With the performance of the late Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, the Joker terrorized, deceived, destroyed and captivated his way into the pantheon of the



most memorable movie villains of all-time. His popularity is assured to make an impact during Halloween. With his evil clown makeup, facial scars of unknown

origin and unique sartorial style, the character readily lends itself to becoming one of the most wanted Halloween costumes ever.

In creating the perfect Dark Knight Joker costume for yourself, you need to decide upfront how much detail you want in your costume. Most all pre-packaged

costumes will include a mask, a purple jacket and a shirt/vest/tie combination. Some packages will have pants as well. Vinyl masks come with molded hair.

Latex masks include synthetic hair and look more realistic.

The basic costume packages have a printed shirt that creates the illusion of wearing a shirt, vest and tie. (You may have seen a similar effect with ""tuxedo""

shirts.) An improved version includes what looks like a real shirt, vest and tie. However, they are attached together into one chest piece and are not whole

articles of clothing. The Grand Heritage Collection Joker costume includes everything whole and intact - a mask with hair, additional makeup, a purple

jacket, a green vest, a hexagon-patterned shirt, purple pin-stripped pants and a tie. For the money, it cannot be beat.

You could try to find individual articles of clothing that resemble the ensemble of Batman's nemesis at various clothing stores and vintage clothing shops.

This could take quite a bit of time though and you wouldn't necessarily save much money versus going with the Grand Heritage Collection Joker costume.

Another costume strategy would give you a more unique look and could surprisingly scare your friends and family. Isn't that part of the fun of Halloween? Go

ahead and purchase either a latex mask with synthetic hair or a full Joker makeup kit with wig. Then, purchase a regular police uniform costume or nurse

costume and wear it with your mask or made-up face with wig.

In different parts of the movie, The Dark Knight, the Joker dresses as a policeman and a nurse to execute his nefarious schemes. Not many people will imagine

being one of these ""minor"" characters from the movie on Halloween. So, you'll probably be the only one. And, you'll get more ""I like your costume"" comments

than if you wore a typical purple-and-green outfit.

For some fun with your police or nurse Joker costume, you'll want to have your hair or wig covered by the police officer's hat or surgeon's cap. Hide your

face a bit by turning your back to a person you want to scare. Have an accomplice friend or family member bring the unsuspecting victim to meet you. When

they tap you on the shoulder, quickly swing around with a crazed look and laugh sinisterly. You should produce some fright for Halloween. Cheers!