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Halloween is a popular holiday just around the corner, and students and staff of Santa Barbara High School (SBHS) are gearing up to celebrate in all different ways. When it comes to costumes some students plan them weeks in advance, while others resort to last-minute DIYs.
Group costumes and pop-culture inspired outfits adorn the shelves of Halloween stores, and some more nostalgia-inducing costumes are making an appearance. SBHS students and faculty alike will be dressed in all manners of colorful jackets, furs, and accessories on Halloween Friday and all weekend long.
Pop-culture costumes coming from movies, TV shows, music videos, and celebrity looks grow more popular every year, and 2025 will feature recent looks, as well as outfits from older classics that were thought to be forgotten. Manager of World of Magic Halloween store on State Street Erin Foley sees popular costumes come and go every year. Foley says that she was especially surprised by what people bought this year, “You never really know which costumes are going to be popular, especially with high schoolers, social media influences it a lot too.”
One of the most popular costumes by far this year is characters from the Netflix hit Kpop Demon Hunters. Social media like Tiktok and Instagram boosted the popularity of this movie as well, and with it the pull to be a Saja Boy or Huntrix member for Halloween. Foley reports that World of Magic Halloween is on its fourth restock order for these costumes, and they are “flying off the shelves.” SBHS leadership and AVID teacher Laura Wooster is joining the trend, dressing up as a Huntrix superfan with her nine and six-year-old kids, who are going as Huntrix.
This is not the first time trending costumes have been the result of new movies. Foley states that in 2023, the release of the Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling triggered the most popular costume being Barbie and Ken, especially as a couple costume. The year before, 2022, Top Gun was all the rage, especially for people who collaborated to be Goose or Rooster and Maverick.
More sentimental students also like to dress up as characters from older movies or TV shows or ones from their childhood. Junior Alexandra Arnold is going to be Snoopy, with hopes to convince her boyfriend to be Charlie Brown. Freshman Gigi McManigal and junior Liliana Aguilar are both planning to be mermaids, while senior Samuel Torres plans to be Spiderman. Teachers and staff also dress up. Math teacher Patrick Murphy is dressing up as “what does the fox say,” with a furry outfit from the song’s music video.
Most students are not planning to wear their costume to school, and even Murphy is unsure he will dress up at school. However, Wooster and Aguilar are planning on wearing costumes to school. Which costume Aguilar is wearing to school, though remains a mystery. History teacher, John Tormey, also plans to wear a costume to school but is keeping it a secret, ready to surprise his students on Halloween morning.
From new trends to old movie characters, all sorts of costumes will be seen at SBHS this Halloween. Whether students show off their spooky spirit in class or over the weekend, it’s sure to be filled with costumes, characters, and candy.
