HALLOWEEN SALES A FRIGHT RETAILERS ARE EXCLAIMING YO, HO, HO AS CONSUMERS GETTING BACK INTO COSTUME.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

Retailers have never been so happy to have would-be pirates and murderesses wandering their aisles.

After two lackluster years of Halloween sales, the cheer has returned to an otherwise frightening holiday. Lightened moods have consumers shopping again, and with the holiday falling on a Friday, there are plenty of parties.

``For the last couple years, Halloween was something you didn't even want to think about,'' said Robert McBroom, owner of FrightFair, a Chatsworth-based effects company running a show at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. ``You didn't want to go to a haunted house - you were already scared. Now, people are starting to miss it.''

The season provides a nice bridge for retailers from the back-to-school season into the crucial holiday period. The National Retail Federation calls it the year's second-largest decorating holiday, spanning broad categories and drawing shoppers to costume shops, grocery stores, discounters and home goods stores. Last year, when moods were still relatively somber, the group estimated Halloween sales at $6.7 billion in sales. Portending a better showing this year, many retailers say they're running well ahead of their 2002 numbers.

Western Costume Co. in North Hollywood - which normally serves studios but opens its vaults to regular consumers each October - has seen its pirate costumes flying off the racks, with the average ticket ringing up at $185.

``It's L.A.,'' said manager Emily Besa, sifting through a rack of aged velvet coats. ``They want costumes that aren't just out of the bag. They want the real deal, and it's just once a year.''

Shoppers like Satbhajan Khalsa and David Vega of Echo Park recently wandered Western's aisles trying on exotic fare. Though Khalsa is unemployed and Vega's job as a writer doesn't pull in big money, they figured they might as well indulge themselves for the two parties they're attending this weekend.

``I'll spend a couple hundred bucks,'' said Vega, eyeing pirate wear. ``Things are tight right now, but hey, it's just once a year.''

Khalsa agreed, selecting headgear to complement her long red tresses. Halloween night, she'll hit the town in a snug-fitting corset and hot pants get-up meant to evoke Satine, Nicole Kidman's drop-dead courtesan from ``Moulin Rouge!''

``It's the one time of year you can go crazy,'' she said. ``Normally, I wouldn't walk around dressed like this.''

Even the younger set is getting into the party mode, though their costumes tend to be a little more modest. Conall Gorman, a 7-year-old Tigger look-alike, and his sister Marley, who, at 6 months will celebrate her first Halloween as a bunny, will rendezvous with neighbors before heading out to amass their sweets.

``We'll just do a little neighborhood get-together, then do the trick-or- treating,'' said their mother, Rose, a full-time mom from Sherman Oaks. ``I'm not thinking about the world situation as much this year. You're letting your guard down.''

Whether it stems from parties, the economy, or consumers' slightly- twisted senses of humor, John Tolson, owner of Chatsworth-based Magic World, has seen business rise 10 percent this year at his costume shop. Everyone coming in is in the mood to party he said, some tricked out in ghastly fashions.

``We've had a couple people looking to rent a white tiger and blood stuff,'' he chuckled. ``The first person who came up with that got it; everyone else thought they were being real original, but they were a little too late.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Satbhajan Khalsa, with help from her friend David Vega, goes for the Moulin Rouge look, above, at Western Costume Co. in North Hollywood. Below, the firm's Halloween store manager Emily Besa says that pirate costumes are the big rental this year.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer