costume dundas square

This is who was behind the terrifying costume seen around Toronto on Halloween

The day after Halloween, videos surfaced online of someone dressed in a horrifying monster-like costume walking around downtown Toronto the night before. 

The person behind that shockingly creepy costume is a 15-year-old artist who goes by his Instagram handle, Nile.Paints

Nile, who made the entire costume from scratch, says it took him over 20 hours to put together. 

"It cost me between $450 to $500 from my savings to build the entire thing," said Nile.

The teenager was inspired to make the costume after he watched another person on YouTube attempt to create a similar look. 

The difference between their version and his is that Nile used real wood to make the stilts, which he stood on underneath the costume.  

Nile says he was upset that he wasn't able to participate in last year's Halloween, with lockdown restrictions preventing him from doing so. 

So this year, he wanted to go all out, and used his natural artistic ability to come up with a costume that would both shock and entertain the public. 

It may be hard to tell by looking at the costume, but Nile stood on four different wooden stilts in order to walk around in it. 

He cut out pieces of mattress foam to surround each stilt, so that they looked like legs. 

The mask included for the costume stood on his head, as he was bent over, looking down while inside the costume to see where he was walking. 

After a few test runs, Nile decided to wear the costume to school where he won a Halloween contest for scariest looking costume. 

Nile was most excited to see the reaction of people while walking around in public in the costume. 

He went to Yonge and Dundas Square, Yorkville, and Yonge-Bloor subway station, where Nile says people began crowding around him to get photos and videos of the costume. 

After this year's success, Nile says he's planning another outrageous costume for next year's Halloween in the form of a forest creature. 

The teenager, who sells his art on the weekends in Kensington and Yorkville, hopes to one day own an art gallery. 

Lead photo by

nile.paints


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