A vintage store in downtown Hattiesburg, Mississippi, has built a walk-through Beetlejuice movie set, from the Afterlife waiting room to a sandworm bursting out of the wall, and it’s free. The Lucky Rabbit’s fan-made Betelgeuse walkthrough is back for its third Halloween, open weekends through November 1.
Inside the Betelgeuse Walkthrough
In the graveyard, a lit marquee sign reading “Betelgeuse Betelgeuse” points down at a tombstone that says “here lies Betelgeuse.” Skeletons and a gargoyle crowd the grave, a Zagnut bar sits in the grass, and Beetlejuice stands off to the side in his black-and-white stripes.
The afterlife gets built out room by room. The waiting room has the black-and-white checkered floor, the lamps, and the dead sitting in their chairs, waiting to be called.
A service counter sits under a “Now Serving” sign reading 54000601, with paper spilling off it, and a caseworker’s office is stacked with more paper, desk lamps, and a yellow suit.
The sandworm bursts out of a blue wall next to a white door, and it shows up again through the mouth of a red monster-face arch lettered “Inferno,” with “Girls” signs on both sides and a green-lit Beetlejuice standing beside it.
Back in the land of the living, the dining table is set for the dinner party, with the shrimp cocktail hands rising out of the bowls, next to pale, spiky sculptures on a teal set.
There’s also a pink parlor with a chandelier, a grandfather clock, and a spray-painted wall, and a miniature town of lit white houses and a church under a moon, like the model Adam Maitland builds in his attic.
A Vintage Store That Builds Movie Sets
Brandon and Abby Thaxton opened The Lucky Rabbit in 2013. It fills two 1920s buildings on Mobile Street, the old Hawkins Hardware Building and the old Hattiesburg Grocery Building, about 40,000 square feet with upstairs shopping in both. In an interview Google published in May, Abby Thaxton said the store started as a 7,000-square-foot antique mall and now has about 130 vendors and a staff of 20, with displays the Thaxtons and their team build taking up about 30% of the space.
Those displays are built from vintage finds, antiques, props, and artwork, and they have included a Stranger Things living room, The Office’s Dunder Mifflin desk, and a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation scene. This fall’s photo sets are called Golden, Stranger, Friendly, and Schitt’s. The Lucky Rabbit has been featured on HGTV’s Home Town, and Forbes named it a top travel stop in 2023.
Beetlejuice arrived in September 2024. The Lucky Rabbit called it “the biggest set we’ve ever done,” a 2,500-square-foot build, according to WDAM, and parked the Maitlands’ yellow Volvo outside for photos. It came back in 2025, and that announcement drew 2,600 reactions and 712 shares on Facebook. This year it’s called Betelgeuse Returns, and the store says Beetlejuice is “here to stay, with a few NEW surprises!”
The Lucky Rabbit calls the walkthrough a fan-made tribute to the 1988 film and says it is not an official Beetlejuice event.
LUCKYWEEN Friday Nights
On Friday nights in October, the store stays open late for LUCKYWEEN, from 5 to 9 p.m. on October 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. It adds an outdoor Halloween street market, food trucks, drinks, roaming scare actors, and a second walkthrough, the new Never Say Die, on top of Betelgeuse and the photo sets.
Friday nights cost $5 this year. The store says last year’s Friday crowds got much larger than it expected, so it added admission to manage attendance. Kids 5 and under are free, tickets are sold online or at the gate while they last, and gates open at 4 p.m. If you want to rewatch the movie after, Freeform airs Beetlejuice on Friday, October 2, as part of its 31 Nights of Halloween.
How to Visit
- Where: The Lucky Rabbit, 217 Mobile Street, downtown Hattiesburg. The store’s second building is next door at 220 Mobile Street.
- Free walkthrough weekends left: October 3-4, 10-11, 17-18, 24-25, and October 31-November 1.
- Hours: Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- LUCKYWEEN: Fridays October 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 5 to 9 p.m., $5, kids 5 and under free.
- Good to know: The walkthrough is no-touch, but sitting for photos is fine, and it uses fog, haze, and bright lights. The store isn’t air-conditioned, so it runs fans and hands out free water in warm months. Both buildings have ADA ramps and accessible restrooms, and there’s a grass parking lot across from the Grocery Building.
- Food and drinks: retro sodas, snacks, and adult beverages inside, plus local food vendors on Saturdays.
Looking for a scare while you’re in Mississippi? Terror on the Coast runs a $25 haunt in a 40,000-square-foot Gulfport warehouse through October 31.
