DarkSpectre;109142
The pumpkin shaped head is definitely what will get your costume noticed. I have a cloak with tattered sleeves and its tattered on the bottom. I picked it up at Walmart. The costume is called “Phantom”. It's the one with the blacked out face.
Thanks for the info, DS, and pray they still sell it this year…I have a funny feeling I'm going for it. I'll post my super-secret recipe right here, so I don't forget where it is.
I'm using Trendmasters' EGB Sam Hain actionfigure as the basis of the costume, BTW.
THE HEAD
A pumpkin-shaped head with sufficiently large triangular eyeholes cut out (I forget what the exact triangle is called…I think it's an obtuse triangle with 180 degrees at the bottom), a VERY small, triangular nose-hole cut out, and a huge empty space where the mouth should be, as the wearer will use his own mouth and teeth.
If you want to go down the authentic, stink-all-night route you can use a real pumpkin, but
if you're smart like me, you'll go for a more lightweight foam pumpkin.
A note to all costume makers: You would be wise to build some kind of a “harness” or helmet into your pumpkin-head so as to make it stay on better. I'm thinking of one of those fake baseball helmets with the adjustable headpiece inside it.
THE MAKEUP
You'll need black makeup around your eyes, on your nose, and around your mouth. You could, if you prefer, use some kind of see-through fabric behind the eyes, or a see-through mask of some kind. Keep in mind that you'll be using your own mouth if you use the mask!
As for the mouth, you can swish some blackcurrant juice around inside your mouth so that your tongue and upper throat will turn black but your teeth will stay shiny white.
You might want to build a voice-changer inside your mask; they go for about $2-3 at Party City if you want one of the cheaper, lower-grade ones. Be careful, because I find they tend to fail after a while.
THE COSTUME
As DarkSpectre noted above, the Phantom costume from Rubie's ought to do just fine. You will need to sew some fake patches onto the cape and collar…
If you want to wear something underneath, you can go for something form-fitting in either tan or black. I'd recommend tan if you wanted to build-up the chest area with one of those bleeding skeleton chests.
A pair of “skeleton” gloves completes the effect. If you want to make them more accurate and spray paint them silver, go ahead.
You may want to eschew the cat-o-nine-tails and the butcher's implements found inside the cloak. They might get you into trouble…