Rob Zombie Halloween Costume
This year my girlfriend and I decided to do a little tribute to Rob Zombie for Halloween, me donning dreads and makeup for my custom, homemade Rob Zombie costume, and Cindy dressing as my “Living Dead Girl.”
What does it take to be a zombie? Well, if you’re going for the average zombie, you’d just ghoul yourself up and walk around with a dead gaze yowling “Brains!” But if you’re talking Rob Zombie you need something a little different. I decided to tribute the look Rob put on during promotion and touring for his first Hellbilly Deluxe release. I figured long ass narly dreads, a dark, mottled trench coat, some black boots and the proper makeup job, featuring a bloody X between the eyes, would do the trick.
A beard helps, and luckily I have a real one so that would help the costume look a little more authentic.
Here’s the rundown on the costume pieces and prices. Black Brahma work boots: $30, Walmart. Black trench coat (a London Fog complete with warm fur lining): $20, Goodwill. Dreads: $16* Walmart. Makeup: Ben Nye grease makeup, about $15 (it’s the good stuff). Art on back of coat: Priceless!
I thought I would add some original art inspired by the twisted, Rat Fink style monster art and hot naked chicks that adorn some of the Rob Zombie and White Zombie albums. Gotta have the naked chicks. Well, in this case I decided to tame it down and put a bikini on her. In my original sketch she was bikini-less. I also made her a brunette since Cindy has dark hair.
The coat is finished with an all-over sponge paint effect (black, white and some lavender mixed in) to give it a nice irregular, mottled look. That always makes for a creepy appearance.
* Now to explain the dread locks. I bought a “dread lock” wig at Walmart for $8, and unpacked it to discover that it was made up of braids, not dreads, and was also rather thin in the back. Not acceptible at all. I went back to the store and bought another, bringing my wig total to $16. Then I cut off a row of hair from the new wig and sewed it into a blank area, between rows on the back of the original wig, then unravelled all of the braids.
I made a wig stand to work on, and proceeded to twist the dreads. I blended brown, black and white acrylic paint in varying combinations to create a more natural look to the wig hair. I would select segments of hair, some as small as 1/8 inch, all the way up to about 1 inch, pull them out straight from the wig, apply some paint along the whole length, twist the hair and apply more paint as I twisted.
Tighter on the smaller dreads would create a natural twirl to those lengths of hair, looser twists on the thicker ones created a straighter, more natty dread look. I continued this all the way around the wig, alternating low and high, in and out (meaning surface area hair and then pulling some hair from deeper int he wig). Each dread was blown dry with a hair dryer on hot setting, as I held the length of hair out. I had to make sure each length was completely dry before letting it lay back down on the wig. It could get tangled up in the other hair and lose the natural look.
Once that was all done I trimmed about 4 inches off the total length of the wig and shaped it some to give it a more realistic look.
The X on the head was built up with latex and bits of cotton. I was able to remove it the first night and reuse it again for round two, so that was convenient. A little stippling of latex to create a wrinkly, cracking look here and there, a nice coating of grease makeup, with darkened eyes, and that’s how I created the Zombie costume. I think I’ll need to wear this at the next Zombie concert we go to. Should be fun.
For my Living Dead Girl companion (inspired by the Rob Zombie song of the same name, featuring the line “Blood on her skin, dripping with sin, do it again, Living Dead Girl…”) we decided to go with the “blood on her skin” vibe.
Cindy’s costume was a little easier. We picked up a Carrie dress, made to replicate the scene from that Stephen King tale when Carrie is drenched with pig’s blood at the Prom. After unpacking the dress we found that the $30 costume was only painted bloody in the front, so I hung it up and added a healthy dose of blood red paint to the back side of the dress to complete the look. Then we found some cheap canvas shoes at K-Mart and painted a blood bath on them to pull it all together. Some Vampire Blood on her face, neck and arms, and she was the sexiest living dead girl I’d ever seen. This is my kinda gal.
We put our costumes on for a party on Saturday night, then did the whole thing again on Halloween to scare the trick or treaters. Afterwards we took a little stroll into town for dinner, in our gruesome glory. One time each year when we can get our freak on. And it’s funny, you think it would be expected, but man, the looks you get. Some people just don’t get it. Hey, it’s Halloween people! Lighten up. In my opinion the only real freaks are the people who think they are “normal.”
Whatever you do, don’t let anyone stop you from being YOU! Have fun, it’s Halloween after all! Rock on Zombies!
Well, I just put in my pre-order for the DVD Prog-Rockumentary 
and other documentaries like 
. But this new production promises to be fresh, and shows various views of the band through their own eyes, as well as the eyes of fans and parents of fans.
among others. I can’t wait to see this latest film. A proper tribute to Rush is long overdue.