Jason from the Friday the 13th film series, complete with hockey mask and chain saw, stands guard outside the Moonlight Been “curiosity and monster shoppe” at 5561 W. 127th St., in Crestwood.
Inside the store, visitors are greeted by a witch named Hazel, and may encounter Frankenstein’s monster, his bride and their two daughters.
These are just a few of the 50 or more monster props owned by the store’s proprietors, Carrie and David Been.
October is a busy month, as people line up to be scared silly at haunted houses. According to marketing researchers, some people love the adrenaline rush of being frightened while still knowing it is a pretense that can be safely escaped.
The Beens and their creations add to this make-believe mayhem at events such as Witch-O-Rama in Summit, the Kildare Haunted City in Bridgeview, Pumpkin Days at the Children’s Farm in Palos Park and their own Crestwood yard for their annual haunted house.
They are also gearing up for their second annual Moonlight Been Halloween Scarefest and Spooky Market, planned from 2-10 p.m. Saturday. It will be held in the store, the parking lot and along the other storefronts in the strip mall. The monsters will be available for photo ops that day.
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In addition to the props, which are custom orders, Moonlight Been offers other items, not all horror themed. Included are home decorations, furniture, paintings, jewelry, crystals and stones, walking sticks and magic wands, creepy dolls and gnomes, and bestselling decals that can go on cars, walls and other places.
Most of the items are handcrafted by family members and other local artists. David Been, a carpenter by occupation, makes the monsters and furniture. Carrie especially enjoys creating the dolls.
The shop opened in May 2021. The endeavor grew out of the Beens’ love for Halloween.
“My parents liked Halloween and always decorated with dummies and monsters and had a big party, and that was handed down to me,” said Carrie Been, who grew up in Burbank and works as a medical assistant.
“My husband, David, the stepfather of my children, actually started this monster collection. When the kids were younger, they wanted to decorate for Halloween. I came home one day, and he was building a monster. The kids loved it, so we just carried on from there.”
Carrie is also a regular at arts and craft shows; in fact, Carrie and David met at one. Through these shows, they discovered an entire subculture of people into the “horror” market.
“I started with regular craft shows, then I realized there is a whole big community that likes this stuff as much as we do, so we started doing some of those shows,” Carrie said. “Then as you get into September, you get the group who is into this for the Halloween season. It’s just so much fun.”
“We always talked about opening our own shop, we wanted it to be a fun place, to showcase not just the monsters but our artwork and other artists’ work,” she said.
People are interested in tarot cards and palm reading, Carrie said, and so many people are into crystals and aromatherapy, so they mixed that into their shop.
“I don’t really know how to describe it. When people ask me what my shop is, I tell them it’s a monster shop, but it’s an art shop, too, we do crafts and workshops,” she said. “I had never seen anything like this in the area.”
Carrie makes the distinction that they are not into occult practices, such as conjuring up the dead or spirits. There are no seances at Moonlight Been, and Ouija boards are only for wall decoration.
Rather, Carrie prefers the frights of old movies like “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane” with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, and incorporates this into her work. Most of the props are from movies.
“A lot of the events we show at are multigenerational, with grandparents joining in. With the adults who visit the shop, in so many faces I see a little kid again,” Carrie said.
While sitting in her vendor’s tent at a Bridgeview event, she has been listening to the screams as people enter the “haunted” spots. She decided to add a “scream queen” contest to the Moonlight Been Scarefest that will be hosted by Lilhorrorgirl, a monster group from the Killdare Haunted City.
They will join the other vendors and organizations.
The Windy City Ghostbusters will be there, raising money for charity, in full uniform with ghost hunting gadgets and their marshmallow man. Paranormal Chicago, researchers in paranormal experiences, will be there, as will the band Bachelor’s Grove along with its hearse. There will be tarot card and birth chart readings, crafts, games, roaming monsters and raffles.
Vendors include Resurrected Home Goods, The Apothecary Cupboard, taly_inkz, Magick Lotus Botanica, Laughing Ghosts, K Cute Creations, Sugar Visions, Pagan Moon Magicks and Bast & Baetyl Alchemy.
Although October is Moonlight Been busiest month, the shop is not just for Halloween. Events and programs go on all year, and are being planned for the winter months. Popular programs already include palmistry with Bob Trzeciak and workshops for painting creepy gnomes and other garden statues.
“We’re excited about the next year. We’re working with people on programs and we’re getting organized to accommodate more people for workshops. We haven’t gotten to a build a monster workshop yet but we’re getting there,” said Carri