Halloween Costume: The Shining

I already talked about using a projector to prototype a Halloween costume. One Halloween idea that worked out better than I expected was Jack Nicholson from The Shining. Remember the scene when Jack axes his way through a door, announcing “Here’s Johnny!”? It looked like this in the movie:

Jack Nicholson!

I started by letting some stubble grow out, and on the day I took the picture, I left my hair messy. I also ordered a plastic axe.

It turns out that this picture was perfect for a long canvas I had. I used Pixlr to edit Jack out. In a quick test, it looked like this:

Jack Nicholson!

That’s when I realized for a light projector, you want to edit out with white, not black. A little more work and I was quite happy with the results:

Jack Nicholson!

Let me tell you, it only got more creepy from there:

Jack Nicholson!

Oh, did I forget my axe? Let’s bring that into the scene:

Jack Nicholson!

I didn’t bother to paint or print out anything for the canvas, but overall, it was fun to play with a potential Shining costume for a little while:

Jack Nicholson!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

19 Responses to Halloween Costume: The Shining (Leave a comment)

  1. You just don’t look crazy. I’m sorry.

  2. Pretty freaky Matt. But a good kind of freaky:-).

    Peter

  3. Matt, First one expression is really too awesome. Really very funny 🙂 Please come with more interesting costumes like previous year. Super man 🙂

  4. Just shocked,
    Apparently, Matt can also be funny

  5. I always wanted to do a “Jack being Jack” variant of this costume … see https://plus.google.com/108640673873589796416/posts/FPPfyHcSVKa?pid=6077367931115450018&oid=108640673873589796416

  6. Only thr first and fourth is bit scary, rrst it looks like a toothpaste ad.

  7. Looks like you had a lot of fun working on this. Now all you need to do is a blog post that only says “All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy”

  8. Google Security has been notified…you’ve been permanently 86’ed from the Plex… :.)

  9. Classic Matt!

  10. Love it! I feel so completely deficient… I never think of anything fun to create like this post for my blog. It’s fun seeing the playful side of someone with a super serious job. Maybe I need a leave of absence to become creative and fun!

  11. Love it!

  12. There is a bit of a resemblance there and you can be just as scary to seo’s. lol

  13. Nice one, love this film one of Kubrick’s best although Stephen King didn’t like it apparently saying “it was not a good adaptation of his novel”. In truth Kubrick took a nice little horror story and turned it into a portrayal of human evil and the descent to madness. The scene where Wendy finds Jack’s novel apparently Kubrick actually had a secretary type out every page “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” such was Kubrick’s attention to detail. – Great Costume

  14. Really scared Hats off to the photographer for he was not scared

  15. I love it
    Happy Halloween

  16. Haha, it looks so awesome! I disagree with some of the other comments, you look totally insane!!

  17. You can use this images for spam protection 🙂 just joking matt you look good.

  18. Heeeere’s Matthew!

    Funny that I see this now Matt. Last Halloween I made a funny animated .gif of you looking in through a window while a thunderstorm effect was looped in the background. haha. 🙂

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