Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Oct 28/05) - With Halloween just around the corner, excitement is brewing, particularly amongst the youth, about costumes, trick or treating and the many parties planned in town.

"We've sold quite a lot of costumes to the kids. They want to get them right now," said Esther Kikoak of V&S Options.

"Adults always wait until the last minute."

So what's the costume of choice this year?

"Princes, princesses, witches, pumpkins and miscellaneous costumes," Kikoak said, explaining that miscellaneous costumes are "all different things in one.

"They could dress up like a pretty lady and wear an ugly mask, all different things in one.

"One girl showed me some of the things she was thinking of wearing and I thought she was going to look weird but hey, the kids are getting creative."

In a brief and unscientific poll taken at Northmart, The Scream won out by a slim margin over Spiderman.

So what the heck is The Scream?

"You don't know The Scream? Haven't you seen Scary Movie?" asked Darius Rogers, slightly bemused at the fact the newspaper guy didn't know. "It's a guy in black with a white mask."

As for Colton Chinna, Darth Vader is going to be his costume, but it wasn't his first choice.

"I wanted to be a wookie but I couldn't find a Chewbacca costume," he said.

Interestingly, several young ladies were leaning towards Spiderman.

For adult Halloween party-goer Mike Orbell, his costume choice was easy.

"I'm going to be a mental patient because I've got a gown that says 'state mental patient'," he said, while waiting for pizza at the Quickstop.

"It's OK, though, I've been released."