The night for masquerade fun

By: Bailey McBride

Posted: 10/31/08

Every October, thousands of men, women, college students, and children flock to costume shops across the country to find their ideal Halloween attire. This year, pop tween icons and movie main characters dominate the Halloween scene, along with a wide variety of old favorites.

Many of the most popular costumes this year are characters from television and films, such as the Joker and Batman from "The Dark Knight," Hannah Montana and "High School Musical" characters for children. Classic costumes, such as Jason from the "Friday the 13th" series, vampires, ghosts, angels, devils, and doctors or nurses also remain extremely popular according to an employee from Halloween Express.

The past few years have seen a resurgence of adult interest in the holiday, with adults doing everything from dressing up and throwing more Halloween parties to decorating their homes more, according to Halloween Online, an online magazine dedicated to the holiday.

This interest is clearly seen in Fayetteville, as people in and out of college dress up for parties across town, from Greek functions to parties on Dickson Street. For those who do not already have plans for Friday night, University Programs will be sponsoring an interactive showing of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in the Arkansas Student Union and attendees are encouraged to dress up as their favorite character to participate in the movie. There is also a dance party and costume contest at the Old Post Office in the Fayetteville town square.

Costume connoisseurs have a variety of choices from which to purchase their ideal outfit in Fayetteville. Halloween Express, a seasonal favorite in Fayetteville, offers costumes ranging from $30 to $150, the price depending on how intricate the costume is. The shop offers a variety of costumes for people of all ages, plus props and decorations for almost any costume.

Cheap Thrills, located on the Square, also has a costume shop that both sells and rents a variety of costumes and props. Costumes are also available at stores such as Target and Walmart.

One big complaint of Halloween costumes among college students is that they are often inappropriate. Many costume shops sell items such as giant condoms, risqué French maids or beer maiden costumes to cater to this trend of racy costumes.

"I think that girls sometimes have some kind of inappropriate costumes, but also it's the one day a year when people can express themselves and dress up as whatever they want to express themselves as," said Jennifer Terminella, an undeclared sophomore.

And for those who still haven't made it out to pick up their costume, but need something for the big night? One of the easiest costumes to prepare is a mask printoff from the Internet accompanied by a tunic made out of a simple sheet, according to www.about.com.