Frankenstein costumes

Frankenstein costumes were in a book written by the young Mary Shelley when she was only nineteen years old, and in a time when women writers were not well received. But despite that it is a lasting novel that we still read to this day as a requirement for school. Dr. Frankenstein attempted to do the unthinkable in this novel, and bring a monster -made of dead human parts- to life. He succeeded.

The most well known version of this monster is probably not what young Ms. Shelley had in mind when she was writing the book, but is nevertheless what we think of when the word ‘Frankenstein’ is mentioned. It is the image of Boris Karloff who played Frankenstein’s Monster in the movie ‘Frankenstein’ that was made in 1931. In this film the monster was portrayed as a freakishly large man with an excess of forehead and a skull that was squared at the top and seemed to be stitched together at various points. He wore tattered clothing, and very large platform boots. More often than not (though the movie was in black and white) Frankenstein’s monster has a green skin tone.

In the event that you wanted to be this horror culture staple for Halloween the path to accomplishing this goal would be very easy. There are masks for both the Boris Karloff version of the monster as well as more grotesque versions of what I imagine the original monster from the book might’ve looked like in Mary’s head. Additionally there are fx make-up kits available that feature a plastic ‘topper’ that you would put on your head to give the illusion that it was square, and comes with make up so that you can blend the plastic piece with your own forehead to give it a seamless effect. Though I am sure the Frankenstein outfit is available for purchase, you could probably do just as well buying a suit coat from good will and a pair of platform shoes off the internet. There really isn’t much to the outfit that you would have to be specific about, whether everyone recognizes you or not is really based on what you do with your costume from the neck up.