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It’s scary season once again which means it’s time for the Dandy Spook Shack Halloween Special! This year we’re haunting the Spirit Store to see what’s new. We’ll also have a look at the new MUPPETIZED Monster Cereals with one very conspicuous absence and I will share my favorite fright flicks of 2025 along with what’s hot on the horizon! It’s alive! Halloween 2025! Let’s step into the SPOOK SHACK! 

Hello and welcome to the DANDY SPOOK SHACK annual Halloween special! 2025! I’m your ghost, Necro Neil Dandy and in this season’s spooktacular, we’ll be visiting the Spirit Store to see what’s new this ghoul year. We’ll also talk about the most notable scary movies of 2025 thus far and the ones to watch out for on the creepy horizon. And last but not least, we’ll feast!… Our eyes upon the new box designs for the classic Monster Cereals by Jim Henson Studios with one very notable character that has apparently been given the deathly cold shoulder! 

BUT FIRST! I’d like you to drink in these frighteningly fashionable DANDY FUN HOUSE t-shirts! 

Woven from the threads of my dungeon spiders, you’re going to look drop dead fabulous. They come with fronts AND backs because nobody should be backless walking through the chill of a nighttime graveyard alone don’t you agree? Want to abscond with one for yourself? Simply visit the Dandy Fun Shop at the official Dandy Fun House website at dandyfunhouse.com and orders yours this evening. And if you’re watching closely watching on YouTube, we have a miniature Dandy Fun Shop set up there as well! Absurdity is Amplified at the Dandy Fun Shop! 

Ok, let us begin with a visit to the Spirit Halloween store to see what’s freshly alive for 2025!

SPIRIT STORE 2025

We visited the Spirit Store in Nashville’s Opry Mills where the legendary theme park Opryland used to stand… but that’s a story for another time. We wanted to see what was new for Halloween 2025 and we were not disappointed.

As we entered, we noticed the centerpiece for this year was haunted subway system. Very original. Of course it was monster rat infested which was quite a shock to the conductor.

Once we escaped the train we took in a little animatronic target practice on a decapitated clown. Mama’s not gonna like this! Scary clowns seem to be a thing this year.

Moving on from the animatronics, we find an assortment of un-welcome mats for the front door including the Bates Motel complete with bloody footprints, Mars Attacks, with Killer Klowns and Pennywise keeping the clown theme alive.

M3gan seems to still be holding her own with the young ladies (you know it’s the dance)!

And for the little ones we have the cutesy line of dolls known as Tiny Terrors with adorable baby versions of Chucky, Frankenstein’s little monster and Little Mikey Meyers.

Moving on to more costumes we find many food items like pizza and ramen which is about all you’ll be able to afford after blowing your paycheck in this place, hard tea and you can also make yourself a few fries short of a happy meal dress as a pack of french fries.

For the couples you can be chips and salsa, plug and socket, peanut butter and jelly or milk and cookie Awww!

There’s also a great assortment of inflatable costumes like the inflatable banana, penguin, alien abduction, blow up chicken, big rubber chicken so you can throw yourself at Svengoolie, chicken abduction and giant balloon animal! Also I didn’t realize that Spongebob was still so popular but there’s an entire wall with every sort of Spongebob Squarepants character you can imagine

and you can even buy your own supersized spatula perfect for flipping your crabby pattys and also for scraping your carcass out the door and back into the mall once your cash has all run dry in the Spirit Store 2025!

Ya know, every year I always wonder just how the Spirit Store is going to top itself from the previous year and they always do. The animatronics get better, the products overall get better and there’s always something new like for example, I don’t recall seeing the Terror Tots before this year and I just thought making those iconic movie monsters into cute dolls was just a really neat idea. And speaking of movie monsters, I think it’s time we have a look over… 

 

THE MOST NOTABLE SCARY MOVIES OF 2025!

Ok, now why am I calling this the most NOTABLE scary movies of 2025 instead of my favorites? Quite honestly it’s because, while I have seen my fair share of them, I haven’t seen them all. There’s just too many and when it comes to certain types of scary movies like vampires, zombies and themes that have really been beaten into the ground, it’s tough to motivate me to go see a show about a type of monster I have already seen a thousand times before. Therefore I’m going to do a rundown of the notable ones that stand out to me whether I’ve seen them or not and also give you my thoughts on the ones I have seen, then at the end I’ll let you know which upcoming scary movies I’m looking forward to in 2026! Sound good? Alright, let’s get started!

SINNERS: I have not seen this one but it tops Rotten Tomatoes as the number one scary movie of 2025 and stars Michael B Jordan. It’s set in 1932 and revolves around a pair of criminal brothers who return to their hometown and find themselves confronted by a supernatural evil which turns out to be vampires. I’m sorry but I’m sick of vampire movies. I’m sick of zombie movies. I like the fact that it’s set in 1932 and has a great lead actor but come on, let’s do something more original here. 

COMPANION: Ok, I haven’t seen this one either but after reading the synopsis, I’m intrigued and thinking I need to pull this one up at home and give it a watch! Companion is a science fiction thriller about a couple, Iris and Josh, who go on a weekend getaway with friends to a remote cabin. The trip spirals into chaos when Iris discovers she is a companion robot controlled by Josh, leading to a series of violent and shocking events as she fights for her autonomy! I like it!

WEAPONS: I did see this one and I must say, it was pretty good! It’s about an entire elementary school classroom that goes missing except for one child. It’s an investigative part thriller , part horror movie involving witchcraft. The ending is fantastic and fantastically hilarious dark comedy. 

28 YEARS LATER: I did not see this one mainly because it’s a sequel of a sequel of a sequel and I’m just over it, not to mention it’s just another zombie flick. The only reason I’m mentioning it here is because it has been a very successful franchise thus far so it is actually notable. I just have no interest in it at all. 

THE LONG WALK: This is one that has been recently in the theatres and has a somewhat original plot in that there’s this group of people being forced to walk no slower than 3 miles per hour and whomever is the last one remaining is the only one who is allowed to live. Ok, it’s original. It’s just not interesting, at least not to me. I live near the historic trail of tears. You want to make a horror movie about people being walked to death? Make a movie about that because it actually happened!

LONGLEGS: I saw this one which co-stars Nicolas Cage and revolves around an FBI investigation which turns up some very disturbing occult happenings. Nic Cage turned in an amazing performance as if one would expect anything less. By the way, if you’re wondering why Nic Cage has been turning up in a million oddball B-Movies as of late, it’s because he supposedly racked up a mountain of debts from living like… Nic Cage and he decided that instead of declaring bankruptcy that he would pull himself out of the red by taking on every oddball role he’s offered until he gets his finances back in the black. I for one am hoping he never gets his finances back in order because I am thoroughly enjoying all these whacked out mini productions he keeps popping up in!

A QUIET PLACE DAY ONE: I saw this one and thought it was fantastic! If you’re familiar with the Quiet Place series of movies then you already know that Earth was invaded by blind aliens who hunt by sonar. SO if you want to live, you have to stay completely silent. There’s a terminally ill woman with a kitty cat and all she wants is to get across town for a slice of her favorite pizza before her time runs out, when the alien invasion happens. Along the way, she happens to team up with a young businessman who decides in the midst of sheer hell on earth, that he’s going to help this woman get her dying wish of achieving her favorite slice of pizza. I’d have to say, this was easily my favorite scary movie of 2025 even if it was the third installment of a sequel. Great original story line and fantastic acting. 

SMILE 2: I’ll just say it, I didn’t care for the original so I didn’t bother with this one. 

NOSFERATU: This historically was the silent film that Dracula was derived from and has many, many similarities. The only big name actor here is Willem Dafoe and he is mainly relegated to a supporting role. I suppose it’s neat in that they brought the original vampire movie to life for modern audiences, but my opinion is that they got the story polished and perfected with Dracula and while I can respect what they’ve done here, it’s just not really needed. 

ABIGAIL: A little kid vampire who likes to toy with her victims. Once again, I’m sick of vampire movies so I didn’t subject myself to this. 

ALIEN: ROMULUS: I saw this one. It was the same ol same ol. A bunch of people in space encounter the aliens. A bunch of them die and a couple of them make it out alive. 

ARCADIAN: Here’s another one of those Nic Cage clawing out of debt movies! I saw it and it was decent. In a post-pandemic world a single father (Cage) and his two teenage sons try to survive in a a world where they have to hole up in their fortified farmhouse at night to protect themselves from bloodthirsty creatures who hate the light so they only hunt at night. It was ok. Just ok. 

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE: Yep, I saw it. Was it as good as the original? Nope not hardly. Was it still good? Yes it was good and worth seeing. Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton were both amazing. Nothing really stood out about it however other than the fact that Michael Keaton can still deliver a character this physically demanding after all these years. RESPECT!

METH GATOR: I know a guy who’s in this movie and happened across it while channel surfing one day and said what the heck, let’s watch it. It’s largely a mindless B-Movie that’s so bad it’s good. I will say there is a part in the movie where my friend Wade Williams delivers a monologue which I thought was an incredible bit of acting. And about the only bit of acting in this movie at all. It’s a fun, campy, bloody escape. If you liked Cocaine Bear, you’ll like Meth Gator. I’m still waiting for Crack-o-dile!

M3GAN 2.0: I really like the premise of M3GAN and I saw the first movie but didn’t see this one. I have caught a few clips online however. My feeling is that they accomplished what they needed to in the first movie and bringing her back as the hero instead of the villain was a misstep and the clips I have seen have only bolstered that opinion. 

And then you have a smattering of movies which have taken classic characters who have aged out of their copyright protections and have been gloriously turned into Scary Sendups! Some examples would be PETER PAN’S NEVERLAND NIGHTMARE, SCREAMBOAT (which is a horror sendup of Steamboat Willie which is where Mickey Mouse made his debut to the world),

and last but not least we have POPEYE THE SLAYER MAN which is one I had in my list of upcoming must-sees from last year! Well… I saw it. And while it is quite gory, I thought it was overall pretty decent. Popeye has holed himself up for decades in an abandoned warehouse by the docks living on tainted spinach which has made him homicidally crazy. Basically anyone who dares to enter the warehouse he lives in gets their head crushed by Popeye’s bare hands. In a nice twist revealed towards the latter part of the movie, he and Olive Oyl’s daughter tries to rescue Popeye from his addiction to glowing spinach but ultimately fails and Popeye continues on as a murderous maniac with hopefully many sequels to come. 

There were also two other Popeye horror releases this past year: POPEYE’S REVENGE which I attempted to watch on TV but it was so bad I turned it off about a quarter of the way in. And then there’s SHIVER ME TIMBERS which I have only seen the trailer for and it appears to be the worst one of the three. 

And that mummy wraps up the scary movie rundown of 2025! But what am I looking forward to in 2026 you ask? 

THE BRIDE: (March 2026) THIS is the one to watch for! Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Penelope Cruz, Annette Bening, Jeannie Berlin, Julianne Hough, Peter Sarsgaard and more. It’s an all-star modern interpretation of the Bride of Frankenstein and the trailer looks amazing! I absolutely cannot wait!

EVIL DEAD BURN (July 2026), Ok, I’m a sucker for the Evil Dead movies even without Bruce Campbell, but of course they would be better with him it goes without saying. 

And that’s our Dandy Spook Shack Scary Movie Rundown but we’ve got just one more item to get to before we close the coffin lid on this year’s Halloween Special and that would be the very special treatment the Classic Monster Cereals have gotten this year from Jim Henson! That’s right, they have muppetized Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute. And the characters look amazing! They really did a fantastic job… BUT! I have a skeleton bone to pick with General Mills! They left out their newest monster, coolest monster and while I’m not a particularly social warrior type of ghoul, it’s notable that the character they left out is the first and only female monster they have ever introduced. Basically what I’m trying to say is…

WHERE THE HECK IS CARMELLA CREEPER!? Did General Mills actually discontinue her? Carmella Creeper was amazing! Was it because her cereal wasn’t very popular? Granted, caramel apple flavored cereal isn’t exactly the most appealing flavor in the world, but let’s be honest here. With the exception of Count Chocula, all the monster cereals taste like cubes of sugar-coated styrofoam! I’m sorry, they just do! Nobody buys these for the cereal. The only reason people buy them is for the monsters. And Carmella Creeper was a fantastic new monster and I’m upset that she wasn’t given her due. 

I’d like to know what YOU think about the notable exclusion of Carmella Creeper from this year’s Monster Cereal lineup. Please let me know in the comments of whatever platform you may be devouring this special Halloween 2025 edition of the Dandy Spook Shack or just drop a line through the Dandy Fun House website at www.dandyfunhouse.com where you’ll also find our Dandy Fun Shop along with the PATRONAGE PAGE should you wish to support future productions. 

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OK, that closes the coffin lid on yet another Halloween Spectacular edition of the Dandy Spook Shack! Come back and haunt us again real soon right here where everything is always FUN AND DANDY! Stay Ghoul!

Neil Dandy is the creator of The Dandy Fun House and the alter-ego of Neil Smith, the Big Cheese at Neil Smith Entertainment, follower of Jesus, musician, Emcee, Paratransit Driver and Author. Aren’t you impressed?