VALDOSTA — Something as scary as the economic downturn can’t spook the Halloween spirit.

Lyle Boyd, Valdosta’s Target store manager, said this year’s popular Halloween item is little plastic pumpkins to decorate homes. Consumers are looking more for home-decoration items than Halloween costumes.

As Halloween nears, the interest in costumes should rise, Boyd said. Costume interest also depends on the movie releases since many customers want to transform themselves into characters from recent films.

Boyd sees more people shopping for Halloween-related items this year compared to a year ago.

The Valdosta mall is keeping pace with the Halloween spirit.

Spirit Halloween at the mall is the largest temporary retail Halloween merchandiser in the country and has been at the mall for the past three Halloween seasons. Despite the recent recession, or perhaps because of the recession, Spirit Halloween manager James Sutton said interest in this Halloween is greater than last year.

“More people are coming this year because of the recession,” Sutton said. “Everyone wants to dress up, escape from the problems, be somebody else and get away from the everyday life for a night.”

At the Spirit Halloween, the costume trends vary according to the age. Sutton said all the kids want to be superheroes like Batman and Superman. Women want to be sexy most of the time. Little girls like characters such as Hannah Montana, and guys like to be scary or funny.

Sutton himself prefers to be a funny character, and according to him, people get scared mostly from the Michael Myers’ mask from the “Halloween” movies.

Decor is a big part of the store’s business. Every year, more items are added. Customers can find a frightening decoration of a dead man in this store. Or an even more frightening version of a woman. Both have a pale realism.

If customers cannot find something in the store, they can always go to spirithalloween.com and purchase online.

Sutton said the most unusual request he’s received from customers have been related to the movie “Zombieland.” Portions of the movie were filmed in Wild Adventures and Valdosta. The movie features local people playing zombies. People have asked if the store has the make-up and brands used in the movie, so they could recreate the characters.

Michael Jackson’s costume is available already, as well as Madonna accessories from her music videos for those who want to be retro and sexy.

According to an article at holiday-entertaining.suite101.com, “the death of Michael Jackson means men will be wearing ‘Thriller’-based and other MJ costumes.”

How well Halloween items sell may provide retailers with indicators for another holiday just around the corner.