OK, so you’ve gotten yourself talked into going to the big Halloween party with a group of friends, and you’d all like to go as a themed group? It’s really not that hard to come up with group costume ideas. Really the hard part is getting everyone to agree on the theme.

It’s too simple and cliché to go as ghosts and vampires, but you can easily come up with some twists to make it unique. Remember you’re at a party! Frankenstein’s monster, the wolfman, some vampires, demons and assorted nasties all decked out in their disco best is sure to turn some heads.

Go as a bunch of vampires out for a day at the beach. Get some old ‘20s style bathing suits and a beach ball or two and some basic vampire makeup and teeth and you’re almost set. A big tube of SPF 10,000 sunblock is the crowning touch.

Take any character people generally dress up as, and build it out with a supporting cast. Harry Potter by himself is way overdone, but if you get a whole group together as Hogwarts students and faculty and you may have something. Get a couple of people to go as a griffon or giant spider or basilisk (supposed to be more like a lizard than a snake, by the way, but I liked the movie anyway) and you have a twist on the ordinary for your group costume ideas.

Frankenstein and his bride may go un-noticed, as there are so many, but add in Victor, Elizabeth, Igor and some townspeople with pitchforks and torches, and you have a real show going.

There’s always a couple dressed as bride and groom, but hey this is Halloween, it’s supposed to be scary. Make an entire undead wedding party, complete with a demonic preacher and you’ve got a winner. Look around and you can even find a nice black dead bouquet for the bride and a black boutonniere for the groom.

Football players and cheerleader are another old standard that is easy to give a gruesome twist. Making them all undead zombies has been done to death (un-death?) but what about some vampire football players and cheerleaders? The team mascot would of course be a vampire bat.

Are there more girls than guys in your group? With most costume sets that would be a problem. Using these principles it becomes drop-dead simple.

How about Jack the Ripper and his victims? If you need more male characters, they could be London Bobbies or Scotland Yard detectives.

Think along the same line with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Leatherface, Jeffery Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy lend themselves to the same process.

Just keep thinking along these lines. Take a standard character with a good storyline, add in the supporting cast with a few simple props, and you’ll have some great group costume ideas.