There's nothing more pathetic than a lukewarm Halloween costume, something put together at the last minute, with little passion or creativity. Halloween is the one time of year when it's OK to be outrageous, to be unique, to let all of your creative chops show. But many of us are too busy to devote days to building the killer costume. Luckily, you don't have to. To get you ready for a frightening and fun Halloween, and to help you find a head-turning getup, we sorted through the hundreds of Halloween Web sites (now, that's truly scary). Here are some of our favorites.

The first step to a successful Halloween costume is a professional mask. Throw away those suffocating plastic drugstore specials and get yourself real foam prosthetics that fit your face like a glove and let your natural snarl and growl come through. The Scream Team ) has faces that even your mother couldn’t love, from Addams Family members to central-casting zombies and vampires. For around $49.95, you get a kit of soft, rubbery, latex "appliances" that you glue to your own mug with special adhesive. Cinema Secrets in downtown Burbank ) carries the impressive Woochie line of paper-thin latex prosthetics that blend seamlessly into your skin. Solvent sold separately. Cinema Secrets also has great costumes, accessories, armor, weapons, and more.

Dracula never had so many choices of fang-ware. Cinema Secrets has some particularly nasty ones. For the must-have blood red contact lenses, check out Professional Vision Care Associates who make special FX lenses for Hollywood ). Got blood?? Scream Team does. For you Martha Stewarts of Mayhem who want to brew your own, Halloween Magazine has fake blood recipes and even…gulp… serving suggestions ).

The Web is a fabulous place to do research on costuming and character. If you’re going as a movie, TV, comic book, other fictional character, or public personality, a simple Web search will quickly load you up with photos, background information, audio, and even video files so you learn as much about your character as possible.

Whatever you do, don’t show up to that costume party dressed as "a guy who didn’t have time to put a costume together" (you might as well carve "loser" into your forehead). Put that presentation on hold for a second and reach in to the online costume closet to find a truly inspiring getup. Don’t put it off, order your costume immediately. At most online and offline costume shops, the good stuff goes quickly. Just remember to take off the fangs before you show up back at the office.

NOTE: All mask and costumes shown are available from Cinema Secrets.

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