‘Mummy, have we got a baseball bat I could use for my Halloween costume this year?’
Now my eldest daughter is eleven, we’re well past the padded pumpkin and cute little witch outfits of the past, but a baseball bat?
It turns out a group of her neighbourhood friends want to dress as characters from a horror movie franchise, The Purge, that’s popular on TikTok at the moment, complete with black hoodies and LED masks that conceal their faces. Throw in the baseball bat, and I’m worried our neighbours will be calling 999 rather than handing out Haribos.
TikTok, it seems, has a lot to answer for this Halloween. Searches for ‘Squid Game kids Halloween costumes’ are trending right now, with parents and children frantically looking for trick and treating costumes inspired by the hit Netflix show.
Whether you’ve already binge-watched Season 1, or you’ve put it on your to-watch list, chances are you’ve heard of the new Korean drama, which premiered on the streaming service last month. And even if you haven’t yet, it probably won’t be long: it reached number one in 90 countries just ten days after its release on September 17, and according to Netflix’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, the psychological thriller has a ‘very good chance’ of becoming Netflix’s most popular show to date.
The show’s premise is this: the contestants, who are all in various stages of heavy debt and desperation, have been recruited by a mysterious organisation into playing a series of old-fashioned children’s games in an attempt to win 45.6billion Korean won (£28million). Sounds harmless enough. Except for one rather gruesome catch: if you lose a game, you die, with many of the much-loved characters meeting a grizzly end. It’s been described as ‘bloodthirsty’, ‘hyper-violent’ and a horror show ‘fit for our dystopian mood’ by reviewers.
The show’s success also means it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular Halloween costume choices this year.
Throughout series one, the desperate contestants wear now-iconic green tracksuits with an assigned number printed on their tracksuit top in white. The mysterious guards, meanwhile, who set out the rules, observe the games, and dish out the fatal punishments to the losers, wear red jumpsuits and sinister looking black fencing masks.
Both outfits have become bestsellers on Amazon, with red and green tracksuits from H&M and Primark also selling out fast. Bizarrely even among parents, keen for their little ones to dress up as some poor, desperate soul, trying to survive a deadly game of Tug of War just so they can pull themselves out of poverty.
Even so, it’s still probably a better option than the baseball bat.