a photo essay by Audrey Callerstrom

Halloween is the only holiday for me that hasn’t tarnished with age. Christmas doesn’t feel like it’s for me anymore – it hasn’t since I was about 10. I don’t have strong emotions about any Christmas films. Thanksgiving food is good, if I’m really hungry, but again, I have no strong emotions about it. New Year’s Day is too cold. July 4th is too hot. Halloween is just right (but also cold). Halloween doesn’t obligate me to be anywhere or do anything. It’s the only time of year when we are allowed to get weird.

Over multiple Halloweens as an adult, I have dressed up, usually as a character from a movie. Here are six of my top movie-inspired Halloween costumes and how they stack up today.

6. Mia Wallace, Pulp Fiction - Halloween 2001

A photo of the costume is not available… back then my best chance at taking a picture was with a disposable camera, meaning I’d have to fill up that whole damn roll, usually with cats.

The inspiration: I saw Pulp Fiction when I was in 6th grade. I was thrilled. I had always loved movies, but I didn’t know they could be like that. I asked my mom to see it again (each time, I was told to sit out the rape scene, and rightly so). Anyway, I am tall, like Uma Thurman and so, therefore, we are the same.

The execution: I wore a black bob wig, put on some lipstick, wore a white shirt and, to top it off, I carried a used cigarette butt (gross), because Mia Wallace smokes. The houses we stopped at didn’t know who I was supposed to be, and someone remarked that I was their first “smoking trick-or-treater.” It wasn’t even lit!

Rating: 🎃🎃/10

5. Rollergirl, Boogie Nights - Halloween 2013

The inspiration: Rollergirl from Boogie Nights, a film that was 20 years old by that time (but still great!)

The execution: Sure, I wore knee-high socks, crimped my hair, and dressed like a Charlie’s Angel. But I could not bother with roller-skates. I knew it would be a bad idea. I would roll about two feet and then fall and break my jaw. Instead, I found foam cylinders to stick on my shoes to look like wheels, which are barely visible in the photo. Roller-skates are pretty important to the character. Carrying a Polaroid camera would have been a good option, too. Damnit!

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃/10

4. Tootsie, Tootsie - Halloween 2014

The inspiration: I thought I would feel more comfortable going as a man for Halloween, so why not go as a man dressing as a woman? Plus, it was nominated for a ton of Oscars. It’s a comedy classic. Right?

The execution: The costume itself was fun and comfortable, but no one knew who/what Tootsie was. Someone thought I was a 1970s librarian (which is perhaps more obscure). My friend on the left who went as Skrillex (my idea!) garnered way more attention.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃 /10

3. Dana/Zuul, Ghostbusters - Halloween 2011

The inspiration: Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters, possessed by Zuul.

The execution: I bought a few yards of red shimmery fabric but didn’t really have a plan for how to drape it around like a dress. I should learn how to sew. Someday. Eventually. I’ve got a lot on my plate! I draped it across the front and tied it in the back with a hair binder. Lots of adjusting was needed. It was basically a shimmery hospital gown.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃/10

2. Beatrix Kiddo, Kill Bill vol. 1 - Halloween 2012

The inspiration: See Mia Wallace, above. Uma Thurman and I are the same. Originally, I wore this costume for a Tarantino-themed dance party called “Pulp Friction,” which is where the picture comes from, but I reused it on Halloween a month later. That’s my husband as one of the Crazy 88.

The execution: I was proud of how I fashioned the costume together using yellow clothes and electrical tape. The blood on the front was diluted red food coloring from a spray bottle. The only thing about a Quentin Tarantino dance party is that you want to go as every single character at once.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃/10

1. H.I. McDunnough, Raising Arizona – Halloween 2015

The inspiration: ”I’ll be takin’ these Huggies and whatever cash you got.” Raising Arizona is one of my favorites. Nicolas Cage is one of my favorites. Raising Arizona and Valley Girl were on TV a lot when I was younger. So I saw him a lot, arguably in his prime, at an impressionable age.

The execution: I was able to put this together using mostly stuff I already had. I wrote “HUGGIES” on some toilet paper. I liked that it was a specific moment from a film, and if you knew it right away, you were like “oh! Cute!” but if you didn’t know it, like, it’s still pretty amusing. Like an off-brand version of this could show up on Amazon someday.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃/10

*Still need help finding a costume? Listen to episode 025 of MJ’s cinematic advice pod. Hosts The Red Herring and Old Sport help a listener seeking a DIY outfit for a spoooktacular Halloween!*