Top Tips to Make You Look as Realistic as Possible

Halloween is one of the few days in the year when you can have as much fun with your makeup as possible and go all out to look as scary as possible, as well. If you want to make sure you scare everybody with your makeup next time, then you might want to try out a zombie look.

If you decide to do so, then it would be vital to ensure that your zombie makeup makes you look exactly like the zombies that you see in scary movies nowadays. In other words, you have to ensure that you don’t just play things by ear and paint different colors onto your face. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might just end up looking stupid in front of your family, friends, neighbors and guests.

In order to look scary and realistic as a zombie, it would be highly advisable for you to plan out your makeup in advance. Get a whole makeup kit ready, complete with sponges, makeup brushes and tissue paper – things that you will need to come up with if you want to effectively pull off a terrifying zombie look. You will also need natural flesh-colored latex, which you can buy from any costume store offline or online. Other things that you might want to get your hands on for this would be white cream facial makeup and grease paint makeup.

Now, before you start working on your makeup, you will have to clean your face properly with either facial wash or cleansing milk. Also, make sure you tie your hair back before cleaning your face and putting your makeup on because it can be quite hard to get makeup out of hair, in general.

After you clean your face, it would be time to moisturize it. If your face is particularly oily, you might want to put on some face powder, as well. After that, apply some liquid latex onto your face any other areas near your face that will still be exposed after you put on your zombie costume. Let the latex dry and then take some tissue paper and cover up all of the areas that you put the latex on. Then, apply some more liquid latex and leave it to dry again.

Next, you will have to work on your eyes. This is where you can get as creative as you want by mixing both grey and black eyeshadow together. You can also add some grease paint onto your eyes if you want. Naturally, you will want to make your lips darker, as well. Dark brown lipstick shades usually work quite well for this.

Makeup isn’t the only thing you will need to work on if you want to look like an authentic zombie in the end, though. Think about how zombies would react and act and watch various scary movies to really get a feel of how zombies end up taking over the world. Basically, your goal should be to act and look as scary as possible. Don’t forget to have fun, either!

On Halloween night 2010 the first episode of The Walking Dead hit the air. The show was an almost instant hit with both critics and audiences. As the high ratings rolled in AMC jumped to order more episodes of the show before fans lost interest but they didn’t have to worry about fans losing interest.

The first season of the show essentially set the scene for the story of Rick Grimes, former Sheriff’s Deputy, as he awoke from a coma to find the world had changed. He managed to get himself out of the abandoned hospital as it was being overrun by “walkers” as the zombies in the series are called and he started searching for his family. In the first six episodes audiences follow Rick as he comes to terms with the post apocalyptic world outside the hospital and learns how to survive in a US that has been overrun by zombies. He finds another survivor, who is able to tell him what happened and how to kill the walkers. Rick then sets out to find his wife and son, who he thinks have probably struck out to find a purported safe zone in Atlanta. Rick has a series of narrow escapes as he makes his way on horseback to Atlanta but he finds a small group of survivors including his wife and son and his best friend and former partner Shane, who has been looking out for Rick’s family since the zombie apocalypse occurred. Season 1 ended with Rick and Shane taking control of the group.

Season 2, which debuted on October 16, 2011 was one of the most highly anticipated TV series returns of the year. Record numbers of people tuned in to AMC to watch and even more watched online or on DVR. The Nieson ratings for Season 2 of The Walking Dead broke several records for basic cable and critics and audiences were hooked by the drama unfolding throughout the season. The season ended with a record 9 million viewers watching the cliffhanger finale, the highest rating ever for a basic cable TV show. Season 3 of The Walking Dead is set to premier in October of 2012 and already fans are counting the days until the show returns.

No one is quite sure why this basic cable series about life after a zombie apocalypse became one of the biggest television hits of all time but there are a lot of factors that contribute to The Walking Dead’s success. The show is set in the present day and the eerie images of cities abandoned resonate with a population who have seen similar images showing the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The excellent casting and the great performances also play a role. Regardless of the reasons why audiences love the show people who have never had any interest in graphic novels can’t get enough of The Walking Dead and it will go down in history as a completely unexpected record breaking hit show.

Werewolves are still a part of cultural lore today being featured in films, TV shows and books. The BBC America show Being Human which was adapted for America by the SyFy channel features a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost living as roommates and interacting with the human world. The Harry Potter books and films also feature werewolves among other fierce monsters. Shows like Faked or Faked and Destination Truth and Monsterquest have sent teams of researchers around the globe looking for evidence of real werewolves and other monsters. So it’s natural that werewolves would be a Halloween staple. It wouldn’t be very much fun to celebrate everything scary and dark without werewolves, vampires and witches. Just make sure that if the moon is full on Halloween night you are not caught out alone in the moonlight or else you might find yourself trying to outrun werewolves roaming the neighborhood in search of Halloween treats.

There is as much variation in werewolf costumes as there is in werewolf legends. Some costumes focus on the human aspect of a werewolf and feature raggedy clothing, dirt smears, scratches and bruises. Others focus on the wolf and involve elaborate masks, professional quality special effects make up, contact lenses that are designed to look like a wolf’s eye and furry paws and arm pieces that are soft and realistic. And no werewolf costume would be complete without the teeth. The thought of coming face to face with a supernatural wolf is made even more terrifying when you add long, slashing fangs to the picture. Werewolves are brutal killers when they are in wolf form, and large razor sharp teeth are one of the most terrifying aspects of a werewolf. You can buy very realistic looking teeth caps that fit over your own teeth to make your werewolf costume even scarier, or you can use dental appliances that fit over your teeth to give you the kind of animalistic look that is necessary to make a truly scary werewolf costume.

Comic-Con was started in 1970 by Shel Derf, a huge comic and graphic novel fan, along with other fans and graphic novel creators, artists and writers. It started as an industry specific convention that gave collectors of comics and memorabilia the chance to meet and to buy and sell their collectibles. It was also a chance for fans to meet the artists who created the works they loved as well a chance for the artists and writers to network, sell their work, and attend panels and seminar that could enhance their work. Over the years Comic-Con grew steadily but still was largely under the radar. Only 300 people attended the first Comic-Con, which was only three days long. The founders of SDCC began to reach out to other genres and include other groups in the convention as the years went by. They began to include science fiction/fantasy authors and the staff and stars of science fiction TV shows and movies. Once they started including other genres and groups the SDCC began to take off as more and more marginalized groups joined in. When video games became more accessible and wildly popular Comic-Con embraced the fans, designers, and creators of video games and launched the convention into mainstream popularity. What really put the SDCC over the top in terms of popularity though is the fans. Fans of popular comics, science fiction movies and TV, video games, animation and many related subgroups compete with each other to create often stunning costumes to wear to Comic-Con every year. Fans roam the convention space in costume and attend workshops and panels where they can interact one on one with the writers, directors and stars who are putting out the content they love. The highlight of the convention is always the Masquerade Ball and costume contest, which people prepare for all year.

When movies and TV based on science fiction and graphic novels became a gold mine for Hollywood major studios started to realize the value of sending stars and other staff to Comic-Con every year which drew even more fans. The studios, gaming companies, and artists who attend Comic-Con get valuable feedback directly from the people who are buying the products, collectibles and art they put out and the fans get the chance to meet their heroes, add to their collections, dress up and party with other fans like themselves and get exclusive looks at new games, movies, books and other art.

Music, film and TV have all embraced the zombie with modern zombie adaptations like the movie Zombieland and TV shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead, which is an adaptation of a graphic novel. The Walking Dead won a slew of awards in its first season and the season finale for the second season was the most watched basic cable show history with more than 9 million viewers. Season 3 is in production and fans are anxiously awaiting the return of what is arguably the most successful popular culture portrayal of a post-zombie apocalypse world. One of the reasons why zombies have gone from cult classics to mainstream smash may be due to the power of the Internet.

The Internet is full of zombie fan sites and fan fiction which has helped push the popularity of zombies into pockets of culture that it never was accepted in before. Even the government is using zombie lore. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued an emergency preparedness guide in a graphic novel format called Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse which sought to teach a younger generation about the importance of being prepared for disaster. The CDC’s creative campaign was a huge success and has won the CDC a permanent place in zombie lore. Another wildly successful Internet campaign centered on zombies is the US Army Zombie Combat Command, which started as a simple FB page and now, with more than 20,000 Facebook fans, has grown into a website and a web series that bills itself as “part Mythbusters, part Deadliest Warrior, with Zombies”. The web series is entering its third season and features shows that discuss and seek to prove or disprove myths about zombies and teach people the best ways to fight zombies.

Snow White and the Huntsman: This dark interpretation of the classic fairy tale re-imagines the tale of Snow White and makes her a warrior fighting the truly evil queen played perfectly by Charlize Theron. With Twilight star Kristen Stewart taking on the title role as Snow White this film did well at the box office and thrilled fans of movies with a lot of action, a dark edge, and great visual appeal.

The Amazing Spider Man: A lot of people wrote off the Spider Man franchise after studio bean counters demanded the movie cost less than former director Sam Raimi was comfortable working with. The result is a Spider Man movie with relatively unknown starts Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield directed by Marc Webb. The movie is still a strong contender for one of the great movies of 2012 simply because fans will always support Spider Man. This year expect Spider Man costumes to feature a few modern twists on the classic web slinger and for costumes to copy Emma Stone’s youthful and modern look.

World War Z – Fans of the undead and those waiting for the zombie apocalypse have been waiting anxious for this film adaption of the classic science fiction novel. Zombies have become big money for Hollywood studios and the built in cult fan base surrounding the book as well as the mass appeal of zombie movies and TV shows thanks to shows like The Walking Dead mean that World War Z will be one of the hottest films of 2012.

Total Recall 2012- This updated version of the 1990 classic is also a film that fans have been waiting for. This version of the story is more closely based on the Philip Dick novel that started the whole thing. Some of the Hollywood insiders who have been watching the movie from its conception have said that this Total Recall is similar to a futuristic Bourne Identity. If that’s true it will capture the imaginations of both science fiction loves and action lovers and will take its place as one of the best movies of 2012.

In the mid 1800s huge waves of immigrants started coming to the US from Europe, and they brought with them their local holidays and customs. In Scottish and Irish communities “guising”, or dressing up on All Hallows Eve to go door to door and beg for money or treats became popular. The costumes that were worn were usually nothing more than a flour sack or rough scrap material with a face drawn on it wrapped around the face or using coal or greasepaint to create a scary looking face. While sometimes kids who were “guising” would play small pranks on houses that turned them away it wasn’t Trick or Treating the way that most people know it today. In European communities Halloween was often celebrated by adults at indoor parties where they would drink alcohol, feast, and play games like bobbing for apples.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s mass produced costumes started to appear. Costumes were sold for kids and for adults, who began to use Halloween as an excuse to have lavish and extravagant parties where people dressed up in costumes that mimicked fashion trends and pop culture figures. Costumes for kids were limited to figures like cowboys, ghosts, angels and demons. Sexy costumes for adults began to appear since it was considered acceptable for people to break from social mores for a night on Halloween. As the practices associated with Halloween got wilder people grew concerned about the damage done by kids who were “guising” and by the drunken adults having wild parties. In the 1940s the concept of Trick or Treating was creating to try and organize the chaos that had become associated with celebrating Halloween.

The Boy Scouts and local groups started to organize Trick or Treat events for kids, reasoning that if they held carnivals and organized events where kids could dress up and go door to door asking for treats people would be more responsible and the bulk of the damage caused by Halloween pranks could be contained. Trick or Treating reached its ultimate popularity after the war when people flocked to the suburbs and Trick or Treating in suburban neighborhoods became the beloved Halloween tradition that it is today. Adults still like to have wild parties on Halloween, that hasn’t changed much over the years, but Trick or Treating is still evolving. One thing is certain though, Trick or Treating is here to stay.

Make your own sound effects – Don’t limit yourself to the sound effects that you find on CDs or online. Next time you’re up late and you hear your own stairs creaking in a creepy way get out your smart phone or a recorder and record it. You can use your computer or tablet to mix that into songs or other sound effects to make a creepy soundtrack for your party. As an added bonus when you use sounds that are taken from your house when your guests hear those sounds in person they will get even more scared. Have fun and experiment with different household items to see what scary sound effects you can make. Get some friends together to help you and you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with.

Go retro – Old recordings from serial radio shows are a fabulous place to get truly scary sounds. Serial radio shows were recorded before film before the dominant media and people would gather around the radio every week to listen to their favorite shows. These old shows are full of great sound effects that have a kitschy retro vibe that is perfect for a Halloween party where you want your guests to be a little scared, but not terrified.

Be your own DJ – These days it’s super easy to make your own unique Halloween party soundtrack. You can start with CDs full of classic Halloween music and sound effects and then use free mixing software to create your songs, scenes, and sound effects. Timers and other tools make it simple to set up music to play on cue or to coordinate music to light shows and other effects. Make sure that if you create a light and music show you get some video of the show to post online.

Go back to the classics – You only get to break out songs like The Monster Mash once a year so make sure you work them into your custom Halloween party music somewhere. If you really can’t stand hearing The Time Warp one more time try to put a modern twist on it, such as having everyone at the party sing it karaoke style instead of playing it on a CD player.