When it came to Winnifred’s zombie ex-boyfriend, played by Doug Jones, looked for practicality.
“In the first movie, the three ladies disintegrated so I justified them having new clothes,” he explained. “But Billy went back into the grave, so my plan was to have him look as identical as possible to the original costume.”
Fortunately, Perez had access to the original outfit and ultimately found a similar fabric to match. The only issue? The stripes were too far apart. “I had my workroom take that fabric,” Perez said, “cut it up and re-sow it back together so they were one inch apart.”
Perez explained that the lace on his shirt and sleeves in the original movie was the very same fabric that Winnie had on her dress, which he was not a fan of. “I thought, ‘no, no,'” he said with a laugh. “I found a really beautiful French Chantilly lace that this was in this weird teal, spooky green color. I understand why no one ever bought it, but it was great for him.”
The lace on his shirt and sleeves in the original movie was the very same fabric that Winnie had on her dress, which Perez was not a fan of. “I thought, ‘No, no,'” he said with a laugh. “I found a really beautiful French Chantilly lace that this was in this weird teal, spooky green color. I understand why no one ever bought it, but it was great for him.”
Of course, after making the updated costume, the final step was, as Perez explained, to “literally destroy” it to make it seem as though Billy had been wearing it for 100s of years.
“We almost went too far,” Perez admitted. “Doug put it on and he said, ‘Is this the same costume?’ He thought it was the real one because it looked that close.”