Tarrytown's Connor McGinn Studios shakes things up for the spooky season with 'The Creepshow'

With Halloween right around the corner, Connor McGinn wanted to try something new to get himself into the spooky spirit.

Katerina Belales

Oct 28, 2025, 11:26 AM

Updated 2 hr ago

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Nestled in the heart of Tarrytown lies "The Creepshow," a pop-up shop showcasing petrifying pieces made to make your skin crawl.  "We've got weird little oddities sculptures [from] a handful of different local businesses that are all joining us here," said Connor McGinn, the owner of Connor McGinn Studios and one of the organizers of "The Creepshow." These creepy creations are not normally the main attraction at Connor McGinn Studios. Instead, it's a much simpler product that has a deeper meaning to McGinn: dinnerware. "I used to be a line cook and worked in restaurants," he explained. "I had taken some classes in college, making ceramics just for fun. Then, when I was working in restaurants, I saw [ceramics as] kind of an out [of the business]. [I wanted] to still be adjacent to the restaurant industry, but not be working on the line until 2 a.m. every morning. So, I started making plates for the restaurant [where] I was working, and then started making plates for a handful of other restaurants. Then, it snowballed from there." That has been McGinn's life for the past seven years. This year, however, was a bit of a shakeup. With Halloween right around the corner, he wanted to try something new to get himself into the spooky spirit. " I found these antique porcelain doll molds on Facebook Marketplace, and as a fun team-building exercise for my crew of makers at the shop, we started making these weird, creepy little things," he said. "If there's anywhere that you'd be able to sell creepy, weird things like this,  it's Sleepy Hollow [and] Tarrytown during October and the holiday season." After surprising themselves and selling out of those products at the Sleepy Hollow Street Fair, McGinn and his team were able to open "The Creepshow" right next to the Tarrytown Music Hall for the spooky season. The pop-up has garnered quite the mix in reaction from customers: some have skin-crawling reactions from excitement, while others have them from fear. "The reactions have been the greatest part about the entire thing, so I'll stand here behind the counter and watch people come in... We'll get people who come in and just say, 'Oh my God, this is my place. I wanna live in here.' And we had one person come in with a group of other friends, and she walked in and just said, 'No, no. Oh no. Oh no. I can't do this. No.' And turned right around. A lot of the kids' reactions are great. [Some] have seen horror movies or monsters before, and they get genuinely scared of [them]. My son, in particular, has no reference for scary. So, he walks around and he gives all the creepy monsters kisses, and he has to give all the mugs [with hands for handles] high fives." McGinn's creepy creations can only be bought in person at "The Creepshow" in Tarrytown until Sunday, Nov. 2. All of his other dinnerware products can be bought year-round on his website.