The Haunting (and Civically Responsible) Beauty of Halloween Stores
Spirit Halloween Stores are masters at peddling scares, but their real beauty comes from reanimating the dead
A robotic, life-size Michael Myers stands near the entrance of National City’s Spirit Halloween, awkwardly rotating its torso and stabbing air. The theme song from Halloween bleeds out from some hidden speaker — tinny and forever repeating. Children keep running up and activating Michael’s motion, immune to the maddening repetition of it. I have to walk away, but it’s impossible to go anywhere in the place without hearing John Carpenter’s iconic score. After a while, it really does make my skin crawl.
I’m not at this Spirit Halloween Store to purchase spooky decor, or Skeleboner, what I can only assume is this year’s hottest item: a skeleton costume with an inflatable dick.
Rather, I’m looking for evidence.
Soon I find what I’m looking for: graphics of Hollywood Video logos — wrapped with flowing film strips — are printed onto the carpet. I try to think back to when Hollywood Video was still a company. I have a vague memory of being 20 years old and opening an account at a Hollywood Video just so I could rent Maniac Cop. When I gawked at the price of the rental — maybe $6 —…
