Halloween 2019: Costumes 101

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Spooky season is here. That means scary movies, haunted houses and of course - creepy costumes.

But which costumes will be popular this year? Well, Halloween stores are still trying to figure that out.

"It's a little bit of everything this year," said Kathy Bunger, Fantasy Costume manager. "Most people follow trends, so if it's an election year they'll dress up as the candidates. With celebrity deaths they dress up, it's just been a weird year so I don't know if anyone is really on board."

That means you'll probably see a lot more of the classic costumes this year. We're talking about the superheroes, princesses, clowns, that kind of thing.

To stay up to date with the latest trends, store managers like Courtland Hickey at Chicago Costumes have to keep up with the big movies, shows or events happening that year.

"We use all these wonderful numbers and metrics and information but that doesn't really tell you the real story with this kind of product. I have to make predictions and be in tune with what's going on, it's like the hardest thing in the world," Hickey said.

So a safe bet would be to track the most popular movies of the year like Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel and Downton Abbey. But if you don't want to buy a costume in a bag, you can also make your own.

"People like to piece things together to create a costume unto itself opposed to this particular outfit in a bag," Hickey said.

"You never know what somebody is going to walk in and need," Bunger added. "We've had it where they've just gotten net and they were going to be a fishing net so they glued plastic fish in... people are very creative."