Chicago's Horror House finds welcoming home in Avondale's 'corridor of horror'

CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week's Made in Chicago highlights the Horror Shop, a Northwest Side business that's gearing up for spooky season.

An old school television that looks like it came right out of “Halloween 3” is just one of the hundreds of horror-themed items patrons will find at the Horror House.

“Whether it's figures and collectibles, we sell things like vinyl, clothing, all kinds of different apparel, paintings, posters, all sorts of different horror movie merchandise,” said Moses Gibson. “Within the city of Chicago, we're the only purely horror shop where you can get all of this different horror merchandise at any given point in the year.”

Gibson and his brother Vinny Malave opened the store in 2022 after selling merchandise at different horror conventions and pop-ups.

Located on the corner of Belmont and Francisco Avenues in Chicago's Avondale neighborhood, the Horror House adds to what was already an eclectic area of Chicago, said Gibson. He pointed to places like Dark Matter Coffee, Bucket O' Blood Books and Records and a horror-themed coffee shop called the Brewed.

“It's like this corridor of horror and alternative shops that are very much witchy and metal and all of these things that very much go hand in hand together, and demographic wise, where it's pretty much all the same fan base, just in different shades.”

Gibson said he and his brother were immediately welcomed by the community. Since then, he said they’ve been able to extend that hospitality to other horror fans, a group which Gibson said has traditionally been seen as outcasts.

“We've had so many people tell us, like, ‘Hey, you guys have something different, and it's special, and we want you guys to stay around, because we don't know of anything else that's exactly like what you're doing, especially here within the city of Chicago specifically,’” he said.

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