{Fantastic Fest 2023} Spooktacular!

Maybe it is the season that got to me. After all, it is the season of the witch. Spooky World had plenty of witches on their own. Maybe it is that I have haunts on the brain. After Drinkaway Camp is on track to blow our expectations out of the water. More than that I think the reason Quinn Monahan‘s documentary Spooktacular! hit me so hard was that I have kids of my own. Specifically, a teenager who is old enough that he has started to create fun memories that he will look back on fondly as an adult.

While we don’t have Spooky World in Kansas City we do have a legion of haunts that bring adults and teenagers alike to various areas of the city. These haunts are scary sure, but more than that, they function as rights of passage, and Spooky World in Massachusets has helped many a teenager slide into adulthood.

The documentary has an absurd amount of archival footage. From local news channels covering the early version of the events to interviews with scaractors Spooktacular! is worth it for the information dump alone. When that footage presents the human side of the event it really shines. From Spooky World’s inception to its rise and eventual demise, the audience feels like we are along for the big scary ride.

Director Quinn Monahan clearly has an affinity for Spooky World creator David Bertolino who comes across as a marketing genius with macabre proclivities. Some of the best moments of the documentary capture when Bertolino comes up with new gimmicks and ideas that everyone seems to be a little sketchy about but end up pulling in massive crowds and building the cult audience of Spooky World. That audience comes to define the event and in many ways the movie. As we bounce from one crazy setup to another the crowds grow and dutifully follow where Spooky World may take them. Culminating in a late show appearance by John Krasinski who discusses his own nostalgia for the haunt. It seems Spooky World made an impression on everyone who went there.

Creatively the film is an absolute joy to watch as the documentary gets broken down into the individual areas of the attraction. It gives the entire production a treasure-hunting vibe where the map gives us the location of the haunt and the stories and interviews give us their heart. Stylistically it looks fantastic and allows for easy watching and predictable pacing. As the haunts change, the crowd does not. It’s always there. The money and the energy continually push the owners of Spooky World to innovate and it is in that innovation we get a bit of the American dream. Pushing the boundaries and creating new ideas and attractions truly does pay off for the owners and operators.

It pays off until it doesn’t. The joy of the evolution of Spooky World is broken up by moments of somberness. I applaud Monahan’s keen storytelling as it leans into some of the darker moments of Spooky World’s history. Particularly poignant was the section regarding the wedding of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki. While only tangibly related to the overall development of Spooky World we see Monahan’s real heart in how he crafts this moment. We cannot help but feel for all parties involved including the sad and very weird Tiny Tim who appears as much a pawn as a star in a scarier game.

The end of Spooktacular! reminded me very much of Class Action Park another documentary about a much-loved, much-maligned theme park in New England. Just as Action Park eventually waned from the pop culture spotlight so too does Spooky World. Most of us are familiar with local haunts that become shells of their original. They rely as much on their history and reputation as they do the ideas and humans that propelled them to greatness. In that way, Spooktacular! feels a bit like a eulogy reminding all of us of what was once possible.

The documentary was one of my favorites this year at Fantastic Fest and we are waiting for general release information at the time of publication.