NIAGARA FALLS REVIEW- It’s a good reason to dress up — no matter your age.
Once in high school, in some cases even earlier, many parents would tell their children they’re too old for Halloween. It’s for little kids. That’s so passe.
You’re as likely to now find a hulking man donning a zombie hotdog costume or an attractive woman dressed up as a sexy bartender as you are to see a child Batman.
Adults love Halloween, too. It’s no longer just a one-day candy giveaway. There are just as many grown-up parties as there are mini chocolate bars being dropped into trick-or-treat bags.
You can thank all those popular zombie and vampire television shows and movies, and a generation of people unwilling to allow their young-at-heart outlook to grow old. Another element helping the adult Halloween movement is the growing nerd and geek culture, as well as the costume enthusiast crowd.
Niagara resident Shantel Knight has been a professional cosplayer for the last four years. The 21-year-old attends about seven conventions or expos a year dressed in costumes and accessories that represent various video-game, horror-movie, comic-book or anime characters.
“It’s not just the creative aspect” that Knight says she enjoys about the performance art, but also the feeling one gets when dressed up as someone “you admired or idolized throughout your life.”
She says “expressing your geeky side is definitely a lot more mainstream now,” particularly among older teens and adults than it was in the past. And it’s spreading to Halloween.
“Cosplayers say they do it whenever they want to, but on Halloween everyone can dress up and more and more of them do.”
Scott Henderson, chairman and associate professor of the communication, popular culture and film department at Brock University, says Halloween has “almost become more of an adult” celebration during the last five years
Once in high school, in some cases even earlier, many parents would tell their children they’re too old for Halloween. It’s for little kids. That’s so passe.
You’re as likely to now find a hulking man donning a zombie hotdog costume or an attractive woman dressed up as a sexy bartender as you are to see a child Batman.
Adults love Halloween, too. It’s no longer just a one-day candy giveaway. There are just as many grown-up parties as there are mini chocolate bars being dropped into trick-or-treat bags.
You can thank all those popular zombie and vampire television shows and movies, and a generation of people unwilling to allow their young-at-heart outlook to grow old. Another element helping the adult Halloween movement is the growing nerd and geek culture, as well as the costume enthusiast crowd.
Niagara resident Shantel Knight has been a professional cosplayer for the last four years. The 21-year-old attends about seven conventions or expos a year dressed in costumes and accessories that represent various video-game, horror-movie, comic-book or anime characters.
“It’s not just the creative aspect” that Knight says she enjoys about the performance art, but also the feeling one gets when dressed up as someone “you admired or idolized throughout your life.”
She says “expressing your geeky side is definitely a lot more mainstream now,” particularly among older teens and adults than it was in the past. And it’s spreading to Halloween.
“Cosplayers say they do it whenever they want to, but on Halloween everyone can dress up and more and more of them do.”
Scott Henderson, chairman and associate professor of the communication, popular culture and film department at Brock University, says Halloween has “almost become more of an adult” celebration during the last five years
