Hollywood takes over Halloween costumes at Chapman

Natalie Cartwright is bringing her obsession with Marvel to life by dressing as Wanda from “WandaVision”. Photo courtesy of Natalie Cartwright

It’s a cold and spooky Halloween night. Crowds of students are eating candy as they do the monster mash. All of their costumes consist of scary monsters or some version of a sexy animal. 

But what's that? Are they shooting the sequel to “Aquamarine?” Nope, it’s sophomore creative producing major, Mackenzie Holmes dressed as the beloved mermaid from the iconic 2006 film that brings back so many nostalgic memories to people who were kids and teens in the early 2000s. Although many may not consider “Aquamarine” to be a masterpiece, Holmes said she would go to the end of the Earth to defend it and designed her costume after the protagonist this year. 

“(Film students) are like, ‘Oh, I like this Quentin Tarantino movie or this Aaron Sorkin piece of cinema,’” Holmes said. “I'm going to start telling people my favorite movie is ‘Aquamarine.’ Like, they just don’t understand that it was about sacrifice.”

Several other students have decided to dress up this Halloween as characters from iconic films and TV shows including “Hocus Pocus,” “Kill Bill,” “WandaVision” and “Loki.” 

Natalie Cartwright, a junior film production major, plans to be Wanda from the Halloween episode of “WandaVision” on Disney+. As a die-hard Disney fan, Cartwright has dressed up as practically every Disney princess in existence for past Halloweens; so when “WandaVision” came out earlier this year, she knew she had to dress up as the main character Wanda Maximoff. Cartwright also works at Disneyland as a hostess, where she said she’s already spotted at least 10 girls dressed up as Wanda at both of the Oogie Boogie events she has worked at. 

Cartwright predicts the costume will be a popular one this year, but she is confident her version will look exactly as it does in the mini-series — red leotard and everything since she doesn’t have to worry about it being cold in the hot Southern California autumn. Back home in New Hampshire, she had to throw on large winter coats over her princess puff sleeves which she felt ruined the vibe of her costumes. In Orange, Cartwright can celebrate the holiday in the comfortable warmth of Southern California autumn. 

“In New Hampshire there's always a chance it's going to be snowing and negative degrees on Halloween,” Cartwright said.  

Sofie Kassaras is living out all her witchcraft dreams this year as Sarah Sanderson from “Hocus Pocus”. Photo courtesy of Sofie Kassaras

Cartwright will also be dressing up as the Avenger Thor this year, since her roommate is planning to dress up as Loki from the newly released “Loki” series, also on Disney+. Cartwright said she often plays the blond character in group costumes because of her natural blond hair. In past years, she has been Donna from Donna and the Dynamos in a “Mamma Mia!” themed costume and Sarah Sanderson from the iconic Halloween film “Hocus Pocus.” 

For that same reason, Sofie Kassaras, a sophomore creative writing major, will also be the wickedly spooky Sarah Sanderson in a group costume she is doing with her roommates as the only blond in the group. Kassaras loves dressing up as mythical characters due to her Greek family being big believers in energies and curses. Additionally, she is a crystal enthusiast, so dressing up as a witch allows her to live out all her witchcraft dreams. 

“I like the idea of just pretending to be someone else for a night and leaving yourself behind,” Kassaras said.

Kassaras is currently piecing together her costume with a corset and long magical skirt and plans on accessorizing the outfit with potion bottles for special detail. 

She has often pieced together her own costumes rather than buying them, since she said it makes her costumes look more unique. Kassaras recalled being assigned an element from the periodic table that she had to dress up as in third grade and covering herself with a large amount of glitter to shine like the metal she was. 

Alessia Alamul, a sophomore psychology major, told The Panther she is going for a more low-maintenance outfit as Beatrix “The Bride” Kiddo from “Kill Bill” which consists of a bright yellow jumpsuit. She and her brother have been going through a phase of watching classic films, and their most recent watch was “Kill Bill,” which gave her the inspiration.

Alamul often dresses up as characters from films and gravitates toward whimsical films with dark undertones such as “Catwoman” and “The Adams Family'' to pull costume inspiration from. She also loves feeling like a “badass” on Halloween and thinks dressing up as Uma Thurman’s character embodies this personality-type. However, Alamul’s Halloween costumes have become more mature over the years, she still likes to keep an element of nostalgia in her costumes, because she said she believes in keeping that childlike wonder in Halloween. 

“I like anything that brings back childhood nostalgia with a little bit of trauma — those movies that would scare you as a child, but when you grew up, you kind of learned to appreciate the weirdness in them,'' Alamul said. 

Holmes is also bringing nostalgia to her costumes this year with her Aquamarine and Tinker Bell looks. She and five of her friends went thrifting to find dresses that correspond with different fairies from “Pixie Hollow.” Holmes found a cream-colored dress at the thrift store and was able to dye it a Tinker-Bell green. She will be making her wings out of pantyhose and wire hangers.

Holmes is no stranger to dressing up as movie characters. She went to the same high school that Greta Gerwig went to and dressed up as Ladybird one year, which was a joy for her, since she was a film lover then and a student in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts now. Growing up, Holmes and her mom  would sew her Halloween costumes together, and she loved coming up with creative ways to make her vision a reality. She loves that once a year everyone can get creative and dress up together, because it reminds her of her childhood.

“Your inhibition is just gone,” Holmes said. “You just get to play pretend for a couple of days, and it's not only you pretending — it's everybody else — which is very fun.”