Life

Instagram’s New Halloween Face Filters Are Actually Kind Of Terrifying

by Alli Hoff Kosik
Instagram

With every one of Instagram's app updates comes a new set of tools for us to use in our quest for photographic greatness and wild popularity on social media. Ever since Instagram debuted its face filters in May 2017, updates have also meant new filter options. And since filters give us a chance to add extra glow or pretend to be koala bears, these additional choices have become an extra important part of any update. Instagram's latest update rolled out at 1 p.m. EST on Oct. 26, and luckily for us, it includes a handful of Halloween-specific filters that are bound to make the rest of October a little extra spooky. What do these Instagram Halloween face filters look like? Well, I'm about to tell you, and I promise my face is currently not overlaid with an eerie fog or terrifying mask.

As someone who's not a big fan of Halloween and hasn't made a habit of dressing up for the last few years, I kind of love the fact that these fresh filters will let me get into the spirit of the season from one of the places where I feel most comfortable, which is (embarrassingly) in front of my phone. I don't have to set foot in a Halloween store, but I can still get creepy with the rest of you, and no one can accuse me of being a bad sport. With five new filter options — flashlight, zombie, vampire, fog, and night vision — this Insta update is finally bringing me into the fold of people who don't mind looking a little crazy for Halloween.

Instagram

You can check out more details about all five of these new filters below. These close-ups should give you most of what you need to start planning the crazy creepy pictures and videos you'll stage for your Insta pals this Halloween. Thank you, Instagram, for giving us the tools we need to become our friends' worst nightmares, if only for a few seconds.

Flashlight

Instagram

It's almost like you're telling a scary story to friends at your 12th birthday party, except that it's happening on your phone. And your mom isn't yelling at you to quiet down and go to bed. And the well of content you have to draw from in coming up with that scary story is way deeper now (I'm honestly not sure if that's good news or bad news). Use this filter to share a spooky tale via your Insta Story, or maybe just grab a creepy picture to DM to a friend.

Fog

Instagram

What is it about fog that can make pretty much anything look scary? I know it's really just a meteorological phenomenon, but this foggy filter still puts an eerie spin on you're typically non-eerie (I'm assuming) face.

Night Vision

Make like you're hunting ghosts or otherwise trapped in a terrifying scene straight out of Paranormal Activity with the night vision face filter. The green complexion it gives you also seems kind of witchy, so you could go that route too.

Vampire

Instagram

Between the glowing eyes and the pointy teeth, the vampire face filter is actually pretty terrifying and almost cartoonish in its creepiness. If one of my friends used it and snapped a pic with appropriately menacing eyes, I might potentially believe — at least for a sec — that they want to suck my blood.

Zombie

Instagram

I'm no Walking Dead fan, but I'm still fascinated by the idea of what the zombie versions of my friends and family might look like. This is probably my favorite of Insta's Halloween face filters, and I can see how it would allow every single person to make that zombie look their own. The undead have never looked so good.