---
title: "AI Dreamed Up These Nightmare Fuel Halloween Masks"
description: "## Nightmare Fuel"
date: "2018-10-26"
modified: "2018-10-26"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nightmare-fuel-ai-halloween-masks"
categories:
  - "Artificial Intelligence"
tags:
  - "ai-generated art"
  - "halloween"
  - "redpepper"
  - "the digest"
---

# AI Dreamed Up These Nightmare Fuel Halloween Masks

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

## Nightmare Fuel

Someone programmed an AI to dream up Halloween masks**,** and the results are absolute nightmare fuel. Seriously, just [look at some of these things](<https://twitter.com/mcreed/status/1055190274023010306>).

"What’s so scary or unsettling about it is that it’s not so detailed that it shows you everything," said Matt Reed, the creator of the masks, in [an interview](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2183674-ai-designed-these-halloween-masks-and-they-are-absolutely-terrifying/>) with *New Scientist*. "It leaves just enough open for your imagination to connect the dots."

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Mask-Selection-1200x630.png>)
*A selection of masks featured on Reed's twitter. Credit: [Matt Reed/Twitter](<https://twitter.com/mcreed/status/1055190274023010306>)*

## Creative Horror

To create the masks, Reed — whose day job is as a technologist at a creative agency called redpepper — fed an [open source AI tool](<https://github.com/carpedm20/BEGAN-tensorflow>) 5,000 pictures of Halloween masks he sourced from Google Images. He then instructed the tool to generate its own masks.

The fun and spooky project is yet another sign that AI is coming into its own as a creative tool. Just yesterday, a portrait generated by a similar system [fetched more than $400,000](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-generated-art-christies>) at a prominent British auction house.

And Reed's masks are evocative. Here at the Byte, if we looked through the peephole and saw one of these on a trick or treater, we might not open our door.

**READ MORE:** [AI Designed These Halloween Masks and They Are Absolutely Terrifying](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2183674-ai-designed-these-halloween-masks-and-they-are-absolutely-terrifying/>) \[*New Scientist*\]

***More on AI-generated art: [Generated Art Will Go on Sale Alongside Human-Made Works This Fall](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-generated-portrait-christies>)***

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)