Halloween can be downright spooky at times, but it’s still lighthearted enough to be fun and quirky. But the costumes you see your friends buying and making today are a far cry from the nightmare-inducing creations people used to wear in the past.
If you’re looking for inspiration on how to scare the bejesus out of your neighbors and local ghouls, ghosts, and demons, then Bored Panda has you covered. Scroll down for our compilation of the creepiest and scariest vintage Halloween costumes ever. It’s the kind of stuff that haunts you!
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No matter if you’re a huge fan of horror or tend to avoid it, exposing yourself to scary content can have lots of benefits.
For example, it can boost your mood and give you a rush of adrenaline.
On top of that, when you purposefully engage with horror, you also become more resilient and capable of weathering danger in real life.
“We learn something about the dangers of the world. We learn something about our own responses: What does it feel like to be afraid? How much fear can I take?” the director of the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark, Mathias Clasen, told The Washington Post that having fun with horror can be a good tool for learning.
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When you see something that’s scary, get stressed, or find yourself in danger, your body tends to react in one of four ways to maximize your chances of survival, as per WebMD: fight, flight, freeze, or fawn
If you have a chance of defeating the threat outright, for example, your body enters fight mode. If, on the other hand, you stand a better chance of outrunning the danger, you enter flight mode.
Alternatively, you can freeze up. Or you start fawning and try to be overly agreeable and helpful, in order to keep the source of the threat happy.
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Halloween costumes and decorations are strongly affected by the pop culture trends of the time. What’s popular in society that year is likely to find its way into people’s subconscious and affect their choices.
For example, USA Today notes that, based on recent Google search data from September 2025, some of the most popular Halloween costumes this year include characters from the phenomenally popular ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ animated movie on Netflix.
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Popular costume choices this year also include Labubu dolls, Chicken Jockey from ‘Minecraft,’ Elphaba and Glinda from ‘Wicked,’ Hamilton from the musical, well, ‘Hamilton,’ and The Lorax from Dr Seuss’ book and movie.
Other massively enticing costume ideas include Pyramid Head and the creepy nurses from the ‘Silent Hill’ video games, Superman and Supergirl, Wednesday from ‘Wednesday,’ the legendary Lord Farquaad from everyone’s beloved ‘Shrek, and Toothless from ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’
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Now that we more or less know what the costume landscape is going to be like this year, what was the situation earlier?
Time magazine reports that in 2024, some of the most popular costume ideas were Shrunken Head Bob and Delores from ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ Australian breakdancer Raygun, who left a mark in the Olympics in a bizarre way, and CatNap from indie horror video game ‘Poppy Playtime.’
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Back in 2024, other trending costume ideas included Lady Deadpool, who briefly cameoed in Marvel’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ Envy from the Pixar movie ‘Inside Out 2,’ Red from Disney’s movie ‘Descendants: Rise of Red,’ Dr. Droom from Marvel comics, and iconic pop artist Sabrina Carpenter.
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Halloween can be very lucrative for businesses, as 7 out of 10 Americans celebrate the holiday.
According to Statista, consumers based in the United States spent a whopping $12.2 billion for the 2024 Halloween season.
Around $3.8 billion was spent on costumes, and roughly $3.5 billion on candy.
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Statista reports that the majority of American consumers (38%) draw inspiration for their Halloween costumes from the ideas they find online.
However, other major sources of spooky season costume inspiration include retail stores or costume shops (28%), as well as family and friends (20%).
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We’d like to hear your take, Pandas. Which of these nightmarish vintage Halloween costumes genuinely scared you? Which ones do you think were the most horrifying of the bunch?
On a lighter note, who are you planning to dress as this Halloween? Do you tend to go for quirky or scarier characters? Tell us all about how you’re celebrating this year!
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