Angry ‘Halloweentown’ Locals Blast Annual Celebrations for ‘Celebrating the Devil’s Birthday’

Halloweentown is more than just a movie!

For the locals of St. Helens, Oregon, turning the town into Halloweentown each year for over a decade has become a cherished local tradition that brings in many out-of-towners to celebrate the spookiest time of year.

The self-proclaimed “Queen of Halloweentown,” who volunteers to spread the magic, explained the roots of the celebration.

“13 years ago was about when we started all this. We had maybe, maybe 100 people? And we had the pumpkin sitting in the middle of the square with some corn stalks around the base of it, because Byron hadn’t made a base for it yet,” she shares.

“It was raining and we handed out hot cocoa and cookies and we lit the pumpkin in the rain and everybody clapped and then went home. And then it just kind of grew.”

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For her, it’s a labor of love to celebrate Halloween with visitors and residents alike. “It comes from making people happy. There is nothing — I know, it’s crazy — but there’s nothing I enjoy more than wandering around Halloweentown in my gigantic dress with a crown that hurts my head, and making other people happy.”

Not all the Halloweentown-related festivities foster positive feelings, however. The director of the local haunted house admits that there’s occasionally some mischief around the celebrations.

Showing off the surveillance system in the area, he explained, “We’ve got it set up in the square. We also have it set up on our vending machine, so you know anything dubious happens up there, you can see what’s going on.”

“Also if somebody runs over here and topples something over, or somebody grabs something over here, we’ve got a video documentation of it and every once in a while, there’ll be kids that come through and they steal a prop or something like that and we put it on Facebook and people are like, ‘Oh yeah, I know that kid. You got him.’ Then we got him and then they’ll have to do like, I don’t know, 24 hours of public service.”

There’s also a contingent of locals who are altogether unhappy about the celebrations. From a personal dislike for the holiday or film to religious objections, there is vocal dissent in the Oregon neighborhood.

In the documentary, one local likens the phenomenon to “celebrating the devil’s birthday.”

“The movie, I don’t know where the idea came. Nobody ever shared that idea with us, but wherever the idea came [from], they decided to adopt it and bring it here. And I guess their reasoning was to bring business for money, you know, for the city, for the businesses, so they’re actually doing this for the businesses and not really thinking of a citizen,” she says.

The St. Helen’s local goes on to cite a lack of “proper leadership” in the area and says she’s addressed it with the local council.

“I went before the council to talk about that, to talk about the physical consequences of having so many people in this town, as well as the spiritual aspect of the observations. I’m noticing how dark it’s gotten, especially this year,” she says.

Later, she added, “It’s concerning to me because I care about my city. I know the devil has a plan for this city to psychotense. God has a plan for this city and his plan is not Halloween.”

Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb tell PEOPLE that their documentary shares with other films the duo has made together “the element of inspiration from our childhoods,” and uses that as an “entry point” to delve further.

“As with all of our films, The Spirit of Halloweentown is focused on the local citizens and how this transformation impacts their lives—sometimes in small ways and sometimes in enormous ways. “We set out to make a Halloween documentary and came upon St. Helens by chance. The town welcomed us immediately, and we found that most people genuinely love the Halloweentown celebration.”

“Some love it for the pure joy of Halloween, while others appreciate the economic boost it brings,” the two continue, noting, “With around 60,000 visitors in a single month, October keeps many local businesses going,” they continue.

That said, “Not everyone feels the same way. Some find the crowds and traffic overwhelming, and others object for religious reasons. We wanted to give everyone a voice and follow the stories as they unfolded. In many ways, we drifted through the town like spirits.”

“After spending time with these people, it’s safe to say Halloweentown transformed us as well. There’s a specter of sorts that hangs over the town, and for the first time in our careers, we explored the horror genre and witnessed unexplainable things during the course of filming,” the directors share.

“In the end, we uncovered what we view as a handful of universal experiences—with just a tinge of spookiness.”

The Spirit of Halloweentown is now available on Amazon Prime.