Spirit Halloween 2023

Hey everyone! Well, judging from the date on my last blog post, it has been a really long time since I've been on here. As in, nearly a year. I hope you have all been doing well during that time. While I haven't been blogging, I have taken a ton of photos from the Halloween displays in stores. So there will be plenty of that content coming up! 

Let's start with Spirit Halloween. The Spirit store I visited is in the local mall and took up a good amount of space. They had plenty of large moving props. This spider is one of my favorites:

The spider lurked behind this door and popped out when motion activated.

Here's another classic. I liked their use of bright neon lights.

This devil figure was pretty creepy. He starts in this crouched position.

Then he shoots up fast and high! He's nearly touching the ceiling.

I'm trying to remember what he said! All these creatures had something spooky to say, but I can't seem to remember what. Not that this one would need to say anything to be scary.

This one made my mom jump, which I found pretty funny. Especially since she was saying how the props weren't too scary, she knew what they were going to do, etc. 

Now, I don't pretend to know what this thing is. It was the sudden movement that was so scary. I was joking that this one looked like it was assembled from random prop parts. 'Ol doll face, ghost body, carrot fingers!

I'm not sure what this clown torso was supposed to do, because I think his battery was low. But it would be pretty cool if it walked on its hands.

There was this sort of tomb-like structure that housed more critters. The structure was one of my favorite parts of this store. It was just this really cool display with flickering lights and lanterns.

This was the ceiling area inside the structure. That bright green light was moving around. This is one of those times where the store display is what I want to bring home most.

This scarecrow is one of the characters who lives inside the tomb.

When you reach inside the candy bowl he leaps to life! I was pretty startled by this one when I saw it for the first time years back.

There were several characters lining the outside of the structure too, like this screaming lady. I was going to call her a vampire, but she doesn't have fangs.   

A very large Killer Klown from Outer Space was there. I think he just laughed.

Check out this entryway! Again, I'd like to bring the display home.

Mars Attacks! I've actually never seen this movie, and there's every reason that I should have.

This skeleton shakes his head. It's just a fun, classic design. I think he could fit well with a pirate-themed display.

This jack-o-lantern is a favorite prop of mine. He looks like just a normal pumpkin.

But then... Pow! His mouth pops open really fast, revealing pumpkin guts.

There were some more tomb frames near the entrance/exit of the store.

This area is where you'll find the more decorative Halloween items (mostly movie-themed.) Here are a few favorites. 

Pretty cool welcome mat:

Disney's Haunted Mansion inspired...

I was actually back at Spirit today, but I didn't have my camera. If I had brought it, I would have taken a picture of new Hocus Pocus stuff they had in. They had a journal that looked like "The Book" from the movie. But when I was there several days back, this glass was my favorite Hocus Pocus item.

You'll no doubt recognize these from A Nightmare Before Christmas.

They had plenty of movie-themed signs. I'm a big original Halloween movie fan, so I appreciated that "newspaper article" at the bottom. 

Today, I noticed that they had in a neon sign for the Bates Motel. When you turn the sign on, the neon lights up and one letter flickers. I was surprised to see that they stocked the shelves since I'd been there. So it is worth checking back!

Have you guys been to Spirit Halloween yet? I'd be interested in exchanging notes on what you've seen! 

Tell 'em Large Marge Sent Ya!

The last month or so of frigid weather has made me want to take in some movies. When the temperatures are in the negatives, I just want to cover up with a bunch of blankets and bust out the DVDs! I had a certain movie on my mind lately. Some recent conversations have been reminding me of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

The first time I saw this movie would have been around when it came out. Then about 15 years later I saw it on the big screen at one of those midnight movie nights in an old theater. It was a lot of fun. I remember people yelling out the famous lines along with Pee-Wee. Some parts, like the Large Marge scene, are experienced best on the big screen.



Good old Large Marge. That claymation moment where her face morphs scared me so much when I was a kid. That part is pure Tim Burton. Pee-Wee's Great Adventure was one of Tim Burton's earliest movies. It was also the first movie Danny Elfman wrote a score for. According to the DVD commentary, it took a lot of coaxing to get Elfman to take part in the project. Good for him that he did, because it started him on a really successful path in composing movie scores.

This third time around watching the movie turned into more of a fifth time around. I ended up watching the movie again to hear Tim Burton and Paul Reubens do their commentary. Then I played it again for the Danny Elfman commentary. I learned some fun trivia and was surprised that I was still interested in watching the same movie that many times in a row.

I have to share one piece of trivia I learned. I'm sure nearly everyone reading this is an Elvira fan. Did you know that Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) has a role in this movie? I didn't even recognize her.



She's in more of a biker babe role here. I think she looks just as cool like this! I might actually prefer her biker look. You'll see her at the end of this clip:



Back to Large Marge. There are a series of events that lead up to her scene. It starts with Pee-Wee hitchhiking to Texas. Pee-Wee has the fortune or misfortune to be picked up by Mickey who is an escaped convict. I don't think I'm doing a whole lot of plot spoiling here, considering what this movie is like and how you've very likely seen it already.



So Mickey strands Pee-Wee on the side of the road in the middle of the night and along comes...



Isn't that a classic ghost story moment?

I was surprised to find that I am far from the only person Large Marge made an impression on. In fact, I ran into several tributes to her scene on YouTube! The videos ranged from cute to confusing. (The Cutest one)
 
I watched Big Top Pee-Wee next, but I wouldn't bother with that one! The only funny thing about that is the series of negative reviews online... It was really missing Tim Burton's vision! OK, to be fair, Kris Kristofferson was hilarious as Mace Montana, the circus manager. I'm not sure if he was supposed to be funny, but he was to me. I think I was just amused by watching someone basically be his normal self while surrounded by a bunch of craziness.



So my advice is to skip Big Top Pee-Wee and check out Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. If you're a fan of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is definitely worth revisiting. It's interesting to watch the beginning of a film partnership and two amazing careers.  And when you're done watching it, be sure to read this:

14 Things You Probably Never Knew About "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure"

I bet you'll learn something!