HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2025! – Dandy Spook Shack episode 55

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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.