| “ | Terror begins after hours. | „ |
| ~ Main tagline for the movie |
| “ | The Reaper comes in dark of night... and so do I! | „ |
| ~ Alec Windsor's spirit after taking over the Mr. Dark animatronic (the first part of the sentence being something the animatronic already says on its own).
|
| “ | I only need one of you to get to sleep. Now, who wants a lullaby? Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of some childlike scum! | „ |
| ~ Alec as Mr. Dark while looking for the kids dragging a metal baseball bat. |
Alec Windsor (full name Alec Tristan Windsor) is the main antagonist of the 2022 supernatural family horror film Spirit Halloween: The Movie.
He was a wealthy individual, a businessman according to "The Legend of Alec Windsor" interested in taking down an orphanage so that he could buy the land and that was struck down by a curse from the orphanage's caretaker that killed him on the spot. From that day forward he would return as an evil spirit to haunt the town the land was built over on his anniversary every year. In the film he attacks three boys stuck in a Spirit Halloween store, where he possesses a multitude of animatronics and toys there.
He was portrayed by Christopher Lloyd, who has also portrayed Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Grigori Rasputin in Don Bluth's Anastasia, The Hacker in Cyberchase, Merlock in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Lord Imaru in Golden Films' The Secret Treasure of Machu Picchu, Bill Crowley in I Am Not A Serial Killer, Dr. Heep in Baby Geniuses, Kruge in the Star Trek universe and Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind, among others.
While he's possessing the Nightcrawler animatronic, the animatronic is physically portrayed by Lisbeth Mikoleit and is partially voiced (via stock sounds) by an uncredited Frank Welker, using many of the same grunts and roars made for Sharptooth from The Land Before Time and used for a plethora of other creatures and characters.
Appearance[]
Alec's initial appearance in his debut scene.
When he was alive, Alec Windsor was seen as an elderly man in his late 60s or early 70s. He wore a scruffy trench coat, a red tie, square pants and brown shoes. He was also seen with a hat at first, though after leaving it in his car it's not seen again, even in small glimpses of himself as a spirit or in "The Legend of Alec Windsor".
His human self is briefly seen inside a mysterious glass ball next to the underground cabin underneath the land he was cursed to forever be part of, and not too far from where his actual skull is.
Alec as a spirit.
As a spirit, he is a bright light, composed of swirling blue and pink tendrils when seen up close, generally shapeless but most often appearing as a glowing orb when seen from afar.
When possessing other objects or people, they are surrounded by a ghostly blue aura and may have glowing red or orange eyes, or blue in the case of Kate, whose case was probably different due to being alive.
Personality[]
Alec Windsor is depicted as being a pretty vile individual. He's shown to have some contempt for children as soon as the movie begins, sighing as he exits the car to face the children of the orphanage, whom he approaches with great disgust, as well as crushing a girl's doll after scaring her away.
Alec approaches the first child of the orphanage he sees, disgusted.
He talks fairly condescendingly to the orphanage's caretaker, Grandma G, and refers to the children as her "filthy brood". He mocks her once she casts out her curse, acting like he's choking and then walking away laughing, before falling dead to the ground.
When possessing others in the Spirit Halloween store, he starts by moving objects out of place to freak out the three kids stuck there, successfully creeping them out. He also starts activating other toys and animatronics, creating many unsettling noises. He answers some of their questions on Alec Windsor (with them only suspecting that he might really be a ghost) as a fortune teller animatronic, scaring them eventually by burning the animatronic and smashing its head against the protective glass dome it's within.
| “ | Kids... Filthy rodents! | „ |
| ~ Alec as Mr. Dark while smashing through the store with the baseball bat and looking for the three children. |
Alec as the Nightcrawler animatronic attacks Kate, grabbing her and lifting her by the hair.
Once he reveals himself he also shows just how far his hatred for children goes, sadistically chasing a group while taunting and informing them that he needs one of them dead or unconscious to take their bodies. He goes as far as threatening to smash their heads with a metal baseball or worse, since he also goes after them as the animatronic Buzzsaw whose buzzsaw arm seems to work fairly well and is overall strong enough to easily smash through a door blocked by a broomstick. He continues to threaten them with the equally imposing and powerful Nightcrawler animatronic which smashes through the roof of a wooden shack.
Even if he merely wanted to put them in an unconscious state, he would've still robbed them of their lives and bodies after possessing them.
| “ | Time to sleep... Hold still. | „ |
| ~ Alec approaches Jake, ready to hit him with a baseball bat. |
Biography[]
Background[]
Not much is known about Alec Windsor's past, but he is said to have built more than half of the small town the movie is set in.
A long time ago, on October 31st, Alec Windsor arrives on his automobile driven by his butler at Sacred Hearts, Home for Wayward Children, an orphanage in the middle of a field. He tells his butler to keep the engine hot as this won't take long, and exits the car with a sigh and a look of disgust as he observes the children alerted of his arrival, as it is apparently not the first time he's come to the orphanage.
He stops for a moment in front of a little girl, scares her away and crushes her doll before continuing to walk towards the orphanage's caretaker, Grandma G. He pulls out a paper, likely a land contract or an eviction notice, calling it the final notice and showing some surprise that she and the children haven't left yet.
Alec's death.
Alluding to at least one previous attempt, Grandma G reaffirms that they won't leave and that he won't have this land, but with the paper, Alec confirms that she already does, leaving her only 48 hours to evacuate but also recommending them to stick around and watch the fireworks. This angers Grandma G enough to send a curse, which summons a storm, but this does not intimidate Alec who fakes being choked before turning away laughing.
He then falls dead to the ground and his spirit leaves his body, flying up into the sky.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie[]
Illustration for "The Legend of Alec Windsor".
As the decades pass by, this moment is turned into a local folk tale of sorts, used to scare children on Halloween, with some details altered or more elaborated on such as Grandma G being an actual witch and Windsor dying in fear as he is cursed to have that land forever.
In "The Legend of Alec Windsor" as this tale is called and shown (through a puppet act), that is what is believed to have happened, that Alec's soul was bound to this dimension and his body was apparently never found. According to the story, his spirit awaits for the night of All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween, the anniversary of his death, to claim his way back from his doom, purgatory.
Three kids, Jake, Bo and Carson, decide to stay inside a Spirit Halloween store for the night, and they are faced by Alec Windsor's spirit haunting the place, starting with a fortune teller animatronic that spooks them somewhat, especially when it answers 'yes' to the questions "Is the town haunted by a lost spirit?" and "Is Alec Windsor roaming tonight?". More questions are asked, on what he seeks, to which the fortune teller animatronic laughs and starts emitting a lot of smoke, ending with the animatronic smacking its head against the glass dome it's within.
Suddenly, Alec's spirit floats out of the animatronic, laughing evilly and entering the animatronic known as Mr. Dark, which says one of its automated quotes and then starts talking in Alec's voice. Alec, as Mr. Dark, starts chasing after the kids and grabs Bo first, holding him by the neck.
| “ | Night, night! | „ |
| ~ Alec as Mr. Dark after grabbing Bo by the neck. |
Alec as Mr. Dark.
Bo is freed from Alec's grasp by his friends and the three kids hide, but Alec can smell their blood, grabs a metal baseball bat to assure their deaths so he can possess one of them and easily finds their hiding spot.
The kids are able to trick Alec and sneak attack him in order to damage the animatronic, beheading Mr. Dark and rendering it useless for Alec.
Alec possesses Teddykins.
As the kids hide and another one (Carson's older sister) enters the building, Alec finds a new thing to possess: Teddykins of Terror, a giant horror teddy bear suit. Though clumsier, this new form proves troublesome enough for the kids that they ignore the escape route on the ceiling Carson's sister Kate used to enter the store and instead lock themselves in one of the offices.
As Teddykins, Alec isn't strong enough to smash open the door, so he chooses a stronger animatronic for this task, Buzzsaw, which easily destroys the broomstick the kids had used to lock up the door. However, after the kids escape down a basement hatch Alec is forced to change again since the Buzzsaw animatronic lacks hands to open up the hatch.
Alec as Buzzsaw.
He goes out and possesses the Nightcrawler animatronic, which easily opens the hatch and walks down the basement and further down into an underground area where the kids are able to find the original Alec's skull, a shack with some of his belongings and a way to defeat him.
Alec as Nightcrawler walks down into the underground area.
Alec as the Nightcrawler is able to easily find and catch up to the kids in the shack and smashes his way into it, but the kids are able to escape and Bo destroys the animatronic by setting it on fire. Angered, the "real" Alec can be seen inside a mysterious crystal ball, proclaiming that his curse will end tonight.
| “ | Those... despicable... wretched... RATS! This! Will! End! TONIGHT! | „ |
| ~ Alec while within the crystal ball. |
His spirit follows the kids up to the main store floor where they plan to beat him with a ritual (thanks to a paper they found in the underground shack) and, possessing a skeleton prop, Alec steals Kate's grandmother's locket that they were planning to use as a sacrifice in the ritual.
Alec as Kate.
Sneaking up behind the kids, he causes several eyeball props to fall, tripping up and knocking out Kate. With her unconscious, Alec is able to possess her, and he eats the photograph of Jake's family that they were going to use as a replacement for the locket in the ritual. He also takes the book they found in the underground shack that was also going to be part of the ritual.
Alec ignores the children and begins to play around with his enhanced powers in his new body, giving life to many of the store's objects and puppeteering them into an army. The kids are able to rope him up while he's distracted and complete the ritual, presumably destroying Alec's spirit as it's sucked into the fire.
Alec's skull starts emitting ghostly light.
At the end of the film, Carson's grandmother is revealed to be responsible for the underground shack and is heavily implied to be one of the orphans that saw Alec perish. She casts a spell on Alec's skull by chanting "Ghost Requiem" so Alec's spirit may rest, but once she leaves we see Alec's skull shining, hinting that he may not be gone after all.
Quotes[]
| “ | Welcome to the party, princess... | „ |
| ~ Alec to Kate. |
| “ | Hope you like earth, maggot... 'cause you're about to eat dirt! | „ |
| ~ Alec attempts to drop Bo off a platform. |
| “ | I just need one of you runts! Wait! | „ |
| ~ Alec to the kids. |
| “ | Teddykins wants iiin! | „ |
| ~ Alec while attempting to smash down the door to the room the kids are locked in. |
| “ | I need something stronger... | „ |
| ~ Alec gives up on smashing down the door as Teddykins. |
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | Just so we're all clear on the rules... I can't leave here without a body. | „ |
| ~ Alec as Teddykins briefly explains the rules. |
When he was alive, Alec didn't have any noteworthy abilities or power beyond his wealth, being a regular elderly man and little else from what was seen of him. Once he died and was left as nothing but a spirit he became far more dangerous, obtaining poltergeist-like abilities such as manipulating and lifting up objects telekinetically or possessing them and manipulating them as if they were alive, especially animatronics. At the peak of his power he can also manipulate the weather to an extent.
| “ | Burn 3 things he haunts with glee seal with a sacrifice to set him free If by midnight he inhabits thee your body he'll take for eternity. |
„ |
| ~ A note showing how to beat Alec's spirit. |
As a spirit, Alec's only weakness is the fact that he can only do what he does for an hour on his anniversary. He can also only possess people if they're asleep or unconscious, but that's not especially difficult for him given his resourcefulness.
Even after the kids beat him by burning three things he haunts with glee plus a sacrifice, he is revealed to still be around, as shown by his skull's eyes glowing, so he has some degree of immortality.
Audio Files[]
—Alec's mocking laugh.
—Noises made by Alec's spirit in the Spirit Halloween store.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In "The Legend of Alec Windsor", Windsor references Vito Corleone's iconic line, saying (about Grandma G) "I'll make her an offer she can't refuse".
- In a book where "The Legend of Alec Windsor" is written, the legend of the haunted homestead (the orphanage) is said to have began around 1925, possibly when the prologue with Alec Windsor and Grandma G is set (the film only really says it happened a long time ago).
- While looking for the three kids as Mr. Dark, Windsor quotes the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk, with the famous "Fee-fi-fo-fum" (perhaps not original to that tale but the most well-known example for it, and what Alec is likely referencing given his height as Mr. Dark).
- While as Teddykins, Windsor quotes Jack Torrance from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, saying "Heeere's Teddykins!" while he's trying to smash through a door.
- His full name (along with other details) is only revealed and briefly shown in his Driver's ID card.
- He had brown eyes, was 6 foot 4 inches (1.93 meters) tall and weighed 185 pounds (83.91 kilograms). When his Driver's ID card was made he was 68.