Spirit Halloween opens Fort Worth location with new theme

It’s about to get spooky in Fort Worth. Halloween season is nearly two months away, and with the holiday comes the opening of Spirit Halloween in Fort Worth.

The Halloween costume and decoration chain opened its seasonal location at 5026 S. Hulen St. on Tuesday afternoon.

Other locations surrounding Fort Worth are also now open. Arlington’s locations on South Cooper Street and West Randol Mill Road opened in early August. The Hurst location on NE Mall Boulevard also opened earlier this month. Keller’s South Main Street location is not expected to open until September.

This year’s Spirit Halloween locations feature a range of new animatronics, decorations, costumes and more. Upon first entering the Hulen store, guests can encounter Dr. J. Reaper monster laboratory animatronics as part of a new theme created for the 2022 Halloween season.

Other new arrivals include animatronic figures of Regan from “The Exorcist” and a circus monkey with “the eyes of a demon.” Customers can also find zombies, strawmen, possessed pumpkins and ravens at more than 6 feet tall.

“The popularity of Halloween is undeniable and as the world’s largest Halloween retailer, Spirit Halloween continually reimagines how enthusiasts celebrate, curating every aspect of the season,” said Nikki Balles, Spirit Halloween’s corporate director of PR and communications. “We expect this to be another killer year thanks to our expansive collection of new and returning costumes, décor and accessories, along with our industry-leading line of jaw-dropping animatronics.”

This week, the company featured costumes from its Addams Family and Western collections on social media while highlighting new merchandise themed after Trick ‘r Treat and Killer Klowns from Outer Space.

“We usually carry Addams Family merchandise and costumes every year,” a Spirit Halloween social media representative said. “However, we do update and enhance styles as time goes on. We also have sold merchandise from Killer Klowns and Trick ‘r Treat. This year, we are dropping Funko Pops on our website for the first time.”

Even though Halloween is not for two months, Hulen store employees said that shouldn’t stop guests from coming in soon. Decorations are the first items to sell out in the beginning, and costumes start to sell out by September and October, one employee said. Another employee said Hocus Pocus-themed items are usually very popular and the first ones many customers buy.

Returning decorations include dolls themed after Sinister Spirit, Chucky, Sitting Sam and Annabelle. The store also features costumes inspired by Emmy-award-winning series “Squid Game” and children’s shows like “Monster High,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Scooby-Doo” and “Sesame Street.”

Spirit Halloween is the largest Halloween retailer in the country, with over 1,400 locations in strip centers and malls across the U.S. and Canada, according to the company. The opening of individual stores varies, but most locations are open from early August to Nov. 2. The chain has been open for nearly 40 years.

For the first time this year, a Spirit Halloween film inspired by the chain is coming to streaming platforms in mid-October. The movie features a group of friends locked inside a Spirit Halloween store for a night of “spook-filled fun that soon turns to outlandish survival.”