DISGUISE'S THE LIMIT ONCE AGAIN AS HALLOWEEN NIGHT DRAWS NIGH.

Byline: Gabrielle Gross Special to the Daily News

A vampire? A witch? A French maid with her eye falling out?

What? You haven't got your costume yet?

For those who haven't had time to think about one, a quick survey shows the classics are hot ... as in devils, mummies, pirates, even black cats.

The challenge is how to put a new spin on an old web and make your vampire, ninja or witch especially wicked. And thanks to the trend in separates at costume stores and lots of light-up accessories, it's easier than ever to personalize a look.

To get you started, we shopped the malls and local haunts for the latest in fright-night chic:

CLOTH WORLD - Hate those ready-made costumes? If you can thread a sewing-machine needle, this store (with locations in Glendale and Woodland Hills) offers a spook-tacular selection of costume patterns by Simplicity, Butterick and McCalls, priced at $2 each. If the directions are overwhelming, they've also got ready-made styles for skeletons, pirates, cats and ninjas, plus decorations.

EXPRESSLY PORTRAITS - After you're finally finished with all the chilling hard work of making or finding your costume, take the little goblins over for a portrait. This chain store will pose two ghouls inside a giant pumpkin or other fall scenes for $6.95. More kiddos, more cash. And you get prints within an hour, so you can rush them over to grandma's house.

FLOOKY'S FUN ART - Also in the Fallbrook Mall, Flooky's stocks plenty of feathered masks like the kind you'd wear to a costume ball, starting at $2.99.

FREDERICK'S OF HOLLYWOOD - This famous lingerie store now stocks costumes, but they're definitely for more intimate soirees. They carry hula girl costumes with a flirty grass skirt, harem girl ensembles, Jungle Jane leopard-print toga dresses, white bunny costumes and French maid styles, priced from $32 to $45. You'll also find fishnet hose, boas, glow-in-the-dark body paint and Halloween-themed jewelry.

HALLOWEEN ADVENTURE - This specialty store at Fallbrook Mall in West Hills makes everything really easy with packaged costumes. But you'll still have to buy the makeup separately, as well as accessories like body parts, knives, swords and broomsticks. Prices? You can be Tabitha the wild witch for $24.99 or Rigor Mortis for $34.99. Other hot tickets of the season, according to the staff, are comic book and movie characters, including Dorothy from ``The Wizard of Oz.''

KMART - Enter the store's Scarewood Forest and you'll see a bewitching assortment of costumes for kids and adults. They've got the classics, plus newer characters like the red M&M candy and ``Star Wars'' heroes, but more attention-getting is the father-and-son matching vampire costumes. Prices are $8.99 to $19.99. For interior design, they've got light-up pumpkins and skull totems for under $15.

LONGS DRUGS - If you do happen to run out of time and need to get a costume on the fly, Longs has a large selection of Paper Magic Costumes for toddlers, children and adults for $9.99 or glow in the dark faces and wigs from $3.99. They also have plenty of edible goodies for the trick-or-treaters for $1.99 and decorations for the yard and house at $1 to $6.99.

MACY'S - Need something for the littlest of ghouls? You'll find a tingling array of itsy-bitsy costumes (well, actually they're sleepers) on the less-scary side for $18 to $28. The store also carries Halloween-themed bibs to keep those treats from messing up Susie's costume. Matching feeding sets are $12.

MERVYN'S - If you dare to shop in the Great Pumpkin Patch, you'll find fun and easy accessories like the Halloween Snoopy watch, $24.95, scary earrings from $8 to $10 and women's Halloween-themed socks for $4. Spooky men's boxers to wear underneath office attire are there, too, priced at $9 to $12.

For a complete costume, the choices are myriad, but if your kiddo has his heart set on being the blue M&M, it's here.

ROBINSONS-MAY - This isn't a store known for costumes, but you can find plenty of costume-like baby sleepers for children too small to really go trick-or-treating. And for women who dread the idea of dressing in costume at the office (yes, Halloween is now a big-deal event for adults), the store also has orange and black Halloween-themed scarves for about $26.

TARGET - Check out the store's Pumpkin Hollow department, which has everything you'll need to light up the pumpkin patch, including the ``Eerie eye'' string of lights for $3.99 and some cool makeup kits such as Living Faces, priced at $6.99. Living Faces is a soft, breathable latex mask that molds to your face, available in choice of devil, witch or skull. But here's the rub. You've got to paint it yourself, so the degree of fright will depend on your degree of artistic skill.

Another great find is the spider web tie, complete with black spiders and flashing mini lights. This little gem is $3.99 and can be worn (if you dare) with the black Halloween panty hose ($3.79) that have the orange pumpkins on it. Scary ...

For the younger goblin, maybe a bat or fairy princess is in the cards. For the bat, try the glitter wings and headband with flashing mini lights on the ears for $6.99. The princess can get one-stop shopping with slippers, star scepter, gloves, jewelry, and wings priced at $2.54 to $11.89.