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No shortage of blood chillers

There is no shortage of blood-chillers this Halloween. That mysterious creaking emanating from the shadows. Hockey-masked killers and otherworldly marauders. The stock market. Halloween Horror Nights.

Tina Fey or Sarah PalinSarah Palin and Tina FeyUnknown dangers prowl behind the shadows on a dark night. Intense waves of trepidation and disorientation bubble up in the pit of your stomach; you will be forced to face your greatest fears.

Halloween celebrations have become terribly predictable. Halloween costume ideas are among the leading search terms at search engine giant Google. According to Google, interest in the term Sarah Palin Halloween costumer reaches its peak on October 5 and again on Oct. 11.

To dress as Gov. Palin, you'll need a wig, glasses and perhaps a mask. Searching for the governor's wig reached a peak on October 14, according to Google. Searching may hit another peak between now and Halloween.

The hottest search terms at Google are for homemade Halloween costumers and Halloween costumes for couples. Because there are more searches for Palin than running mate John McCain. Based on information supplied by Google Insight few couples are planning to appear as McCain and Palin based on the McCain costume search results.

You can go to a friend's Halloween costume party that has a dozen people dressed up as Sarah Palin, including men.

If you need a few tips on choosing a costume, eHow has some tips. eHow has suggestions how to choose costumes to make people laugh.

It's all in pursuit of the dollar instead of a good fright night.

Halloween is a much smaller holiday overall than Christmas in terms of dollars spent, but it has become big business. The National Retail Federation expects the average consumer to spend $66.54 on Halloween candy, costumes, decor and the like this year, up 2.7 percent from $64.82 last year.

Forget about the money you just lost because of the stock market crash. Let's have fun.

Best TV show: Dexter

Best Super Hero: Christian Bale as Batman in The Dark Knight

Best Actor in a fantasy movie or TV show:

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Best actor in a horror movie or TV show: Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Breakout performance: WALL•E in WALL•E

Best actress in a horror movie or TV show: Liv Tyler in The Strangers

Best villain: Heath Ledger as The Joker in The Dark Knight

Best actress in a fantasy movie or TV show: Angelina Jolie in Wanted

Best supporting performance: Gary Oldman in The Dark Knight

Scene of the year: The big rig flips over in The Dark Knight

Best screamplay: The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan & David S. Goyer

Best scream-to-comic adaptation: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Eight

Best sequel: The Dark Knight

Best director: Christopher Nolan for The Dark Knight

Best remake: Halloween

Best actor in a science fiction movie or TV show: Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man

Best actress in a science fiction movie or TV show: Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: Extinction

Best F/X: The Dark Knight

Best comic book: Y: The Last Man

Best comic book movie: The Dark Knight

Best comic book artist: Gabriel Ba for The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

Best comic book writer: Grant Morrison for Batman, Final Crisis

Most shocking comic book plot twist: The X-Men disband after Professor X is shot in the head by Bishop; X-Men

Best line: "I believe whatever doesn't kill you makes you stranger" ~The Joker in The Dark Knight