We wait (im)patiently each year for our local Spirit Halloween stores to creep through in the dead of night, occupying once deserted spaces, à la Something Wicked This Way Comes. As autumnal winds roll through our collective towns, Spirit stores being to open their doors for a few weeks of just enough spooky bliss to nearly break the bank. While our wish of a year-round Spirit may not be coming true, the brand has something else brewing. A MOVIE! Yeah, you read that right. A Spirit Halloween movie is in the works, starring Christopher Lloyd and Rachael Leigh Cook and we are admittedly freaking out a little.
According to Variety, here is the official synopsis, “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.”
It sounds like we can most likely expect this to be a family-friendly, kid adventure, maybe in the vein of Goosebumps, perhaps? President of Strike Back Studios and Spirit Halloween producer Noor Ahmed says, “One of the reasons I immediately connected with the script is it is very much inspired by some of my favorite kid adventure films growing up from The Goonies, Gremlins, Monster Squad and so many great films made by Amblin Entertainment.” We can smell the sweet scent of artificial fog now, and you know we can’t resist a spooky kidventure flick.
Spirit Halloween will also star Donavan Colan (Zoe), Dylan Frankel (Raven’s Home), Jaiden Smith (Blue Bloods), Marissa Reyes (Raven’s Home), and Marla Gibbs (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) with David Poag, making his directorial feature debut, with a screenplay by Billie Bates.
Filming has reportedly already wrapped on the project, and an October 2022 release date is planned.
