Jessai Flores

Halloween always sneaks up on me. As soon as midterms finish slapping me in the face, the group chat is suddenly panicking about fishnets and fake blood. But don’t worry. If you, like me, have found yourself in this last-minute pickle, you don’t need a Spirit Halloween budget — or energy — to have a good costume. You can pull it off with just a Sharpie, eyeliner and some audacity. Here are a few last-minute Halloween costumes that require zero Amazon Prime orders, just commitment and a white t-shirt you don’t really care about.

Let the makeup carry. If you have some talented friends and black eyeliner, the options are limitless. 

Wear all black and do your makeup as:

• A skeleton
• A clown
• A leopard
• A cat
• A vampire
• Jigsaw

Add a little fake blood, smudge your eyeshadow, and boom — you’re suddenly mysterious, vaguely terrifying and super hot.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith. There are two roads you can take with this: hot, betrayed Mr. and Mrs. Smith or flirty first meeting Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

For the iconic shootout scene, you’ll need:

• Red boots
• White pajamas
• Sexual tension

For the equally-as-iconic movie poster of the movie, you’ll need:

• A black tux
• A long black dress, or any iteration of all-black clothes
• A gun — optional, and fake, please

Subway Surfers. Because nothing says “Halloween 2025” like dressing up as a video game character people only play on planes.

For Trixie, you’ll need:

• Big black glasses
• Jeans
• A white tank top
• Red underwear peeking out
• A red hat

For Jake:

• A hoodie
• A jean jacket
• A cap

If you and your friends run everywhere you go, hopefully not from a cop, you’ve committed to the bit. 

Blank T-Shirt Icons. If you have a white t-shirt and a sharpie, you have an unlimited number of Halloween costumes. 

For example, you could be everyone’s childhood crush: Rodrick Heffley. A super easy costume would be to cut up a shirt, write “Loded Diaper” on it, smoke out your eyes, and emulate the worst and hottest older brother to ever exist.

For Rodrick, you’ll need:

• Eyeliner
• A blank t-shirt
• A sharpie
• Drumsticks — optional, but elite

A couple other blank t-shirt costumes could be Brad Pitt wearing “Need Money for Porsche,” Regina George wearing a purple bra and a cut-up tank top or Jim Halpert wearing three holes.

Patrick Bateman. You can kill me, but can you add me on LinkedIn first? Channel your inner — or outer, for some of you — male manipulator and Wall Street nightmare.

You’ll need:

• A suit
• A red tie
• Wired headphones
• Hair gel
• Optional: a clear poncho and fake blood
• Mandatory: an underground music taste

You’ll be the scariest thing this Halloween: a performative male in investment banking.

Whether you end up in a t-shirt, pajamas or nothing at all, the best costumes are the ones that make your friends laugh and your parents mildly concerned. So raid your closet, borrow some eyeliner, and embrace the chaos — Halloween is less about perfection and more about the bit. If you look like you tried just enough, you nailed it.