Heidi Klum wins Halloween again, and she hasn’t even revealed it yet: The gross clue trail so far

Mere mortals might have put in hours of effort into your elaborate Halloween costume, but it seems like Heidi Klum is already ten bloodied steps ahead of them.

The Queen of Halloween is back. On Wednesday, the supermodel posted another sneak peek of this year’s costume to Instagram: a video of prosthetics that appear to resemble fungus. “Have u figured it out yet?? Only time will tell,” she teased, adding a shushing emoji and a countdown of “3 more days.”

We have not figured it out. Nobody has. That is entirely the point.

A trail of very gross breadcrumbs

Klum started the countdown on October 24 with a close-up of what looked like an array of human organs. On Tuesday came more prosthetics, captioned “4 more days” with a parade of spooky emoji and the obligatory #HeidiHalloween. Beyond that, she has given away almost nothing. She did tell Parade that this year’s look will be “bloody.” Noted. Hiding the good tablecloth.

Her comment section, meanwhile, has turned into a full-time detective agency. Popular theories include Monstro Elisasue from The Substance, a Clicker from The Last of Us, Vecna from Stranger Things and a Resident Evil monster.

Other guesses went wonderfully off-piste. One fan suggested “Coral reef. Inspired by St. Barth’s.” Another got hyper-specific with the cursed sea-creature crew of the Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Caribbean. Some kept it anatomical (“Internal organs?”, “Looks like the inside of a stomach”). Many fans are just gagging.

The makeup artist is (kind of) spilling

If anyone knows what’s coming, it’s Mike Marino. The special effects makeup artist has helped Klum become something unrecognisable year after year. Speaking with NBC’s Hollywood ReelTime, he called this year’s creation “one of the most elaborate costumes ever made.”

“It’s so difficult to do and just the complication of it is really challenging,” Marino said. “It might not appear to some people sometimes how much work goes into it but there’s so much that goes into these things.”

Why the whole internet waits

Klum has a history of going all-out, and the less glamorous the result, the happier she seems.

The back catalogue speaks for itself. She has been E.T. She has been a gigantic peacock. She has been a slinky worm, a skin-baring zombie creature and Fiona from Shrek. Last year she slithered into her party as Medusa, complete with scales, a tail and a full head of snakes.

Her secret weapon is her husband, Tom Kaulitz, who is always game to complete the picture. He has played the Greek soldier Medusa turned to stone, a bloodied fisherman and the Shrek to her Fiona. Couples’ costumes have never been the same.

That is why people wait. You never know whether she’ll show up as an alien, an invertebrate or a cautionary tale. You only know she’ll be completely unrecognisable and fully committed.

Born from a lame party

Klum’s Halloween empire began, as many great things do, with disappointment. She told Parade she used to go to Halloween parties where “people were just not given anything.”

“This is really how it sparked my idea on doing one myself because I thought all the parties were so lame and the costumes people were doing even lamer,” she said. “I was like, ‘There needs to be a person who really shows them to give more.’”

So she became that person. Klum hosted her first bash in 2000, and this year marks her 25th annual party. As always, the full look will be unveiled at her star-studded celebration in New York City on October 31.

Until then, we wait, we guess, and we zoom in on blurry prosthetics like amateur forensic scientists. Three more days. Bring a strong stomach.