Thursday 1 November 2012

Post-Halloween Disappointment

Halloween has come and gone. Normally I'm not a fan of dressing up, I preferred to look at other people's costumes. But this year I decided to try to be different and goes as the Slenderman simply because I had the bodytype and it was fairly easy to do.

The only thing I was missing for a mask or head covering to complete it. So I ordered something online at the beginning of the month with the predicted date of arrival with roughly a week until it would arrived. Prefect timing.

And so I waited.

And waited.

It's after Halloween and it still hasn't arrived.


So I'm certainly disappointed. I mean, I paid extra for it to come in before Halloween. I also booked the day off of work so I could run around on Campus. Instead, I just ended up sleeping in and loafing off. It's not bad, but I'd rather run around as a mythical entity that abducts people on the one day that it's socially acceptable. I can sleep in any other day.

I'm tempted to blame Sandy for the delays in the mail but I have no idea when it'll arrive. I got an email a while ago saying it was shipped out, and would arrive within 8 days at the latest. That means it should have arrived last Friday. And if it arrived late on the weekend or something, I should have got it on Monday.

It's Wednesday now.

And waiting.

I guess I'll just dress up next year then. Assuming I don't think of a better costume. In the meantime, I've done some thinking and realized that simply wearing a suit and a head-covering mask doesn't make you a good Slenderman. You look more like a mannequin than anything.

So in preparation of next Halloween, let's take a look at what makes the Slenderman so unsettling to so many people, and how we can translate that into a better costume.

I think I can sum it up in the various pictures and images that are used with the Slenderman.

Take a look at the picture below:


First, he's disproportionate and tall, he doesn't look normal. People hate things that look almost human but are slightly off. It's the uncanny valley effect, basically, things that clearly don't look human (e.g. a cartoon) look fine and obviously humans look ok. But it's that inbetween stage of the two that really cause us to feel uncomfortable.

Imagine how the Slenderman would move, completely ungainly and hobbling. He looks like he could almost pass as a person but it's these little differences that throw us off and that's the goal here seeing as he is some kind of urban legend monster.

To accomplish this we we're going to need two things stilts and some form of trash grabbers. If you cover the stilts up well, bam, you have an extra few feet of height. Attach the grabbers to your forearms, bam, extra arm length. Some of the best Slenderman costumes I've seen recommend using dry-waller stilts just because they're easier to walk around with. So I can look for those.

Not creepy at all.

Being abnormally tall won't be hard with the stilts. I'm over 6 feet which is a decent height but it's not rare or uncommon to see other people that tall. To make this costume go from mannequin to Slenderman, we need to make ourselves unrealistically tall. We're talking, 7/8/9 feet tall. The bigger some weird looking thing is, the more scary it is. We see this kind of behavior in animals all the time, puffing themselves up to look bigger in hopes of intimidating something else.

I'm hoping that if I'm running around like this next Halloween I won't trip and fall or anything. Remember, I live in Canada, and by Halloween, we usually have snow and ice all over the place. I remember trying to build a costume around jackets and snowpants.

Maybe I'll just be the Slenderman indoors...

22 comments:

  1. I loved the idea of you going like Slenderman so I'm really disappointed that it didn't come when you wanted it to man. It's a real shame because it sounds like it's spoiled your Halloween a little, hopefully it comes soon and they bloody apologise for being so late too.

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  2. Happy halloween! Trick or treat! :D

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  3. Well if you wear your snow pants and everything you can try and put the suit over them. It's pretty disappointing you weren't able to dress as Slenderman this year, but you can do an even better job of it next year, which is good.

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  4. Sucks that you didn't get it in time and pffft you can keep the snow and ice, here it is still oh so nice, still say he looks like an alien.

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  5. Ah yeah, the valley effect is a pretty interesting psychological effect, and a cool one to take advantage off. Slenderman is actually pretty damn cool when he's being a non-creepy niceguy, like in that last pic. Too bad the mask just didn't arrive, but couldn't you've bought a pair of white stockings or something?

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  6. So maybe the delayed parcel is a blessing in disguise. Now you have a whole year to learn how to walk on stilts! Get cracking.

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  7. I once ordered something from Hong Kong, and it took FOREVER to get there.

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  8. I hope that you get your order.
    Actually Slenderman looks like I would imagine it would.

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  9. sorry to know about dress late arriving

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  10. Sorry to hear your order didn't arrive in time for Halloween!

    Stilts and grabbers sound like they would make a slenderman costume look amazing.

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  11. Geez, that sucks. I'd totally dress up at home once you get the costume.

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  12. Well, I guess it's good you didn't get it on time because now, next time you'll have a much more realistic thing going on. And you won't be tired of it because of 'last year'.

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  13. I hate late deliveries, maybe it was coming from abroad? And as a transman I know all about making people uncomfortable.

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  14. Haha. Slenderman with snow and ice sounds hilarious. However, for your safety maybe you should have a Halloween party at your house. I haven't dressed up for the last 2 years and it makes me sad... maybe next year I should have a party too!

    Laura x
    http://firstclassramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

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  15. ah, what a bummer... shame on them for not sending the costume on time

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  16. Can't believe the post office let you down! They're usually so efficient. :P

    And we usually have snow on Halloween, too, though this year we had a freakishly warm seventy degrees. Don't know how the kids managed to come up with costumes that didn't include snow boots.

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  17. oh poo :( I suppose it doesn't help for me to offer that I sat at home and watched Netflix...no? poo :(

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  18. At least between now and next Halloween, you'll have some time to practice walking on stilts. I hope you get your expedited shipping fees back.

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  19. I have never heard of Slenderman until now so I really really really hope your costume arrives and I get to see what it looks like on you! :-) Take care
    x

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  20. slenderman scares me so much XD i watched my friends flatmates play it, and we were all running around screaming. and then we watched documentaries on him :<

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  21. Sounds like a pretty cool costume. I hope it arrives so you can use it for next year!

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  22. i dont get how slenderman is scarey... just some tall skinny tree guy. and yeah rule of thumb is 2 months before date you want it by. thats they way i do it. usually takes 4 weeks for me to get my stuff

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