Homemade costumes and trick-or-treating? That’s for amateurs.

Halloween has morphed into an all-out spending spree, as the business of fear has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. The nation’s largest retail trade association projects that would-be ghosts, zombies and vampires will spend a record $8 billion this year. But it’s still a far cry from the December holiday season in which consumers spend more than $500 billion.