A Spirit Halloween Store Movie Is Coming To A Theater Near You, Apparently
As Variety announced today, Strike Back Studios, Hideout Pictures, and Particular Crowd have teamed up with Spirit Halloween stores to make a feature film. Called "Spirit Halloween" (natch), the film will be a family-friendly horror movie, and will star veteran actor Christopher Lloyd, last seen in 2021's "The Tender Bar," and Rachael Leigh Cook, last seen in 2021's "He's All That."
The press release describes the story thusly:
When a new Spirit Halloween store appears in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they've outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night. But they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.
"Spirit Halloween" will be directed by David Poag, making his feature directorial debut. Poag previously worked as an editor and cinematographer on shorts, features, and documentaries. The film will star Donovan Cole, Dylan Frankel, Jaiden Smith, and Marissa Reyes.
The film comes in a long line of recent kid-friendly horror fare to hit theaters and will join a club occupied by such films as "Hotel Transylvania," "Frankenweenie," "Fun Size," and "Goosebumps 2: The Haunted Halloween" (pictured above).
A brief history of Spirit Halloween
Spirit Halloween stores were founded in New Jersey in 1983 and were eventually bought out by Spencer's Gifts in 1999. Their seasonal model of finding hollowed-out storefronts and empty businesses to open a seasonal shop has proven incredibly lucrative, and the company has become one of the largest seasonal retail outlets in the country. Stores are typically only open for two or three months and are a wonderful place to stock up on next year's costumes on November 1st: Spirit Halloween stores notoriously discard all of their costumes and wares at the end of the season.
Spirit Halloween stores are, fittingly enough, gravesites. When a local business dies, Spirit Halloween has no compunction about moving into their empty husk to make a quick buck selling plastic skeletons and Harley Quinn wigs. Indeed, Spirit Halloween has become, in a way, a symbol of economic despair. The more Spirit Halloween stores you see opening up in August, the worse off the American economy is. Celebrate the death of local businesses by dressing as Death.
Whether or not the "Spirit Halloween" feature film will address the store's pop-up nature remains to be seen.