Creepy Contortion Costume Ideas
Spooky season is upon us here in the US, and Halloween is just a couple of weeks away! Whether you’re looking for costume/character ideas for a creepy contortion act, or are just looking for a Halloween costume this year that would be a good choice to freak out your friends with your bendiness - this list should give you a good starting point for some inspiration :)
1. “The Ring” Girl or Exorcist-y Character
When I think of “creepy contortion,” the first thing I think of is someone in a dirty old nightgown dislocating all their joints and slowly creeping towards the camera. Long hair is definitely a plus for moodiness for this vibe, but folks with shorter hair could also get away with being more heavy handed on “sickly” face makeup. While I personally don’t like performing contortion with long hair down (it takes skill not to accidentally trap it!), this type of look is amazing for a creepy halloween-y photoshoot.
What You’ll Need:
Long light-colored nightgown - have some fun getting this dirty!
Long dark wig OR long hair - the grubbier/dirtier, the better. For folks using a wig, you’ll also likely want a wig cap and a metric ton of bobby pins to pin it to your head
Pale face makeup
Note: this costume does not have to be feminine if you’d prefer a different gender presentation! You could opt for more of a “hospital gown” in lieu of a nightgown, and play up more of the pale face makeup if you have shorter hair and don’t want a wig (although I do personally think longer hair, regardless of gendered styling, really does help with the creepiness of this character)
2. Zombie
Here’s an easy Halloween classic you can put together by raiding your own closet or grabbing some cheap tops & bottoms secondhand and shredding them with scissors. Some comfort with costume makeup will definitely help this really “pop.”
What You’ll Need:
Old shirt + pants you can rip/cut up
Pale face makeup or face painting kit
3. Mummy
I’ve seen this costume idea used for both photos and live performances, and it’s a super fun one. Only caveat is you absolutely have to thoroughly “test” your costume for movement to make sure it doesn’t fall apart.
What You’ll Need:
Gauze-style bandages
Unitard or bodysuit (nude or black) - it may be hard to get the bandages to reliably stick to your own body, so using some type of unitard or bodysuit as a base that you can either glue or sew them to will likely be a much safer bet
4. Skeleton
Now this one’s aditeli less of a “budget” option since you’ll likely need to buy some sort of a skeleton bodysuit or catsuit - but there are SO many cool options these days (including ones that glow under a blacklight!).
What You’ll Need:
Skeleton bodysuit or catsuit
Skeleton face painting kit - it’s worth practicing some YouTube tutorials for this if you really want to go all-out!
5. Slender Man
So the “Slender Man” craze was slightly past my time, but at least I was vaguely aware of the horror obsession that hit the internet and high school kids in the 2010s. Even folks unfamiliar with the reference will be appropriately freaked out by a white featureless face and a black suit. Heck, I’d argue you really could be any character in a face-covering morphsuit (aka a full body catsuit that also covers your face) and that would freak people out.
What You’ll Need:
A “business” suit morph suit or catsuit
A white face hood (if you are using a faceless catsuit)
6. Black Bodysuit + Creepy Mask
In a similar vein as above - you can get creative with a face-covering catsuit style costume by adding a creepy mask. I did this years ago with a pumpkin head (that I just carved out of a hollow Halloween pumpkin I got at Michael’s), but there are SO many different directions you could take your mask for a different vibe (phantom-of-the-opera style white mask, LED scarecrow or skeleton face, or really any kind of freaky Halloween mask would do in a pinch). This is a great, low-effort option for folks who really don’t want to have to worry about face paint or makeup as a part of their costume.
Note: unlike a fabric hood in a morphsuit which will move with you, you will absolutely want to test you mask beforehand to make sure it will both a) stay on your head without falling off, and b) allow you to actually see! Especially if you’ll be using it in a performance and not just for photos, it will need to be able to withstand quite a bit of jostling and bumping.
What You’ll Need:
Black unitard, bodysuit, or catsuit
Mask of your choice
7. Broken Doll / Marionette
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What You’ll Need:
Classic doll / marionette: Short poofy dress, knee-high socks, black facepaint (or eyeliner) to draw your “mouth”
Classic ventriloquist dummy: shorts/pants, white shirt, suspenders, bowtie, black facepaint (or eyeliner) to draw your “mouth)
Doll form: nude full-body unitard/catsuit, black fabric paint to draw the “joints”
When in Doubt: Just Make it Black and Moody
When all else fails, you can always just lean into a black/moody/gothy vibe. I’ve done many shows where I didn’t have a specific “character” for my act and instead just threw on a bunch of strappy/fishnet-y black (occasionally with some pops of red) items and it worked great.
The one potential “risk” with choosing just black as your costume is that some venues don’t have great lighting, and it may literally be harder to see you when you’re performing, so showing some skin through strappiness, fishnetting/webbing, or tears can help the audience “see” more of where your limbs are in space.
What You’ll Need: The world’s your oyster for this one. Mix-and-match tights, gauntlets/gloves (note: gloves can be slippery, so test these beforehand, or opt for hand-less gauntlets/sleeves), bodysuits or separates, and play with textures (strappy, fishnet, lace, spiderweb, ripped, leather, etc).
Related Content
Recommended On-Demand Workshop
Who this workshop recording is for:
This workshop is designed for students who have some preexisting back/shoulder flexibility (can comfortably hold a bridge with straight arms) and want to learn some fun creepy, Halloween-y shapes that utilize their backbending flexibility.
Flexibility Prerequisites:
This is a “mixed levels” workshop that assumes students already have a solid amount of back and shoulder flexibility and can comfortably hold a bride with straight arms. Beyond that, variations of skills will be offered for different amounts of shoulder/back flexibility. While of course shapes generally look creepier the more back flexibility you have, this workshop emphasizes variations and adjustments you can make to enhance the “creepiness” factor without necessarily needing to double the amount of backbend you’ve currently got.
This 60-90-minute* workshop covers:
An hour long follow-along contortion conditioning class, including
A full body warm up with extra emphasis on back and shoulder flexibility
Active flexibility drills to strengthen and stretch your full backbending chain, with dedicated drills for the hips, lower back, upper back, and shoulders
Creepy variations of common contortion shapes and movements peppered throughout!
“Choose your own adventure” style skillwork practice: more than 20 minutes of additional contortion shapes and transitions to continue to play with in your training, including:
Bridge variations
Walking in a bridge
Shoulder “dislocating” (not literally!) and twisting in a bridge
Partial and full drop back variations (note: this is not a tutorial on how to do a full drop back - if that is a skill you’re interested in, check out this workshop instead)
A mini choreo challenge to start practicing stringing some of these skills together into a short routine (note: this mini routine does not contain music, so you can adapt it to whatever you’d like!)
This workshop was filmed with the intention of fitting a ~75-minute practice, but students may choose to trim it down to just an hour, or extend it and work on more skills for a shorter or longer practice as desired.
Required props:
Yoga mat
2 yoga blocks
Long strap (can be elastic or stiff)
Upon checkout, you will receive a PDF with a link to the workshop recording (Squarespace limits file upload sizes so I can’t actually upload the whole recording here). The recording is for your personal use only, not to be shared with others - thank you!
