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USA TODAY - MONEY SECTION

Halloween scares up some outrageous prices; [FINAL Edition]

Bruce Horovitz.

Halloween is taking off the mask and putting on the Ritz.

So much for penny candy and bobbing for apples. Halloween chic will cost some consumers hundreds -- even thousands -- of dollars for haunting excesses.

It's about over-the-top hotel promos. Exclusive cruises. Pricey candy. Ritzy pet costumes. And chichi gifts -- many with little use after Oct. 31. Spending will top $3.1 billion this year, up from $2.9 billion last year, says the National Retail Federation. The growth is no accident.

"Retailers are pushing and consumers are pulling," says James Lowry, marketing professor at Ball State University. "There is a Halloween chic."

Perhaps nowhere more so than at the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua on Maui. The resort is promoting a three-day weekend "Hedonistic Halloween Hexperience." Cost: $20,000. Included: airfare for two, three nights in the Presidential Suite, a costume concierge and, of course, makeup by a Hollywood makeup artist.

"We did it for the PR," says Joe Velasquez, director of sales, "then someone actually booked it."

Halloween weekend is typically a slow weekend for the hotel. Velasquez is hoping his "over-the-top" Halloween promotion will change that.

Other pricey Halloween options:

* $19 caramel apple. It's a 17-inch-round caramel apple from Williams-Sonoma, sold online and at flagship stores in San Francisco and New York. The Fuji apple weighs 21/2 pounds, spokeswoman Nicole Bender says.

* $49 Halloween wreath. Complete with synthetic cobwebs and cast- iron spiders, the spooky, 20-inch-square wreath -- to be hung like a Christmas wreath -- is made from birch branches and sold at www.potterybarn.com.

* $29 pumpkin pan. Wanna make a pumpkin-shaped cake? Williams- Sonoma has the pan. It sells a $16.50 pumpkin-spice streusel mix, too.

* $1,139 cruise. Royal Caribbean has a seven-night, Halloween cruise to the "Mexican Riviera" -- its Pacific Coast -- that departs from Los Angeles on Oct. 31.

* $240 dog costume. E&E Hallstrom Haute Couture, a pet clothing maker, sells hand-sewn Cleopatra costumes. "These are for people who love their dogs -- and have money," co-owner Eva Hallstrom says.

* $69.95 retro candy. A deluxe gift box comes with Atomic Fireballs, bubble gum cigarettes and even wax lips.

Many Halloween orders come from entertainment executives in Hollywood for their clients, says Bridget Sweeny-Bell, owner of Woodstock Candy.

She won't name any.

But Britney Spears is reportedly hosting a lavish Halloween party at her new Malibu mansion. Picture her and Madonna, puckering up again -- this time wearing wax lips.

Scary.