- Pop Culture Halloween costume ideas for 2024
- From Chappell Roan to Moo Deng
- Movie and TV-inspired choices
Halloween is fast approaching and this year and we’ve had no shortage of costume inspiration.
From viral trends to WTF moments, 2024 isn’t even over yet and it’s already gifted us with a range of gems that’ll make for the perfect pop culture Halloween costumes.
Of course, there are a few obvious movie and TV-themed choices – many of which can be quickly facilitated via a quick online purchase. However, look hard enough and you’ll find a handful of out-of-the-box choices that simply require a curated wardrobe, a little ingenuity and the willingness to constantly remind people who you’re supposed to be dressed as throughout all of Halloween night.
So with that in mind, here’s just a small selection of the best pop culture Halloween costumes for 2024…
Beetlejuice
Let’s start with what’s bound to be one of 2024’s most popular Halloween costumes. Released in October 2024, Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, became an unlikely box office hit beating a number of subsequent releases to snag the number one spot for three consecutive weekends. Not bad for a dead guy.
Is its success largely thanks to Jenna Ortega’s popularity with Gen Z? Probably. Are we guaranteed to see a sea of guys dressed in stripy suits with crudely applied monochrome and green face paint this 31 October? Definitely.
That said, we’re not just expecting the juice to be loose this Halloween; it’s a safe bet that cinema’s OG-emo-goth queen Lydia Deetz will be making an appearance too, with fans paying tribute to one of Winona Ryder’s most iconic and enduring on-screen roles.
Moo Deng
Like a regular hippo but tiny, Moo Deng practically became the internet’s new mascot after pictures of this adorable pygmy hippopotamus went viral in September.
An inhabitant of Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, this mini-favourite quickly caught the attention of social media fans with her bite-happy sassiness inspiring countless memes and even an appearance on Saturday Night Live.
It wasn’t all fun and games though. After gaining intense popularity practically overnight, keepers at her zoo were forced to install security cameras to ensure her safety and ask her newfound fans to stop throwing objects at her to wake her up while she was sleeping.
With such a rabid interest in this tiny round creature, we’re confident that Moo Deng will emerge as one of the most popular pop culture Halloween costume ideas for 2024.
Surely, all you’d need is a bit of grey insulation foam and a feisty attitude?
Chappell Roan
Make no mistake, 2024 has been Chappell Roan’s year, with the Missouri-born singer-songwriter making a near-constant string of headlines, including a fair few encounters with photographers on red carpets.
She’s also served up some very different looks in a relatively short period of time, something which provides fans with a wealth of material to choose from this Halloween.
From pig-nosed Roan, to her many simple (well, simple in Roan-terms, that is) yet highly distinctive public appearance looks, it goes without saying that Halloween 2024 will be filled with more Roans than you can shake a mic stand at.
The question is: which one will you be?
JoJo Siwa
Former Nickelodeon star Joelle Joanie Siwa reinvented herself in a big way earlier this year – and it didn’t take long for the internet to sit up and take notice.
After making a name for herself as a child star on shows like The Thundermans and Lip Sync Battle Shorties, Siwa rebranded herself at the start of the year, complete with a fauxhawk, distinctive eye make-up and a fashion style that was completely her own.
From there on out, social media kept a close eye on JoJo Siwa – particularly as she continued to deliver her own overly-aggressive-looking dance routine whenever and wherever she could.
Needless to say, it quickly became a meme.
Considering this look only really involves some vibrant make-up, the pep provided by a cheap energy drink and, for some reason, an orange hi-vis vest, Siwa’s style is very easy to pull off.
All in all, it’s a top choice for those looking for a cheap and cheerful pop-culture-based Halloween costume this year.
The Menendez brothers
TV is a powerful thing. When Ryan Murphy dropped the latest instalment of his serial-killer drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story in September 2024, little did anyone know that its impact could potentially lead to the release of its titular siblings – both of whom are currently serving life without parole for killing their parents in 1989.
However, before we see Lyle and Eric back on the streets we’re much more likely to see people dressed exactly like them at Halloween parties across the country.
Throughout Murphy’s popular Netflix series, both Lyle (Nicholas Alexander Chavez) and Erik (Cooper Koch) delivered a number of iconic looks, primarily using a preppy, early 90s Los Angeles aesthetic as their guiding ethos.
For this, a simple pair of shades and a jumper tied around your shoulders would suffice, while those willing to go for the less expected route could don a prison jumpsuit and dress as the duo post-sentencing.
Either way, a healthy dose of self-entitlement is needed to complete the look.
Joker: Folie à Deux’s Harleen Quinzel
Joker: Folie à Deux may have been a dud at the box office but it’s guaranteed to be a sure-fire hit his Halloween.
The Joker and Harley Quinn are always popular choices during the spooky season thanks to the characters’ popularity among pop culture fans. However, with director Todd Phillips’ all-singing, all-dancing sequel, audiences now have a completely new take on Harley Quinn to sink their teeth into.
Played by Lady Gaga, this revamped Quinn keeps things simple, with punters only requiring minimal makeup and a few strategically placed blood splatters to become the character.
It’s also the ideal couple’s costume idea too, as your other half can dress as Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck.
Willy Wonka experience
So much stuff has happened this year that it can be easy to forget that Glasgow’s failed Willy Wonka experience caught the internet by surprise just two months into the New Year – and what a spectacle it was.
From its lame attempt at delivering an “immersive” event and reliance on so-called ‘dreamlike’ AI-generated imagery to that now infamous image of a depressed-looking Oompa Loompa who would rather be doing literally anything else with their time – this one-off event had it all, just not for the people who actually attended it.
From a Halloween point of view, there are two big contenders here.
First, is the aforementioned Oompa Loompa; all you’d need is some orange faceprint, a green wig and a dead-behind-the-eyes look that’s abandoned all hope.
The second is the event’s big bad – a seemingly made-up villain known only as The Unknown who, according to the event, was “an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls.”
To dress as this character, all you’d need is the little amount of ingenuity used by its creators – i.e a black robe, silver facemask and a mirror to hide behind for some still-unexplained reason.
Easy.
