The arrival of fall means the approach of Spooky Season. And if you're anything like us, you started brainstorming costume designs and online shopping for party decor about two months ago. But with endless options for drink ideas, horror-themed snacks, and home accessories, there's also plenty of room for things to go wrong. But don't worry; we've put together this list of real people's Halloween flops so that you can learn from their mistakes (and get some good laughs while you're at it).
When You're the Only Parent Dressed up for the School's Costume Parade
This dad certainly stood out in the crowd of parents when he went to his kid's costume parade in the coolest outfit ever. And maybe he felt silly having messed up the event's parental dress code, but he sure didn't show it. Or maybe he knew others wouldn't be in costume and just didn't care. Either way, his kid was probably able to find his dad among the other parents easily and couldn't wait to show him off to friends.
This dad is awesome for showing up at his kid's Halloween parade, but the fact that he is also in a monster costume makes it even better.
We Hope He's Not Bringing Any Dates Home This Halloween Season
The police were called to this home after someone thought they'd witnessed a murder in their neighborhood. But the cops were happy to find out that what looked like a body wrapped, duct taped, and thrown into a nearby ditch was just a well-done Halloween decoration. It was all fun, games, and laughter when all three people in this picture managed to talk things out and clear up the misunderstanding.
Most Halloween lovers would say there is no such thing as "too far" when decorating your home, and we're guessing this man would agree with that statement.
When It's Halloween but You're Also an Introvert
This spiderweb design is genius, especially for anyone who wants to keep everyone else away. We're guessing that was this homeowner's goal as they put up their decor. Anyone planning to knock on this door would turn right back around as soon as they saw these spiderwebs since they would have to walk through the creepy accessories before making it to the door. We recommend that introverts out there take inspiration from this design.
One of the spookiest things for any introvert is when someone randomly starts knocking on your door, especially if you're home alone. That's when these Halloween decorations come in handy.
We Have a Feeling Whoever Chose These Decorations Got Fired
You probably let out quite a few chuckles after you realized that this cemetery-themed wallpaper is on a nursing home wall. But while we think it's a funny mishap, we have a feeling the employee in charge of prepping the place for Halloween didn't think it was so funny when their manager called them in for a private meeting. What was supposed to be festive decorations turned into a fail that probably got some people in trouble.
It's super cute that this nursing home decided to get festive for the upcoming Halloween season, but it would have been better if they chose something that wasn't a graveyard.
Hey Frankenstein, Watch Your Hand!
Someone bought these Frankenstein leggings thinking they were super cute until they put them on, realized the issue, and then took this hilarious photo. Unfortunately, Frankenstein seems to be reaching for an area that is off limits, which means that these leggings have the ultimate design flaw. We can't help but wonder what this clothing company was thinking when they printed these and then decided they were perfect for selling.
These leggings might not be your costume of choice on Halloween, and you're probably better off that way. Otherwise, you might potentially get some weird looks from any nearby strangers.
Trickster Packaging: Halloween Edition
One of the best parts of Halloween is the specially themed edible items, and If you are a spooky-season veteran, you've probably seen these eyeball candies at least once in your life. Usually, taking off the wrappers will lead you to a delicious chocolate ball that isn't as strange looking as the one in this picture. In this case, the wrapper opened up to reveal a weird, mushy-looking candy with no eyeball on it at all.
It's all fun and games with this super cool-looking candy eyeball until you remove the wrapper and realize your appetite for something sweet has disappeared.
And That's How He Learned Dominoes and Domino's Pizza Are Not the Same
Some office employees like to dress up together for any kind of holiday season, but as you can see, those plans aren't always executed successfully. It seems like everyone on this team decided to dress up as dominoes. But one guy got the classic table game confused with the classic pizza chain, Domino's Pizza. Honestly, his mistake only makes the group costume better. Who doesn't love a good, dad-joke-level pun?
This might be our favorite fail so far, but the best is yet to come.
They Got the Mario-Yoshi Proportions Uncomfortably Wrong
If you're not really into Super Mario, then you may not be able to spot this costume's big issue unless you think long and hard about what's going on here. But don't worry, we're here to spell it out for you: these designers got the famous characters' proportions totally wrong. As demonstrated by the illustration on the right, this outfit makes it seem like Super Mario is very short and Yoshi is unusually tall.
A Super Mario costume might be a great thing to wear for Halloween - unless it's this one.
Which One's Lying to Us?
This supermarket might have put the cream cheese where it belongs, but we'd recommend that they rearrange the display. That's because the pumpkin spice flavor sits right on top of the smoked salmon, and the two products look exactly the same. This will confuse many customers who accidentally buy one when they intend to buy the other. That could've been avoided if the designers behind this packaging had put a bit more effort into creating a unique pumpkin spice container.
Imagine thinking you're about to bite into a bagel topped with smoked salmon cream cheese only to taste pumpkin on your tongue.
It Was Supposed to Be a Sweating Pumpkin...
This poorly painted pumpkin was supposed to look scared or nervous, hence the dripping sweat. Unfortunately, it seems more concerned about what those sweat droplets look like than anything else, and you can probably see why. In fact, we're a bit concerned ourselves because the texture and consistency don't really look like anything close to sweat. Creating the sweat beads with clear glue instead of white would probably be a good idea for the next time.
We're just going to hope you can understand what these droplets of sweat look like without us explaining it to you.
He Accidentally Ordered the Kid's Version
Someone's dad thought he would get into the holiday spirit while on vacation during Halloween, so he brought a costume with him. It seems like he might have forgotten to try it on beforehand because it looks like he accidentally brought a child-sized costume. We have a feeling his entire family was laughing big time if he ended up walking around in that during their Disney Land trip.
This dad thought he was well prepared for Halloween day at Disney World, but sadly, he thought wrong.
The Designer Should've Thought Twice Before Producing This One
When a company makes and sells clothes for a holiday, they should probably think twice or at least do some spell check regarding the design. Something went wrong with the shirt below when someone decided to put the candy corn in the wrong place, and nobody realized it. Thankfully, it seems like these were made for little kids who would still enjoy this shirt without noticing that something is wrong with it.
At first glance, it might seem like there is nothing wrong here. But if the designers had some more common sense, the candy corn would be the "V" in the word love rather than the "O."
Cleopatra Dumped Caesar Salad Dressing the Next Day
You can probably tell that this woman wasn't really thrilled about the couple's costume mishap that happened here. It seems like she spent a ton of time making herself look as close to Cleopatra as possible, and things were going well until her significant other showed up dressed in a salad dressing costume. You can tell by the look on her face that this wasn't planned; honestly, that only makes it funnier.
The girl on the left doesn't look very happy with the apparent miscommunication here, which resulted in one dressing as Cleopatra and the other as a caesar salad dressing package rather than Caeser, the historical icon.
It Was All Fun and Games Until the Firefighters Showed up
You probably wouldn't be surprised if we told you that this fake fire scene resulted in many fire department visits. That's because this looks so incredibly realistic that we can see why it would be hard to differentiate the lights and steam from a real flame. Thankfully, this was all just a bit of Halloween spirit, and the details that went into this project are pretty impressive, which means this was probably the best-decorated house on the block.
This house strayed away from the dead body decorations and decided to be a bit different than all the other houses. Still, this fake fire resulted in a handful of concerned yet relieved police visits.
We Thought the Pentagram Was Supposed to Be Five-Pointed
These orange and black spider tights could've been a cute addition to our Halloween costumes until someone pointed out that they were accidentally designed with the Star of David instead of the Pentagram. While the two might look similar at first glance, the Star of David has six points, while the Pentagram has five. The mishap is undoubtedly funny, but we imagine plenty of people didn't notice the mistake until after they wore them and friends embarrassingly pointed it out.
We don't recommend putting these on and wearing them for Halloween; you will definitely cause a bit of confusion.
We Can't Imagine This Went Over Well With the Neighbors
It probably would have been smart if these residents had put some notice outside stating that this car crash was entirely fake and only for decoration purposes. But they didn't. So the fake blood, doll pinned against the tree, and yellow caution tape understandably alarmed plenty of neighbors. In fact, many of them complained about the yard decorations, claiming they were too gruesome and offensive.
In our opinion, the only neighbors who would be angry about this set-up would be those who really aren't that much into Halloween or prefer the side of the holiday that isn't as terrifying.
And That's Why Written Party Invites Are Still Beneficial
The guy pictured on the left was invited to a Greece-themed costume party, but he had the wrong Greece in mind when he received the invitation. The party was based on the movie Grease, so he was slightly embarrassed when he walked into the party wearing only a Greek-inspired robe. It seems like most of his friends had a pretty big laugh, and he probably ended up being the joke of the party.
The poor guy thought he was dressing accordingly for a costume party. Everything was going well until other people arrived, and he realized he had messed up.
The Manager Asked Why No One Came in on Halloween
This McDonald's branch decided to subtly decorate for Halloween by putting up nothing other than a "do not enter" sign on their front door. We can imagine that the employees here were certainly laughing as they taped this thing up and might have secretly wanted people to leave, and can you blame them? You might as well use the holiday season to have a little fun while working a long shift at the bustling burger chain.
Anyone that forgot it was Halloween and was in the mood for a Mcdonald's burger probably turned away quickly after walking up to this front door and finding caution tape.
This Teletubby Costume Is a Crime Against Humanity
This picture might have made you want to go and hide after first seeing it, and truthfully, we felt the same way. That's because whatever is going here goes above and beyond unnatural. It seems like someone wanted to make a homemade version of Teletubby but instead created some kind of neon green demon. This thing belongs nowhere other than a trash can unless whoever made this is okay with being haunted for eternity.
Teletubbies are pretty weird-looking, so the highly deformed duct-taped face and bright red eyes popping out of the head are just too much.
Two Right Feet That Make a Wrong
If you only took a quick glance at this pair of Halloween socks, you might not have noticed that something is actually very wrong with them. It took us a moment to figure out the blunder here ourselves. But once we saw it, we couldn't unsee it. For some reason, there are two right feet on these socks, and a left one is nowhere to be found.
These seasonal Halloween socks had the right idea at first, but it seems like whoever printed these didn't know much about human anatomy.
Blood Suddenly Looks Like Something Else When You Put It There
Someone went to the store and got this bloody decoration for their toilet, and based on the fact that they took this picture, it seems like they're pretty proud of it. And we would be, too, if we didn't think the toilet was the absolute worst place to put this decoration. What was supposed to be dripping, creepy blood quickly turned into a toilet overflowing with gross number two.
This toilet might not be so inviting, but maybe that was the goal. After all, it's the spooky season.
Expectations Versus Reality
Someone thought they would go ahead and create a ghost cupcake based on a recipe they found online. Unfortunately, the results were much scarier than initially intended, and things didn't go well compared to the picture on the left. It seems like they've created a very confused or concerned cloud as opposed to a ghost cupcake, but regardless of how it looks, it still probably tastes just as good as any other cupcake.
Baking for Halloween can seriously be super fun, but as you can tell, recipes might end up creating the fluffy icing monster that you never thought could ever actually exist.
Just When We Thought Pennywise Couldn't Get Any Scarier
Somewhere in the world, on Halloween night, a miniature Pennywise was haunting the streets, looking just like this one. We're not sure who designed this costume and thought that it actually looked accurate because they've somehow created something way scarier than the real thing. There might not be many people who could recognize which character this costume was supposed to be, but at least this little guy fits in with the Halloween vibe.
Simply put, this costume is incredibly horrifying, and any child running around in this thing should probably be stopped. Mainly to prevent any potential adult nightmares that this would create.
We've Never Seen a Bat Like This Before
As you can tell, this chocolate company had big dreams when it came to selling candy for the Halloween season. They originally intended for these chocolates to be bat-shaped, but once they're opened, they are just a monstrous blob of peanut butter and chocolate. Even if they are just a ball of mess, these bat chocolates still seem like a good fit for Halloween, and of course, it's the thought that counts.
Thankfully, this peanut butter cup looks like it will still taste as good as the real thing, even if it might not look like anything close to what it's supposed to be.
He Dressed up as the Wrong Kind of Biker
Dressing up as a biker gang is one of the more common costume choices during Halloween, which is why this guy was thinking smart without even realizing it. These two planned on matching costumes for Halloween, and a biker gang was the theme of choice. But as you can tell, only one of them seemed to understand the plan. She got the part right and rocked a leather jacket, choker necklace, and all-black.
But he misunderstood the assignment and dressed up as the other kind of biker.
Nothing's Scarier Than Not Being Able to Open Your Beer
Someone thought this bottle opener would be a great buy, especially since it had skull designs. Those skulls, though, ended up being the only thing that kept it from actually working. This person was super disappointed when they realized they had just spent money on a bottle opener that can't actually open a single bottle. This thing would have been way better as a decoration than a helpful kitchen tool.
The thing about bottle openers is that they're usually helpful and are intentionally made to have a very important purpose - opening up bottles.
We Hope There Aren't Any Kids in the Neighborhood
The owner of this house thought that creating the biggest murder crime scene outside of his home would be a really great idea. He put so much fine detail into it, like body bags and bright red blood, only to have the cops called on him several times. From a distance, it might be hard to realize that this wasn't actually real and was, in fact, a big and very terrifying joke for Halloween.
We can see why there were some concerned neighbors because if therewase ever a way to go a bit overboard when decorating for Halloween, this would probably be it.
A Cotton Candy Costume of Nightmares
This kid really wanted to be cotton candy for Halloween and wouldn't give up until they were able to get the costume handmade. The thought was cute, but unfortunately for this kid, it was pretty terrifying in practice. Receiving candy won't be a problem if you show up in front of someone's door looking like this since permanent fright would be guaranteed. They'd give you candy as quickly as possible just to make you go away.
Kids often have weird requests when it comes to dressing up for the holidays, and parents often go out of their way to make them the very best that they can.
Someone Definitely Called the HOA on Them
You might be a bit alarmed if you walked past your neighbor's house and saw what looks to be an entire family hanging from a tree. This decorative scene might have been a bit too much, and it probably would have been great if they didn't make it look like children were hanging from here, but some people have no limits when it comes to Halloween decorating (and we can't help but respect that).
This super scary scene could be considered a failure because it looks so real that most normal people passing by would consider calling the police.
This Halloween Shop Is Making Us See Double
This Halloween Spirit store put up a window display like they usually do before they open up for the holiday. It's a place where everyone goes to pick up costumes and decorations, but this creepy thing in the window might make you want to turn away before making it to the door. Someone didn't think twice when they glued this creature, which is now split into two halves due to the window frames.
The only time this window display could actually look normal is if you work hard to squint your eyes while looking from a distance. Go ahead, try it.
How to Do the Bare Minimum for Halloween
Whoever manages this gas station put this dinosaur up for a different event and decided to dress him for the upcoming Halloween season appropriately. He might be wearing one of the most basic costumes of all time, and you probably think that someone cut a few holes in a sheet, but it's still a timely classic. It even seems like this dinosaur is ready and excited to knock on some doors before begging for candy.
You might be judging a bit at this point, but there is no denying that this dinosaur looks cute in its homemade ghost costume.
Who's Gonna Tell Them Spiders and Scorpions Have Exoskeletons?
This Halloween store put out these spider and scorpion skeleton decorations. The problem? These creatures have exoskeletons. Of course, plenty of people would buy these without realizing that they aren't built this way in real life. Though, the more time you spend examining the spider, the less those bones make sense. We could also say the same thing about the scorpion. But we guess the goal is for it to be creepy, and creepy it is.
But if you're super into the anatomy of bugs and crustaceans, then you probably know that they don't actually look like this.
Michael Myers' Actual Halloween House
Whoever put up this decoration in front of where they live must really love Michael Myers since their own home seems to have been taken over by his. They literally built a life-sized house that looks like it came straight out of the movie, and we love it. The front of the house looks so incredibly real that most trick-or-treaters will be too terrified to pass by on Halloween night.
Okay, if you've looked at the second picture, then you probably already know this isn't actually Michael Myers' house, but it does look pretty close to being the real thing.
The Realistic Decorations Are Getting Out of Hand
If you might have thought these are wrapped-up dead bodies sitting out on somebody's lawn, there's no need to fear because these are just a bunch of low-effort Halloween decorations that are still pretty scary. The fact that this house looks both bare and cold could make this scene look worse than it is, but these homeowners deserve an award for the biggest fright with the smallest amount of work done. It looks so real you almost have to blink twice before getting the full picture.
These decorations might not be as detailed and gory as many other ones, but it is still nonetheless shocking if you walked passed this scene and didn't really know what was going on.
A Toothbrush Carving That Fittingly Looks More Like a Knife
You might have noticed that this girl was super disappointed in her pumping carving, but the issue might have started when she decided what to carve in the first place. We say that only because she chose a toothbrush which is a super unusual design of choice for anyone who isn't a dentist or planning to become one. Clearly, things didn't really go to plan, which is why she took this picture.
We're not sure why any person would be interested in carving a toothbrush into a pumpkin which means that she might have been the first person to make an attempt.