On Friday, the documentary “The Spirit of Halloweentown” arrives on Amazon, YouTube, and Apple TV to rent or buy. The film, which world premiered at Fantastic Fest 2024 and was an official selection at this year’s Overlook Film Festival, shares its name with the St. Helens, Oregon Halloween event at the heart of the film.
St. Helens served as one of the primary filming locations for the 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie “Halloweentown,” with the city essentially serving as Halloweentown. Since then, the city has played host to The Spirit of Halloweentown, an annual event which began as a tribute to the film and has grown into a month-long Halloween celebration.
I was given the opportunity to screen the film ahead of its digital release. As a long-time fan of “Halloweentown” and someone who’d always wanted to attend the event, I dove in expecting a nostalgic deep-dive into the film and the celebration it spawned. I was greatly mistaken, but in the end, that was ok.
From directors Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb (“Butterfly in the Sky”), “The Spirit of Halloweentown” is less a nostalgic tribute and more a raw, observational portrait of St. Helens. The 95-minute runtime doesn’t wax poetic about the Disney film; instead, it focuses on the people who make up the town: the gay outsider who bought the historic Klondike Tavern, the self-proclaimed Queen of Halloweentown, a former dancer and cheerleader leading her squad in a zombie cheerleader routine, a local ghost hunter, and a woman who believes the ongoing event is bringing evil into the town.
A “Halloweentown” or Spirit of Halloweentown documentary, this is not. You’ll see elements of the event—such as its haunted house, the costume contest, and the famous lighting of the jack-o’-lantern in front of City Hall—but these serve solely as the throughline for something more profound. The documentary successfully trades in cinematic nostalgia for genuine human drama, uncovering the true ‘spirit’ of the town, not just its spooky facade.
While not a perfect film—there are parts that drag and some story elements that leave you wondering why they were included—but “The Spirit of Halloweentown” has a charm about it. It shares the poignant story of a town that struggles to balance its small-town identity and close-knit community with the demands of hosting upwards of 50,000 “Halloweentown” fans each Halloween season. And while it may not satisfy that desire for more “Halloweentown” content, it gives a human element to an event that welcomes thousands of fans each year and might even make you appreciate the folks who make it happen a little bit more.
