Twitter
Facebook
Reddit
Digg
Tell us what you think!Send a letter to the editor about this or any other article in The Maine Campus.
Whether they’re telling a story, making a statement or just having a good time, University of Maine students always have some interesting threads to show off on Oct. 31.
With Halloween night drawing near, students are making final adjustments to their clever costumes. One student is finishing an outfit replicating Dr. Frank N. Furter from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” while one couple is finding a way to turn Marilyn Monroe and James Dean into zombies. But it’s not all about being scary; costumes are equal parts fun and fright.
Sophomore Heather Young is taking the “lazy” route this Halloween – murderer.
“I’m just going to be a murderer because I wasn’t that creative and I bought a pint of fake blood and wondered what to do with it.”
Young hopes to benefit lame attempts at costumes, people “dressed up” as registered voters or average citizens, by squirting blood on them and transforming them into her “victims.”
Junior Tiffany Rackley will pay homage to a film that worships dressing up: “I’m going as Dr. Frank N. Furter because he is my favorite character in the movie and I can act out the song ‘Sweet Transvestite’ like it’s no one’s business.”
Rackley will attend Husson University’s popular annual midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Rackley’s father attended midnight screenings and regaled her with tales when she was young. “I would think of how much fun it would be if I was alive back in the 70s and also going to the shows, and now I have the chance to.”
On a night where zombies, ghosts, witches and warlocks haunt the streets, some may be too chicken to go out. Not Stephanie Shaw, who will in fact dress up like a chicken herself.
“I got a paper bag, and I painted it white, added some feathers and some felt. That is the hat,” Shaw said. “I’ll wear some white billow chicken-like clothes, and I also bought some striped socks and a white boa. I’m going to cut a white feather boa and put it around my ankles.”
Amongst all the basic Halloween costumes at any given party, there seems to always be one person who goes above and beyond in terms of dedication and creativity.
Josh Firman is that guy – he once dressed up as a man in a shower.
“He had on a towel and a shower cap, and there was a pole sticking up with a circular piece above his head,” said Shaw, who witnessed the unique individual. “A polka dot shower curtain was draped around him. He had a hard time moving around, but it was awesome.”
In terms of creativity and cleverness, it’s hard to surpass second-year student Anthony Babb’s costume from last Halloween.
He went as a pirate – not Johnny Depp’s definition but a new-age, technological version, a CD pirate.
“Luckily, my friend had about a hundred junk Windows XP CDs that he didn’t need anymore. I sewed a bunch of them to my coat and dressed as a pirate,” Babb said. “It took me about three hours to sew all of them on, making sure they would stay on throughout the day.”
Perhaps his costume was a little too hard to make sense of. “Only a few people got it. Everybody else thought I was a CD case or something. Some people still didn’t get it even after I told them,” Babb said.
Young knows a potential “that guy” of this Halloween – her sophomore friend Evans Goff, who will dress as a magic eight-ball.
“He already kind of looks like an eight-ball,” she said. Goff shaved his head to support his mother undergoing chemotherapy, according to Young. “Everybody had been rubbing it and shaking it and pretending it was a magic eight-ball beforehand, so he said ‘Why not go as one?’”
Sharon Levasseur is so dedicated to providing a good scare that she decided to not only outfit herself, but her horse as well. Levasseur, assistant director of marketing for Campus Recreation, and her horse, Zephyr, embodied the Headless Horseman and his phantom steed, terrifying the unlucky souls who dared to walk the haunted trail at the Rec Center last night.
“We dressed in all black, and we galloped out of the darkness dragging a ‘dead body’ past the paying customers’ group. I also held a glowing pumpkin head under my arm for added effect,” Levasseur said.
Halloween is indeed a favorite holiday for some.”I’m pagan. It’s the best holiday ever,” Young said. “The idea of dressing up so spirits can’t get you, it’s great.”
The Anime Club will indulge in an evening of cosplay, or masquerading as a variety of anime characters, according to sophomore Curtis Porter, who will dress as a character from “Vampire Knight.”
Rackley feels Halloween gives everyone a good excuse to act like a kid again.
Shaw said the fun atmosphere of Halloween inspires her to dress up every year. “It’s the only time you can dress up like whatever you want to, and it is generally considered acceptable.”
