What, you thought you’d seen the last of Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic, just because their Netflix mini series wrapped, Carole’s turn on Dancing with the Stars ended and Joe’s, well, in prison? Nah. The streaming service recently announced the second season of Tiger King is coming soon, so it’s only fitting to finally don the costume you meant to rock last year, you know, if COVID hadn’t kept us all in lockdown. (On that note, these lewks are bold enough to rock on Zoom, should your party go virtual this year.)
The internet loves a good throwback, so this year, why not throw it way back? Say, circa 1996, when Scream made that creepy Ghostface mask ubiquitous? The iconic scary movie turns 25 this year, so to celebrate, we’re serving you two easy costume ideas: First, the serial killer (c’mon, we had to). Second, Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker. Yes, she’s a minor character in the film, but she’s an unforgettable one. Anyway, onto the costumes!
*Psst: This makes for a great last-minute costume, since you can order the whole thing via Amazon Prime!
Check back every day this week for even more costume ideas, as part of Life Between Weekends’s 13 Days of Pop Culture Halloween Costumes series. BTW, this post contains affiliate links, which helps fund the hosting of this site.
Editor’s Note: This post originally ran on Oct. 5, 2015. It’s been updated to ensure the links are all working & that you have everything you need to get ready for All Hallows Eve.
Halloween is by FAR the biggest holiday of the year for Collegiate Cook, our sister site. We’ve been celebrating since the site launched in 2009, first with a single recipe post, then expanding into pop culture costumes and All Hallows Eve-themed treats. (Now, we’re bringing that costume series to LBW. It launches Sept. 27, 2021, so set an alert to check us out!)
Over the years, some recipes have stood out more than others, and some year-round favorites have become staples at our Halloween parties, even if they don’t have a Jack O’Lantern’s face carved into ’em. (Shocking, right?) Here are some of the standout treats.
Our Top 5 Favorite Halloween Snacks
Oreo Ghost Truffles
Photo: Nathan Davison
When I first discovered Oreo truffles in 2010, they became my go-to recipe any time I needed to make something special for someone. Before long, I started experimenting with all kinds of variations on these truffles (including a Chips Ahoy version that Buzzfeed featured), and in 2013, I couldn’t resist making these little ghosts.
When it comes to cutesy, themed snacks, I’m much more prone to baking than cooking, so my recipes tend to veer on the sweet side. But, every once in a while, I challenge myself to get cheesy in the most literal sense. Like carving a Jack O’Lantern’s face on a slice on cheese, then melting it atop a spicy black bean dip.
This is the very first Halloween recipe I ever made for Collegiate Cook, and to this day, it’s one of my favorite posts I’ve ever done. Sure, the photos aren’t styled (I just shoved them on a paper plate and snapped away using my point-and-shoot camera), and the photo quality is borderline awful (this was before I wrangled Nate into snapping pics). But I always liked the idea. And it’s a relatively healthy treat!
I used Jif Reduced Fat Peanut Butter, because it has a thicker, less runny consistency that coats (and hardens) better than traditional PB.
Initially, I thought I’d make little brownie cauldrons with green cookie dough inside and a pretzel stick poking out like a spoon, then call the treats “Witch’s Brew-kies.” Get it? Like a bubbling cauldron + cookies? Yeaaaah. It failed horribly, in that they looked NOTHING like witch’s cauldrons. But the cookie dough turned an awesome shade of green, and I realized I didn’t have to be so literal — these treats were awesome on their own.
There are so many reasons to love these brownies: They’re stuffed with Oreos. They’re like Thin Mints in fudgy dessert form. They’re topped with googly candy eyes. They’re delightfully kitschy and absurd. And you can’t fail at making them.
To be honest, these Swamp Thing Brownies happened serendipitously. I had a package of mint Oreos, and they were too dangerous to keep around, just sitting on my shelf, tempting me. I needed to turn them into a dessert I could share with the masses. And I also happened to have a pack of candy eyes lying around.
I started brainstorming what I could do with them, and naturally, I thought of one of my favorite twists on the cookie: stuffed in brownies. It seemed natural. Given the green creme filling and the candy eyes — and the fact that it’s late October — a monster-y riff seemed all too necessary. Mandatory, even.
I went with Alice Medrich’s cocoa brownies recipe, modifying it ever so slightly to be even less sweet. It’s dense and fudgy, but on the more semisweet end of the spectrum, so it balances out the intense sweetness of the Oreo cookies. You can easily use boxed-mix brownie batter though. No judgment here.
Feel free to experiment a little with the toppings, too. I went with black sanding sugar, semisweet chocolate chips, candy eyes and crumbled mint Oreos, but modify things as you see fit. There are no rules here, as long as it tastes good — and looks mildly creepy.
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick plus 2 tbsp)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cold eggs
2/3 c flour
16 mint Oreo cookies, plus 3 crumbled cookies (less than 1 pkg)
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 package candy eyes
black sanding sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Once melted, add sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and salt, stirring to combine. Remove from heat once combined and glossy. Crack each egg and add one at a time, beating to combine.
Add flour, stirring in just until combined, about 35-40 strokes.
Pour half of the batter into a greased, 8″x8″ pan. Top with a layer of Oreos, then cover with remaining brownie batter. Top batter with crumbled Oreos, semisweet chocolate chips and candy eyes.
Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Sprinkle with black sanding sugar. Let cool before serving.
Charlize Theron logged hours a day in the gym, bruised her ribs and cracked two teeth preparing for her role as secret agent Lorraine Broughton in this summer’s spy thriller, Atomic Blonde. Thankfully, you don’t have to repeat her regimen in order to steal her look for Halloween (unless you plan on busting out some sick fight-scene choreography, in which case, uh…you do you).
Choosing just one costume out of Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” music video is like choosing just one Illuminati-esque hidden symbol in it to obsess over. You don’t want to stick to one thing, but somehow, you must.
But the most delightfully wicked looks to emulate this fall are her latest ones: funhouse mirror versions of the caricatures she’s been reduced to in headlines and pithy posts. There are plenty of options to choose from, but we’ve narrowed it down to two:
At this point, you’ve probably guessed that we get really into Halloween. Really into it. Even if we don’t have particular plans for the holiday, we’ll come up with some…just because we (or, okay, maybe just I) love any excuse to dress up ridiculously for a day.
The downside? When half the people at the party are wearing your totally creative, completely ingenious costume. (Everyone who’s ever dressed up as Heath Ledger’s Joker in 2008 knows exactly what I’m talking about here. Ditto for Captain Jack Sparrow in 2003, 2006, 2007 — and maybe even 2011.)
Google Frightgeist has got your back. The All Hallows Eve-inspired twist on Google’s annual trend forecaster, Zeitgeist, shows you which costumes are most popular in your area. You can also search by costume and see how likely it is that you’ll run into someone dressed just like you this Oct. 31st, and search for costume ideas that are less common.
Wearing skimpy, skintight costumes you have to constantly tug and readjust all Halloween night (while shivering, since it’s Oct. 31st and all) is just one school of thought.
You could be totally, ridiculously comfortable. These costumes are pretty much like wearing pajamas, and you only have to buy one thing to nail your entire look. Halloween has never been easier; it’s the perfect last-minute, lazy person’s costume.
