{Fantastic Fest 2024} The Spirit of Halloweentown

The spooky kid in all of us will love what the directors are doing especially in the beginning of THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEENTOWN. Although the film signals in the beginning that the documentary will both focus on the real people of St Helen’s but also the ghosts and ghouls that remain in Halloweentown. There is very little given to the original subject matter so lovers of the original movie series may be a bit disappointed but lovers of human stories will be well suited.

The overwhelming vibe coming from THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEENTOWN are that the people of St. Helen’s have great hearts. The costume contest in the first scene of the film perfectly captures the giving nature of the holiday while coupling it with the power of the movie that this is all based on. The Queen of Halloweentown deserves the moniker and she is an absolute joy with a warm but direct voice that protects all of the little ones during the holiday festivities.

The Klondike, an old building and restaurant offers this incredible point to tell the town’s past and future. It is a local favorite that fell into disrepair and has been bought and refurbished from an out of town transplant from Portland. It really is a story of any small American town. We all know them. Many of us live in the them. It somehow manages to be a story of the fight for America’s soul which the 2024 election seems to have magnified. “They are open to change, just nervous”. Yep man, that sure seems to be the state of things.

Took me a bit to figure out the angle of the documentary in that it feels a bit all over the place. We are following a high school dance team. Then we follow a paranormal investigator. As we become unstuck from the camera we start to explore the human stories that comprise the celebration and ritual of St Helen’s as they convert themselves into Halloweentown. At times that transformation feels Grimm. Not necessarily dark and sad (although we get some of that), but like Brother’s Grimm. There is a toll that transformation takes and that is a new and interesting story and one worthy of our attention.

St. Helen’s feels like an entire town devoted to turning their garage’s into small, kitschy haunted houses for trick or treaters. It is a phenomena I see every year in the suburbs of the Midwest. Perhaps it exists everywhere and wherever they exist persists the spirit of a DIY Halloween. That is what St. Helen’s becomes every year. Far from the polish of a big haunt, the authenticity of Halloweentown is more than enough to provide a memorable experience.

As The Spirit of Halloweentown unfolds it leans into that battle for the soul of these small towns. A local evangelical woman starts to speak out about some of the changes she starts to see. We learn she has had a number of illnesses and has lost her husband recently which leads her on a crusade against the new owner of The Klondike who also happens to be gay. The owner, already in a bit of hot water because of an ill advised response to an upset customer, has to reckon with being an outsider in every way.

The documentary’s momentum tends to slow as we follow a group of paranormal investigators as they explore the Klondike and looks for the spirits that inhabit the old building. It is rare that the ghosts and spooks are the slow part of a movie but I found myself wishing we could further explore the tension between the new arrivals to St. Helen’s and the older families. That is a timely story and one that carries more importance than the EMP’s of the older buildings. Human’s do more damage and that’s where I wished we spent more time.

It is the human stories of loss, grief, and hope that comprise all of the residents of Halloweentown. The filmmakers instincts are spot on as the film is bookended with the story of The Queen of Halloweentown as she discusses how she calms the autistic children of the town while recounting the recent death of her mother and loss of a job. The comfort and solace of the event is echoed in all of the residents of St. Helen’s but feels profound in these moments.

The least interesting parts of The Spirit of Halloweentown are the supernatural scares. While lovers of the original movie and Halloween in general will find lots to love about this documentary the humans are the main characters and the exploration of americana proves to be more compelling than the holiday or original film.

Check out all of our Fantastic Fest 2024 content here as we sort through all the weird and wild genre content coming to us next year.