ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — It may only be late September, but Halloween is already upon us. Spirit Halloween, that is.
The pop-up department store is officially open for business beyond the grave in Asheville. Its orange and black banner can be seen hanging proudly from Aug. 23 to Nov. 3 at 83 S Tunnel Rd., once the location of Bed Bath & Beyond.
Spirit Halloween possesses gutted department stores like a playful poltergeist, filling its aisles with Halloween costumes, decor and elaborate animatronics, then evaporating come November.
Despite its fleeting physical presence, Spirit Halloween occupies a spiritual reverence among its shoppers. Enthusiasts return year after year to see the store’s new haunted accoutrement. The costumes available mirror the year’s most popular pop culture. Even the smallest decorations are a source of excitement for Halloween lovers.
“Yeah, I come here for home decor,” said Spirit Halloween customer Tammy Cipriano. She held a small gargoyle-adorned sign. “This is going in my bathroom, because I have a Haunted Mansion bathroom.”
When it comes to the outside decorations and costumes, however, Cipriano has it covered.
“I don’t buy them, I make them,” Cipriano said.
One of her latest outdoor creations is a “big eight-foot Death” featuring a 10-foot PVC pipe scythe. The Grim Reaper, Cipriano said, materialized out of nothing but “burlap, a lot of mod-podge glue and spray paint.”
Her costumes, meanwhile, are still under construction.
“I am currently working on a ‘Mass Effect’ EVA foam full body armor for my husband,” Cipriano explained. “I do the sculpting, the silicone molds and everything. It’s a lot of fun.”
While Cipriano reigned as the queen of DIY Halloween, other customers milled around Spirit Halloween’s largest attraction. Every year, the brand selects a theme that the ISE, or In-Store Experience, will revolve around. Past ISEs have ranged anywhere from haunted cargo ships to clown-infested trains and incorporated various interactive animatronics into their displays. This year, the ISE is called “Carnevil,” and features a horror-themed carnival for visitors to enter on the showroom floor.
The Carnevil display had the most impressive animatronics in the store. In one booth, “shooting” a toy gun at an animatronic of Art the Clown, from the “Terrifier” franchise, caused the life-size monster to loom forward. Elsewhere, Emily, the titular heroine of “The Corpse Bride” moved and spoke after a customer stood on a small pad on the ground.
“They go through the walk-through and there’s a cotton candy smell to it. There’s some mirrors in it. There’s a little projector fan that has some pretty cool little visuals and animations on it,” said store manager Alisha Marlowe. “We’re hoping to get Victor to stand with Emily because they kind of communicate back and forth. I want to say they recite their vows back to each other, which is a very good part of that movie.”
Marlowe is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about Spirit Halloween. A longtime horror enthusiast –– early exposure to “The Exorcist” made sure of that, still a favorite of hers today –– Marlowe has been coming to the store for over a decade. When she started a family, it became a tradition for them as well.
“When I had my son, he would always get excited when he would see the signs. Because he was really little, he would call it the ‘booger store,’ because, you know, the booger monsters?” Marlowe smiled. “That was our yearly thing. It was like Christmas time for him.”
Marlowe has worked on and off at Spirit Halloween over the years. This is her second consecutive year at the Asheville location. She was inspired to apply to the team as a manager because of the working environment at the store.
“It’s a caring place. We have people from different backgrounds, different lives and we all work very well together because we can be ourselves,” Marlowe said. “The spooky season is life. It’s not just the one time a year. It’s like all year for us. But when Spirit hits, it’s like now we can really let that out. Let that side show.”
Marlowe was just one of the smiling, black-adorned team that milled between the racks of “Scream” masks and vampire makeup. Her coworker Nevaeh Swann ran the cash register, welcoming guests carrying all sorts of ghoulish garments with panache. For her own costume, she said she was thinking about dressing as Lydia from “Beetlejuice.”
Fortunately for Swann, Spirit had a rack of “Beetlejuice” costumes only a few feet away. That’s how everything feels there. No matter who you are or want to be, there is a place for you at Spirit Halloween.
