Summerside –Red balloons float Downtown amid a cauldron of costumes on Saturday afternoon.
Among the superheroes, video game characters, zombies and witches, there’s a new Halloween costume scaring up the local stores and restaurants participating in the annual community event, Witches on Water Street.
Max Gaudet, 8, surfaced as the box office’s top blood-curdling character, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. His look represents a bygone time, a thick, puffy, collar frills his neck, and his jacket is pinned with red balls as buttons.
His father, Mathew, chimed, “We’ve been coming to this event since it started (six years ago), and the kids love it. And I love this too. I’m a big kid at heart. Their mother creates their costumes, and I usually pick a good one.”
The Pennywise costume has flown off the shelves after Stephen King’s novel and the 2017 movie of the same name, IT.
“We opened Halloween Central at the beginning of September this year, and we had Pennywise costumes, accessories, and masks, all of which have sold out,” noted Stephanie Dooley, the manager of the Summerside location.
Dooley acknowledged that adults and children were dashing out the door to assume the identity of the villain, which uses the trappings of childlike innocence to lure kids to their doom.
“We had a good four or five a day coming in search of the Pennywise costumes. And we have one pair of the contact lenses left, so we will see who gets them,” she said, with a grin.
Five Nights at Freddy’s, an indie video game, is the second most popular Halloween item to sell at the store.
Wonder Woman follows closely behind, with little girls ditching the princess outfits and snagging a shield to become the ultimate girl power.
Costumes from these recent box hits could be seen bobbing in and out of stores between Samuel’s Coffee House and the Summerside Rotary Library, from 1-4 p.m.
Hundreds came dressed in character to trick or treat and show their support to local business, while all in the spirit of the spooky season.
