Halloween Costume Guide
Lorraine from X (2022) has three distinct outfits across one very bad night in rural Texas. Here’s how to build all three, and which one actually reads at a party.
Lorraine runs the boom mic on a low-budget adult film shoot in rural Texas and quietly unravels over the course of one night. She is played by Jenna Ortega in Ti West’s X (2022). Her main look is a 70s layered situation: sweater, vest, red flare jeans, and headphones. This is not a widely recognized costume outside of people who have seen the film, so the axe and some fake blood help fill in the gaps for everyone else at the party.
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The red flare pants are what people see first, and they have to be the right red. Too dark and they read as maroon; too bright and they read as costume-store generic. The flare also matters. Regular straight-leg red pants with a brown sweater does not say 1970s film crew. It just says red pants. If the silhouette is off, everything else reads wrong too.
Lorraine spends most of the film holding a microphone and staying out of the way. She’s the one watching. At a party, you don’t have to perform the character loudly. Hold the axe, keep the headphones around your neck, and watch what’s happening. Anyone who has seen the film will find that funnier than anything you could actually say.
The Blood Detail
Apply fake blood specifically to the hand and forearm. That’s the image from the film: Lorraine reaching through a broken door, hand bloodied from Howard hitting it through the gap. A general splatter approach reads as generic horror. This specific placement reads as a scene.
Managing the Axe
The faux axe is the most useful prop in the build but also the most physically inconvenient one after an hour. Rest it over your shoulder rather than carrying it at your side. When you set it down, set it somewhere visible. An axe left in a corner stops being a costume detail and starts being a trip hazard.
The Texas Adult Film Crew
This is the strongest option, and it only takes three people. Anyone who has seen X will place the group immediately, and the contrast between Lorraine’s covered-up crew look and the other two characters’ aesthetic is part of what makes the dynamic interesting. Works best if your group actually knows the film.
Slasher Movie Targets
Conditional. Casey Becker, Wendy Torrance, and Nancy Wheeler are widely recognized. Lorraine and Sally Hardesty are more niche. The concept works at a horror-crowd party where people are expected to know their slashers. At a general Halloween party, about half these characters will need explaining.
The Ortega Portrayals
This only works if everyone in the group knows the same-actor angle before they arrive, because the costumes don’t share a visual language. A stranger at a party will see Wednesday Addams and someone in 70s clothes and not connect them. The concept is better as a caption on a group photo than as a live party read.
The Lorraines
Weak as a group concept unless you’re doing it as a bit. Lorraine Warren and Lorraine Baines are recognizable. Lorraine Broughton from Atomic Blonde is niche. Lorraine Swanson from MADtv is very niche. The shared name is the joke, so the group lives or dies on whether people get the joke quickly. Most won’t.
Behind The Camera
Niche, and you should know that going in. The concept is filmmakers and film-adjacent characters across different movies. It’s clever on paper but requires a lot of explanation at a loud party. Best for a group that wants to commit to a concept more than they want strangers to get it.
The red flare jeans and the wig are the two pieces most people won’t already own. Everything else has a reasonable chance of being in your closet or easily substituted.
Lorraine is not a household-name character. You’re building for people who know the film, not for a general crowd. These are the details that help close the gap.
Three looks to choose from. Her main outfit is the most complete: brown-white sweater, knitted vest, red flare jeans, braided leather belt, wavy black wig, headphones, and brown boots. Her second outfit is the yellow lace bra and Sunday underwear. Her third is the long striped nightshirt. Go with the main outfit. Add the faux axe and fake blood on the hand to make it read as a specific character rather than a general 70s look.
Lorraine doesn’t have famous one-liners. She’s a quiet character for most of the film. Her most remembered moments are physical: reaching through a broken door with a bloodied hand, and the moment she realizes what kind of film she signed up for. If someone asks you to quote her at a party, just look at them the way she looks at Bobby-Lynne after the first scene and say nothing. That’s more accurate anyway.
X has a solid horror fanbase but Lorraine is not the character most people leave the film talking about. Maxine Minx is the breakout. If you’re going as Lorraine, expect to explain yourself to most people at the party. The costume works best in a horror-specific crowd or as part of the Texas film crew group.
The main outfit: sweater, red flare jeans, belt, headphones, wig, boots. It has enough distinct pieces to read as a specific character, not just a vibe. The yellow bra and Sunday underwear is the most discussed look online but it requires explanation and it’s usually cold in October. The nightshirt reads as generic unless you add blood effects. Go with the main outfit and carry the axe.
Lorraine, sometimes called “Church Mouse,” is a crew member on a low-budget adult film shoot at an isolated farm in rural Texas. She’s dating the director, runs the boom mic, and spends most of the film quietly wrestling with what she agreed to. Played by Jenna Ortega in Ti West’s X (2022), she’s the moral center of the group right up until the night stops being about the film entirely.
If your hair is already dark brown and shoulder-length with some volume, skip it. The wig matches the wavy, slightly voluminous 70s shape Lorraine has in the film. Get it if your hair is a different color or significantly different length. It’s not the centerpiece of the costume, but it’s what puts the look correctly in the decade.
Yes, and it’s the one addition that turns this from a 70s outfit into a horror costume. The basement scene, where Lorraine reaches through the broken door and Howard hits her hand repeatedly through the gap, is her most memorable moment in the film. Fake blood concentrated on the palm and back of one hand is accurate to that scene. Apply it before you go out, not at the party.
The faux axe. Lorraine uses one to break through the locked basement door when she’s trapped inside Howard’s cellar. It’s her one clear moment of agency in the film. At a party, it gives you something to hold, places you in a horror context immediately, and requires no explanation even to people who haven’t seen X. Pair it with the blood on the hand and you have two specific details working together.