Lille Allen/Jordan Moss
Yes, you should be dressing as the eggs from ‘The Substance’ this Halloween
We’re a week away from Halloween, and while the task of finding a solid costume might feel daunting, just remember: It’s not assembling a costume that’s hard, but coming up with one in the first place that is the real challenge. How do you hit that perfect note between clever, viral costume and a Halloween get-up that feels maybe a little too niche or try-hard? The queer side of TikTok has suggested dressing up as a “bloody, broken piece of glass from the mirror that Demi Moore breaks in The Substance,” which is totally a joke (but also, not).
When it came to clocking the best viral food-related moments of the year, Eater’s staff had no shortage of costume-worthy ideas. One coworker suggested a very #brat apple, while others brought up Nara Smith and the tradwife phenomenon. (If I were craftier, I would absolutely dress up as Ballerina Farm’s Aga range.) Together with the chronically online Eater staff, I have whipped up a selection of low stakes, high reward 2024 Halloween costume ideas for lovers of food and pop culture, from the folks who are still humming “Espresso” on the subway, to the Great British Baking Show viewers making Dylan Bachelet fancams.
The churro from Challengers
No spoilers here, but suffice to say that there was a very horny churro-centered scene in Challengers that caused such online commotion, that director Luca Guadagnino participated in a breakdown video about the scene that received half a million views. Here’s everything you need to recreate the magic of that scene on the streets of your city.
A very brat apple
Brat summer went hard, no question about it. And while Charlie XCX may have officially declared the era to be over on her Instagram, the legacy of the TikTok apple dance endures. If you’re looking for a comfortable yet viral take on the album, we have you covered.
“Go back to the club (sandwich)”
Perhaps the biggest dad pun costume on our list, this next Halloween costume pays homage to the presently-viral scene in Megalopolis where Adam Driver’s character tells Nathalie Emmanuel’s character to “Go back to the clUuUub” instead of plowing the riches of his Emersonian mind. We say: Why not take the viral moment to the next level by becoming a club sandwich, and simply writing “GO BACK TO THE CLUB” on your chest/bread?
Everyone’s ‘Great British Baking Show’ crush
Baking competition enthusiasts, bisexuals, and people who may have had a childhood crush on the main animated mouse in An American Tail (so, me) have amassed a big, collective crush on Dylan Bachelet, a competitor on the current season of Great British Baking Show from Buckinghamshire. Rarely, if ever, has a contestant brought such a hot-pirate-who-bakes energy to the show. Here’s everything you need to recreate his look:
Nara Smith, queen of high fashion Mormon trad wives
I never miss a Nara Smith TikTok. The Mormon model-turned-TikTok-creator and her husband, model Lucky Blue Smith of Tumblr lore, are hypnotically beautiful and entertaining to watch, whether the former is making gum from scratch or the two of them are unpacking takeout. The best way to recreate Smith’s look as a Halloween costume is, of course, to carry around a few baking essentials while wearing full evening wear à la Nara.
That’s that you espresso
Sabrina Carpenter gave us one another of the summer’s best songs with “Espresso,” and while there will be plenty of Carpenters (as her fans are called) in sparkly outfits on the streets, a more literal take on her “that’s that me espresso” lyric is to, in fact, dress up as the singer in a coffee cup.
The unsettling egg from ‘The Substance’
As Mayukh Sen explains in this Eater article, The Substance is one of the best horror — and, food – movies in years. The body horror film has a rather unsettling scene in the beginning with a double-yolked egg, and it sure would be perfect for Halloween this year.
Cursed Stanley Cup
Last but certainly not least, we couldn’t leave out the saga of the Stanley Cup. Not since the rise of Rae Dunn dishes have we observed such a cultural dishware-adjacent craze. You can even go hyper-meta, and walk around with your own Stanley Cup while dressed as a blood-spattered Stanley Quencher.
