Fantastic Fest 2023 – Before haunts became a multi-billion-dollar industry with massive theme parks, there was Spooky World in Berlin, MA. What started as essentially a hayride with a few horror celebs in attendance soon grew into a major attraction that sparked national attention. Spooktacular! is a fascinating documentary about Spooky World’s meteoric rise in the early-mid 90s and ultimately, its downfall. The documentary makes for one entertaining watch as we creep closer to October.

Directed by Quinn Monahan and executive produced by Tom Savini, the documentary features interviews with several of the haunt’s actors and various horror celebrities, including Savini, Linda Blair, Dee Wallace, Kane Hodder, Alice Cooper, among others. There’s also extensive interview footage with Spooky World’s founder, David Bertolino, as well as his various family members who also played a role in the business. Bertolino’s rise is pretty fascinating, considering he worked in his dad and brother’s joke shop in Boston, before envisioning something more appropriate for Halloween. Initially, Spooky World was a hayride in the very rural town of Berlin. However, due to the company’s clever marketing, even that first year saw wild success, to the point cars lined up along the interstate.

By the second year, the attraction grew and grew, eventually incorporating haunted houses, including one inspired by Savini’s work. The documentary includes plenty of archival footage from both the early years of Spooky World and its peak in the mid-90s. It’s pretty cool to see and hear how exactly Bertolino and his crew drew well-known genre actors even in those earliest years, including Hodder (with a mullet) and Savini. There’s also an intriguing anecdote about how they tracked down Blair, who, at the time, wasn’t doing many, if any, appearances.

While I’m certain horror hounds will really dig this documentary, I suspect anyone with a business or marketing background will also enjoy it. So much of this film talks about the growing pains of a business, as well as the challenges Spooky World faced because they grew so fast, gaining attention on huge programs like The Tonight Show and, of course, local news stations. Much of the doc talks about the marketing plan and some of Bertolino’s ideas that succeeded and also floundered. The bigger the haunt became, the more pressure on the crew to outdo previous years. A few decisions led to the company’s downfall, including eventual backlash from the local community over the crowds and one attraction in particular that upset more conservative-minded folks.

While seeing old footage of genre icons like Blair, Hodder, and Cooper signing autographs is pretty cool, as well as the documentary’s focus on the growing pains of a business, Spooktacular! could have addressed Spooky World’s influence on the larger haunt industry and the fact it’s really exploded into major theme parks. This is touched upon somewhat, but not nearly enough. It’s a missed opportunity.

Now that haunt season is in full swing, Spooktacular! is a perfect watch for the season. This documentary has plenty of awesome archival footage of Spooky World’s heyday, as well as more recent interviews with the celebs and crew involved. Heck, this documentary is worth a watch just for the footage of Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett performing “The Monster Mash” at one of Spooky World’s events. As they always say, appreciate what you have while you have it. When it’s gone, be glad it ever existed in the first place.

7 out of 10