the most poisonous villains in a year that's pretty chock full of them. If you'd like to give the parents in your friendship group nightmares by dressing as Laura, your best option is to pick her totally inappropriate funeral fit – all you'll need is a purple cardigan, oversized hoop earrings and tinted sunglasses. And maybe a demon-summoning VHS tape for good measure.

As we mentioned, while you should very much not dress as Jack O'Connell in 28 Years Later (unless you want some incredibly awkward conversations at the Halloween party punchbowl), you absolutely should pay homage to his other best role of 2025, the vampiric Remmick from Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Vampire costumes are a seasonal staple not just because of their iconic symbolism within horror, but also because of how easy they are to put together – fake fangs, fake blood and boom, done. To distinguish yourself as the Irish bloodsucker, just add a white shirt, suspenders and some red contact lenses. Plus a banjo if you're feeling extra musically inclined.

While the FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards may be over for another year, if we had to put money on next year's Best Performance winner, it's looking likely that a non-human star could take the crown for the first time ever. Ben Leonberg's Good Boy has blessed the horror world with one of its bravest, most adorable protagonists of all time, and thankfully it's relatively easy to dress as him for Halloween, too. Sure, dog costumes are easy enough to come by, but Indy isn't just any old regular mutt – he's a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, evident by his glossy, strawberry-blond fur and perfectly boopable snout. In fact, slightly altering a fox costume might get you closer to perfectly capturing Indy's color scheme, but the real key to acing an Indy outfit is by being a kind, loyal buddy to your besties, and protecting them from all the ghosts that'll be out wandering on All Hallow's Eve.

If you did a Longlegs costume justice last year and want to keep the Oz Perkins momentum going, sadly we don't really have enough on Keeper, his latest NEON nightmare, to go on. Thankfully, The Monkey, this year's Stephen King-based comedy-horror splatterfest, has you covered. Sure, you could grab yourself a toy drum, red waistcoat and attempt your best simian beat, but a far less complicated option would be to go as Mr. Perkins' cameo himself, the late, great Uncle Chip. Your local thrift will have no shortage of hideous '70s shirts and tinted aviators, then it's just a case of gluing some mutton chops (aka random pieces of fabric) to your cheeks. If you have a few more coins to spare, you could even grab NEON's official Uncle Chip Obituary shirt to pay your respects.

When it comes to mythological monsters, a unicorn is probably the easiest costume to whip together short notice than say, a dragon or a manticore. While they're not usually traditional Halloween fare (save those My Little Pony looks for the cons!), A24's creature feature Death of a Unicorn from earlier this year features the titular beast in a more violent, bloody role appropriate for the season. All you'll need is a headband, some fake fangs, some cardboard or felt to form the horn, and an abundance of fake blood.