“KPop Demon Hunters” costumes will probably be everywhere this Halloween

Anyone who’s forked out a (severed?) arm and a leg for Halloween candy this year, expect to see lots of little Rumis and Jinus knocking at the door tonight for tricks and your exorbitant treats.

For those who have no idea who those two are, they’re the main characters from “KPop Demon Hunters.” For those still struggling, that’s the world’s biggest streaming service’s most watched film of all time.

Once in a Honmoon

According to Google Trends’ “Frightgeist” — an annual project that analyzes trending costumes in the lead-up to spooky season — this year’s top outfits are dominated by “KPDH,” with costumes related to Netflix’s smash hit rounding out the entire top 5 for surging search interest.

Seasonal retailer Spirit Halloween, which has an exclusive license for selling official “KPDH” attire, not only echoes this in its list of the most popular costumes, but has seen its shelves swept of purple plaited wigs and mini yellow jackets, as reported by The New York Times.

Having amassed more than 325 million views on Netflix at the latest count, it’s perhaps no surprise that Google searches for “kpop demon hunters costume” have spiked 1150% in the last three months alone. However, the trend is just the latest instance of how much pop culture shapes our costumes come October.

Looking at Google Trends data, search volumes for movie-inspired costumes, naturally, seem to peak in the year that the associated film was released.

For example, searches for “barbie costume” have tailed off since skyrocketing around Halloween 2023. The same is seen for “minion costume” following the release of “Despicable Me 2” in 2013, as well as “It” fans hunting down Pennywise clown outfits after both installments of the high-grossing horror franchise in 2017 and 2019, respectively.

Of course, some costumes based on existing IP, like video games “Minecraft” and “Super Mario,” get an extra boost when they’re spun off into blockbusters. But some iconic costumes, particularly eerie ones that are actually related to the holiday or those in the superhero bracket, come back every year — proving that no matter how niche some fancy dress gets, there will always be room for the classics.