Whew! What a year! Thrills Ville stayed busy.

Starting in January, we had Joe’s 45th Birthday party with a rocking live performance in store by Rebecca’s band Low Water Mark for Ghosts.

April we hit up the Wildey’s 2025 Short Film Fest with our friend Byron and took home the top prize in the community film category with his film Cereal Offenders starring Joe and co-directed by Adam!

Mid-year we went heads down and rolled out our Ebay store, Patreon, revamped newsletter section of the website, got the Cult Movie Club going in collaboration with the Edwardsville Public Library, started doing some new video formats for our YouTube channel, attended a few local toy fairs, and even more I am probably forgetting.

Then we restarted the newsletter (for good this time), had Jason and Michael roaming the streets for Halloween, and held our 2nd annual Black Metal Friday. Unfortunately the snow preempted Small Business Saturday but we rescheduled a day later.

This month we collaborated with the Edwardsville Public Library again as they re-launched their Anime Club into the Adult Animation Club.

We have also been discussing some big plans for something we can’t really talk about yet but, needless to say, we will drop details here when we have them. If we can pull it off, it will be epic.

For 2026, we are planning even more, stay tuned for details on Joe’s 46th birthday party bash!

Thanks for following us and being part of our journey, we couldn’t do this without the support of the community and we hope to keep pushing higher from here. Happy holidays and happy 2026 everyone! Our journey continues…

Running out of time? No where to turn? Don’t despair! We have that perfect last minute gift you are looking for, socks, shirts, toys, posters, artwork, stickers… You don’t have to settle for a candle. Well, unlees you want to pick up one of our amazing pillar candles like a Jeff Goldblum, Elvira, or the king of Christmas: Clark Griswald!

It is getting down the the wire and, last we checked, more and more items are throwing up the dreaded “Arrives after Christmas” warning on all your fave online stores. Come in and get the relief of a gift in your hand, no waiting on shipping!

We are open extra days on Monday 12/22 & Tuesday 12/23 from 10-7 then 10-2 on Christmas Eve 12/24. But if you wait to come in on 12/25, you are too late, we are closed, and that’s on you.

1974 - R (or Worse) - 7/10 - A Blueprint With Some Rough Edges.

Like The Burning, The Amityville Horror, or The Blair Witch Project this movie is a clear blueprint for a lot of holiday horror that came after. Trigger warning that one of the characters is getting unwanted perverted phone calls and the caller really goes there with the dialog. It is meant to make you uncomfortable and even being 50 years old, it still does its job. Everthing else in this movie is now seen as a by-the-books slasher but you can tell this is early in the genre and unique for blending in the Christmas vibes.

1996 - PG - 2/10 or 8/10 - A Good And Bad Holiday Classic.

This movie is a testament to the draw of Arnold throughout his career. By most measures, this movie is a mess, has moments that haven’t aged well, characters that are annoying, actors that can’t act, and all the rest of the problems. But then you get Arnold and Sinbad running through the city encountering absurd situations in persuit of a young Anakin Skywalker’s most desired toy: TurboMan. Strangely, it works. Just enough on the line to push Arnold and Sinbad to overact their hearts out. Bad but fun!

1988 - PG-13 - 8/10 - Bill Murray as Ebeneezer Scrooge, Say Less.

Drop Scrooge in the excessive 80s New York and you get Scrooged. Filled with biting satire and cynical snark that still hits. Bill Murray puts in a classic performance good enough you can’t really imagine it being anyone else in the role. The effects are effective enough here and the pace and directing never get in the way. What you get is what you want from Groundhog Day-era Bill Murray at the top of his game smashed up with a modernized (now 40 years ago but not jolly ole England) version of a classic.

2015 - PG-13 - 9/10 - The Other Big Red Guy Isn’t Nearly as Jolly.

The one criticism of this movie that I can get down with is that it doesn’t go further with the violence. Honestly, though, not sure why they didn’t just go there because the rest of the aesthetic, intensity, and feeling here deliver on the twisted story of Krampus. This movie is a great mix of horror, holiday, satire, camp, special effects, and amazing art direction. A lot of memorable visuals here and a lot of echoes of other holiday classics, this feels part twisted version of Christmas Vacation and part Joe Dante cranked to 11.