THERE ARE ghouls among us. Really. But look a little closer and you'll see these are no "Dawn of the Dead" rejects. They're Daily News columnists - Jill Porter, Stu Bykofsky, John Smallwood and "Tattle's" Regina Medina.

With just a little arm-twisting, they all volunteered for monster makeovers from four professional makeup artists at Six Flags Great Adventure's Fright Fest. Every night through Nov. 3, these pros will make up more than 100 performers at the theme park in Jackson, N.J.

They're professionals with mad skills, but you can create these same horrific looks at home just by using a little ingenuity - and maybe a few cornflakes. Here's how:

1 Any ghoul worth saying "boo" about needs a deathly pale complexion. You know, something that makes it look as if it had been dead a couple of years.

The Great Adventure artists used an airbrush machine that sprays a fine mist of white paint, But you can get the same effect by smearing your face with stage makeup or a pale, cream-based eye shadow.

"Usually, it's a white or green face, depending upon where you want to come out of the grave from," said makeup artist Jennifer Stassi as she sprayed Bykofsky's face with white paint. "Airbrushing is not essential. You can do these things with cream makeup, cake makeup, grease makeup. This is water-based makeup, so he can just wash it right off."

2 After you get the eerie glow-thing going, the next step is to create spooky shadows, as if your flesh had sunken deep into your skull. Take some makeup - maybe some dark shadow or a soft kohl eye pencil - and smudge it under your cheekbones, around your eyeball sockets and anywhere else you want.

3 Now's the time to go a little crazy. Add any kind of color as you feel it. Medina's face was painted in a motley green camouflage design, while makeup pro Jessica Swarer added plum shadows over Porter's eyes.

"She's a feminine dead," explained Swarer as she swept the paint out toward Porter's temples. "I'm doing a kind of 'pretty' dead."

4 To up the gross-out factor, apply latex to your face and let your imagination run wild. Swarer used latex, found in most Halloween stores, to hold bits of torn fabric softener sheets to Porter's forehead, creating a nasty-looking wound.

On top of that, she attached a piece of plastic bait to create the disgustingly lifelike illusion that a worm was peeking out of Porter's brain.

Makeup artist Lindsey Coleman used the same technique on Smallwood, applying latex before gluing on torn bits of fabric softener sheets to make it appear as if part of his head and ear had been eaten away.

If you don't have dryer sheets, you can also use single plys of toilet paper. Let dry and cover with foundation or some other type of makeup.

You can stick other things to your face, too, to create different textures. Stassi used cereal flakes to make disgustingly crusty wounds on Bykofsky's forehead. She's also relied on Rice Krispies to fashion a maggot-filled wound.

Stassi finds inspiration for her designs everywhere.

"I go to the grocery store and the dollar store and just walk up and down the aisles," she said. "You can use dirt from outside. Gummi Worms, dried flowers. It will look like you just crawled out of the grave."

5 As a finishing touch, don't forget to add that all-important fake blood. Both Bykofsky and Porter had it dripping down their faces. Lovely!

Your local drugstore probably carries fake blood this time of year. Or, improvise with Hershey's strawberry syrup, or maple syrup with a bit of red food dye. (But be careful, that concoction can stain.)

To thicken fake blood, add a bit of cornstarch.

6 Oh, and to keep wounds looking nauseatingly fresh, the artists rely on KY Lubricating Jelly, which they smear on generously. Scary.