Cammie Wilks, Campus Carrier features editor

Bella Patton, Campus Carrier asst. features editor

As the air gets colder and green leaves begin to turn red and brown, many people are preparing for that familiar, ghoulish holiday that takes place at the end of October: Halloween. Part of getting into the spooky spirit includes sharing ghost stories, watching horror movies, purchasing candy and more. 

One of the most iconic aspects of Halloween is dressing up in a costume. Whether dressing up in an elaborate costume of a favorite character or cutting two circles in a white sheet and pretending to be a ghost, fun costumes every Halloween are always guaranteed. Rome will be no different, with children running down Broad Street and Berry students attending events in their own costumes.

There have been and will be many events on campus that encourage students to dress up in their costumes and embrace the season. One of these events is Berry Dismembered, created by Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Clinton Peters. This horror-film marathon in Evans features lots of movies, excitement and Halloween decor.

“Horror does a great job of shutting off the analytical brain,” Peters said. “I think you experience horror films on a primal level, and I feel like that actually teaches me who I am in different ways than any other type of film. I just think horror makes people more open because of how vulnerable it makes you, and I think that’s really cool.”

Many students went to Dismembered dressed up. The event featured a screaming and costume contest. Other events, such as Monster and Busters and Another One Bites the Dust had students dressing up, eating delicious food, socializing and having a great time.

Associate Professor and Director of Theatre Alice Bristow is no stranger to costumes. Every year, she handcrafts costumes with students to help portray all kinds of characters on the big stage. This semester, Bristow is working on a stage production of “She Kills Monsters” and is in the beginning stages of crafting costumes. In the play, the characters switch between the real world and the fantasy world of Dungeon and Dragons, which Bristow shows through the characters’ costume changes. 

“I start by compiling all my visual research and then I start making sketches,” Bristow said. “The sketches are a way 

of thinking through my pencil and figuring out what each character could look  like.” 

For students who may be making their own costumes this year, this story is familiar. Thinking and finding the perfect pieces for a costume can take a lot of planning to accomplish their original idea. For Bristow, seeing everything finally come together with a costume embodying a character is one of the biggest rewards of her job. 

“It helps create the world,” Bristow said. “It tells the rest of the story for the characters; maybe they’ve been in a fight, or they’ve been working hard, or they are of a certain socioeconomic status.” 

Just like student-created costumes, Bristow creates her outfits using different textures, shapes and colors to match these specific traits of her characters. Students are now also likely to be putting the finishing touches on their costumes. Whether dressed in a last-minute outfit or in a detailed costume of their own like Bristow, students are encouraged to find creative ways to celebrate the holiday.

“What I love about costumes is that you get to be someone else for just a brief period of time,” Peters said. “It is only one day out of the year. For the rest of time, you can be anything, but in this moment, you can be anything.”

No matter what kind of costume a person wears, they are guaranteed to have a great time this Halloween. After all, Halloween is the one night ever year when everyone can pretend to be whoever they want to be, so prepare for a night of spooky fun.