Matthew Lillard, known for his roles in horror films like Scream, is launching a new tequila brand called Macabre Spirits in collaboration with horror maestro Mike Flanagan.

Matthew Lillard celebrates horror fans with his new Macabre Spirits under the Find Familiar Spirits banner. Lillard has brought an expansive experience to fantasy fans with Quest’s End Whiskey with Paladin and Rogue as well as a partnership with Critical Role creating a whiskey inspired by a drink from the first campaign Sandkheg’s Hide. Now, he is bringing that same opportunity to a fandom that he has been a part of throughout his career, horror. Lillard has been a part of some of the biggest horror franchises in film and television with Scream, Five Nights At Freddy’s, and Scooby-Doo.

Similar to Quest’s End, Macabre Spirits offers more than just a high-quality spirit, each bottle is crafted to tell a story. Done so with the stunningly crafted black bottle featuring an oil painting by artist Mia Bergeron. The tequila will come in a bespoke box that will also include an original horror novella written by the modern master of horror Mike Flanagan. While details about the story remain a secret, fans can expect a spooky gothic story that will surely terrify and tantalize.

Lillard’s excitement about his expansion of Find Familiar Spirits is palpable. He explains not only what inspired themes tied to Macabre Spirits, but why he wants to celebrate horror fans as he has with fantasy. Lillard also shares his collaboration process with Flanagan both on the short story and in the director’s upcoming movie, The Life of Chuck.

Mike Flanagan’s Macabre Spirits Gothic Horror Novella Spans Nearly 80,000 Words

Lillard discusses how he and Flanagan became collaborators not just with Macabre Spirits. However in Flanagan’s new movie, The Life of Chuck. Lillard shares his pride in the upcoming movie and breaks down how Flanagan’s excitement at exploring a new medium in horror led to a much longer story than they ever anticipated.

Matthew Lillard: Mike [Flanagan], about two years ago, through a friend of ours, we introduced ourselves and we sort of did a very old school Hollywood thing where we had lunch. That lunch went on for three hours. At some point he was like, we’re going to work together. And I was like, I look forward to it. Two years later, a year later, he called me and said, Hey, I’ve got an opportunity. It’s very small. In a very small movie, but I’m passionate about this film and I’d love you to come play with us. And I was like, I’m in. I don’t know what it is. I don’t really care what it is, I’m in. As such did Life of Chuck and had a blast in very small part. I feel very grateful to be a part of that team, that effort and that movie because I think it’s a really special film.

So within that, we became buddies over that creative process. When we were launching Macabre Spirits, the idea of Macabre Spirits is that with each bottle we deliver a novella, a horror short story. So, I asked him if he had ever written a short story before and he hadn’t. So we made him the offer. We just said, If there’s something you’d like to write, let’s work together and build this. Interestingly enough, Mike Flanagan is sober. So I felt a little suspect asking him and he was like, Look, I have nothing against drinking. I just don’t drink. He is very funny. He presented us three hooks. We all decided we would follow the one that he liked the most. It’s supposed to be about 10 to 12,000 words.

At 12,000 words, he was like, well, I’m going a little over. I’m like, Great. We love it. You do you. He is like, I’m at 20,000. I’m at 30,000. Keep going. We love it. Follow your instinct. Then he went silent for a while and came back with a story that was just under 80,000 words. I think what it speaks to is, he had a blast writing it. He really enjoyed it. We’re excited to share it with the world. The story’s fantastic. It’s terrifying, and it’s exactly what we were aiming for, which is this idea of gothic horror. It really ends up becoming, the product becomes, sort of a love letter to the horror community.

Although Lillard remains tight-lipped about any other authors he did reveal that they are already working with the next. This means that a second Macabre Spirits release is already in the pipeline.

Matthew Lillard: I can’t really [share names]. We have one other author set up. He came on two weeks ago. I have a meeting with him in half an hour to go over his pitches, which are great because we’re already into the second bottle.

Matthew Lillard’s Macabre Spirits Is Looking To Explore A Literary Horror Vibe Inspired By Edgar Allan Poe

Macabre Spirits was inspired by Danse Macabre. A genre of allegory from the Middle Ages that explores the concept of death. Influence from this can be found not only in the name, but the fiddle wielding skeleton embossed on each bottle. Lillard explained how Danse Macabre was an important part of the creative process including how it shows the style of horror they explore through Macabre Spritis.

Matthew Lillard: That’s Paganini, [the fiddle playing skeleton’s] name is Paganini. There was a violinist back in the 1600s who was so gifted they thought he was the work of the devil, and spent his life in jail. So we’ve now adopted that little icon. There’s a design firm out of Jacksonville, Florida called Shepherd, and there’s a designer there named Kendrick Kidd who has just been an absolute gift to our company. Working with them has been a total pleasure. So we brought him the idea. We came up with the idea of Macabre Spirits. We love the idea. It really speaks to what we’re trying to capture, which is not a modern horror vibe.

It’s really more like an Edgar Allan Poe kind of literary horror. So Macabre really is evocative of that feeling. One of the things that Kendrick did when we brought him this collection of a brand identity is he came up with the skeleton. So we came up with this sort of a collection of stuff and Kendrick created this character. Then we named him Paganini, and then we had the same guy that plays live for us, Scott Passarella, on Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! We went to Scott, and he did his adaptation of a Danse Macabre, which is a very famous piece of music.

So he composed that piece of music for us. The whole thing, I mean, it’s one of the exciting things about the company is that we can create these niche brands and lean into the creative aspects because we are nimble, because we’re not owned by big conglomeration. We can really be aggressive with our messaging, who we are, how we build, and the things that we’re excited about. Hopefully that sort of idiosyncratic passion is translated into the fans and helps people sort of discover us in this great wide world of the spirit industry.

While the first story will fall under the gothic horror subgenre each new novella will have a different style of horror story. Macabre Spirits actively reclaims the essence of literary horror in a landscape dominated by film and television.

Matthew Lillard: The next story is totally different than the first story. I think the thing that we’re most excited about here is that we are not aiming to do what you see in film form. It’s more subtle, it’s more elegant, it’s more evocative. It plays on the trappings of human nature and the mind rather than sort of the right down the middle horror space. So yeah, it’s not necessarily all gothic. In fact, the next piece is completely different than the first.

Matthew Lillard and Mike Flanagan Want To Celebrate The Horror Community By Providing An Experience Cultivated For Them

Lillard has already shown how Find Familiar Spirits can bring a unique experience to fandom with Quest’s End and fantasy fans. Lillard has been embraced by horror fans throughout his career. Scream fans still hope to see him return to the franchise, he has become the definitive voice of Shaggy for a new generation of Scooby-Doo fans, and he embodies the terrifying William Afton in Five Nights At Freddy’s. With Macabre Spirits, Lillard has the opportunity to give something back to the fans who have supported and loved his work for decades.

Matthew Lillard: At the end of the day, I think our belief here is that the horror community itself is self-selective. You feel like as a member of that community, I think, you sort of feel like you’re on the outside looking in. That it’s, sort of, us against them. What I see when I’m at horror conventions, I’m not necessarily a horror fan, but I do recognize the idea of feeling like an outsider. I was an actor in high school for God’s sakes. About outside as you get to the popular kids. There’s this idea of when you are in community, when you are at a con like that or you see somebody at a concert and they’re wearing something that you like, you see yourself reflected in other people.

I think that’s super powerful. So our hope here is that if we build out the tequila and it’s really delicious and premium and people love the drinking experience. On top of that, sort of give them this piece of literature that tickles all the things they love, that they’ll find it. And understand that it was built for them and really appreciate what the brand is trying to do, right? We’re not just out transacting on people’s passions. We’re not slapping a scary picture on the cover of a bottle and being like this is horror tequila. We are really trying to provide something to the community that we hope they dig.

Lillard also explains why tequila felt like the right spirit to pair with horror after the combination of whiskey with fantasy. He also shares insight into other spirits they hope to work with in the future.

Matthew Lillard: Bourbon’s the number one spirit in the marketplace, and number two is tequila. So just as a business decision that made sense. I drink tequila personally. I don’t drink whiskey, so I like tequila much better. There’s an artisanal approach to creating tequila and moving tequila that really lends itself to what we do at Find Familiar Spirits.

We want to create high-end spirit experiences around fandoms and tequila allows you to do that. Obviously there’s beautiful vodkas and there’s great gins, and gins the most artisanal of all, I think. We have plans to get into gin at some point, but it just sort of made sense to us. Horror and tequila just seems to work beautifully.

Matthew Lillard: I can tell you that the first season on Macabre is all sort of expressions of blue agave. So it’s not all going to be a Reposado, the juice is going to change every single time. We think that’s really exciting. You are always, every time you come to a Find Familiar Spirits product, you are going to be hopefully sipping something that is designed to speak to that. Whatever that bottle comes from. Quest’s End the bottle, the liquid profile is built on who the character is.

Lillard also reveals how the creative process was different in crafting Quest’s End versus Macabre Spirits. He also explains how he and his daughter discovered the artists featured on each novella cover and each bottle of Macabre Spirits.

Matthew Lillard: This isn’t necessarily the same [as Quest’s End] because this Reposado was selected without the story being written yet. So it’s a little different here, but it’s still a very exciting exploration of tequila. The bottle itself, so Mia Bergeron is this beautiful artist that I’ve been a fan of for five years. My daughter and I found her at this art fair. We followed her work authentically. In looking for someone, our ideas was, we’re going to give you the short story to read, and then what we want you to do is to interpret that into a piece that we can put on the bottom.

So that’s what she did with this piece. She actually went out and painted an oil painting of that image, and then we reduce it and put it on the bottle. So each bottle will have a different sort of expression of that painting. The frame will remain the same, the bottle will remain the same, but the painting will be different. We’re excited about that.

Lillard also excitedly broke down how they decided on the pricing for Macabre Spirits. Which includes not only a high-quality bottle of tequila, but a novella, the art of the collectible bottle, and the total experience that is brings to each horror fan.

Matthew Lillard: The good news is that we had it set at a higher price point and we determined that we’d rather have more people than more money. We have reduced the price. It’s going to be $99, which isn’t very expensive.

Find Familiar Spirits Continues To Search For Genre-Inspired Collaborations Like Critical Role & Ice Nine Kills

Quest’s End paired with Critical Role, a fantasy TTRPG monster, to bring their fans an experience like never before. Quest’s End worked to create a drink straight out of the world Critical Role has created with Sandkheg’s Hide. Which was an in-universe drink from the first campaign. Lillard reveals Find Familiar Spirits is working with Ice Nine Kills, a horror-inspired metal band to bring something new to their fans. With these unique partnerships Find Familiar Spirits continues to look for collaborative opportunities that further celebrate these genre fandoms.

Matthew Lillard: We’re looking for those opportunities. The good thing about Find Familiar Spirits is that we’re really nimble. We’re a small company and we can move in small batches. We are excited about a collaboration we’re doing with Ice Nine Kills. Ice Nine Kills is this punk rock savage metal band, and we’ve designed a very limited run of merch.

We get to announce, maybe I shouldn’t be talking about it, but we’re excited. That’s a tease. Nobody else gets that tease. So that’s sort of finding brands to collaborate with, finding other icons in the space and being able to build something together we’re excited about. And so we’re going to keep trying to find that, keep trying to create those opportunities.

Macabre Spirits has just launched its first release which includes the short story, Rare, Fine & Limited, by Flanagan. This premium horror-inspired tequila is available for pre-order now with a limited number of bottles available. Lillard’ has found ‘s Find Familiar Spirits is the perfect celebration of fandom. It is a unique experience that horror and fantasy fans can enjoy.