Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Post-Gazette staff writer Dan Majors before the process of having a halloween mask made. To see a slide show of the process -- and the finished mask -- visit post-gazette.com on Halloween. Click photo for larger image.

Halloween is dead. That's the beauty of it.

Trick or treat is for kids. Once you grow up, most of the fun of Halloween is in pushing the limits from scary to grotesque.

More and more people seem to love the shock, the thrill, even the disgust that can be stirred by dead, living dead and killer costumes. Last Halloween, for example, eight of the 13 top-selling adult costumes invoked images of terror. Witches, vampires, ghouls, grim reapers and zombies.

At Specter Studios, these terrifying fantasies take flight on giant rubbery wings.

"People love our wings," said Mark Marsen, co-owner of Specter. "Wings and body parts. Our artists are very good anatomists."

Specter Studios, started in 1999, is in an old plumbing supply warehouse on South Canal Street in Sharpsburg. Here, a dozen young employees, most of them graduates of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, don't wrestle with their inner demons. They turn them loose in the workshop, where they create masks, outfits and accessories that Specter markets to costume shops around the world.

Co-owner Scott Tyson, 52, a pediatrician in the South Hills, describes Specter's production line as "wearable art."

	Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette After the algenate is applied, plaster bandages, at left, are layered on the mold of the head. Thirty minutes later, the plaster has hardened into a replica of the subject's head, below, which can be used to create a clay model and then latex Halloween masks. Click photo for larger image.

The masks are striking. Using each other as models, the artists mold hideously fun latex masks depicting corpses in all sorts of realistic distress. Then, to make the costume compete, just add a little fake blood and, maybe, a string of rubber intestines to hang from out of your shirt.

Presto! You look like you're ready for the morgue, but you're really just ready to party.

In addition to the living dead, Specter's offerings include gorillas, devils, cats and cavemen. The accessories and props that Specter produces include cloaks, furry tails, scythes and bloody beanies.

Customers can create their own persona, Mr. Marsen said. You don't have to be just a gorilla. A monkey mask and demon wings becomes a flying monkey from "The Wizard of Oz." A clown mask and a rubber sledgehammer becomes ... well, it's almost too frightening to contemplate.

	Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Jake Rich, left, and Steve Vadney put the finishing touches on the clay mold. Click photo for larger image.

The wings are the hottest items. Specter's wings, spans of latex shaped by steel wire, come in two sizes, bat wings and massive demon wings. You can buy them tattered or glow-in-the-blacklight. They have adjustable straps to wear like a backpack.

Margot Loveseth, owner of The Costume Shoppe in Calgary, Alberta, for the past 11 years, rents costumes and sells accessories. She came across Specter Studios at a Halloween trade show in Chicago a few years ago.

"I get the wings, some of the half-masks and the bras," she said. "Their wings are wonderful. They're probably my favorite product in the store right now."

She likes them so much that she wears them while greeting customers in her shop and as she does a television interview focused on Halloween.

	Andy Starnes, Post-Gazetteette Jennifer Bailey models a pair of large tattered wings with a long black cloak with wing slits outside Specter Studios. Click photo for larger image.

"They're difficult to market. They're big and take up wall space. And, really, you need to see them on a body to appreciate them. But they're fabulous," she said.

Specter doesn't sell directly to the public. There's no cash register on the premises.

"We're a wholesale manufacturer," said Mr. Marsen, 45, of Ben Avon, whose day job is as a human resources director. "We sell to retailers, costumers, the haunted houses and attractions. Kennywood, Busch Gardens. If they do something special around Halloween, we will supply props, masks, costumes.

"We can do custom things, set design for independent film and theater. We're essentially an effects studio that happens to have a distribution arm of costumes, props and what-not for Halloween and horror types of things.

"We're also in other markets, like gothic fashion wear."

Again with the wings. Mr. Marsen said that many of Specter's young customers are part of the goth-club scene, and the wings are wildly popular.

Why wings? "People want to create an illusion or a new identity or just to have fun," Mr. Marsen said.

Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Jake Rich of Specter Studios shows the final mask proving that two heads are better than one, especially if that second head is Dan Majors. Click photo for larger image.

Specter has sold its wings by the hundreds at costume conventions and horror festivals in Chicago, Toronto and elsewhere. Hundreds more are sold individually at Specter's Web site, www.specter-studios.com. All of its products are made here.

Mr. Marsen and Mr. Tyson bought Specter Studios in March 2004. They haven't turned a profit, but business is picking up.

Jennifer Bailey, 24, of Morningside, the company's head seamstress, said that, as dark as some of Specter's imagery is, the future seems very bright.

"I graduated from the Art Institute, and if Specter wasn't here, I'd have to move to New York or L.A. or Florida. I wouldn't be here right now," she said. "And the things we're producing here have become a year-round business.

"You don't want to be too Halloween."