THE NIGHTLY STORYTELLER INTERVIEWS: BEN SCRIVENS OF FRIGHT-RAGSFiled under: Interviews, Horror Merch, Sacred Threads

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The threadbare hoodie I wore last night still smells of old wood and paint. I woke up wearing it—again. That’s twice this week. I’m not sure where I went. The dreams, when I can remember them, flicker with neon blood and static. But something else stayed with me this time: the soft weight of a t-shirt, familiar and comforting, like armor. A horror shirt. One I’ve owned for years. One I wore to midnight screenings, horror cons, and bad decisions.

You know the kind I mean. The shirt that screams before you do. The one that gets a nod from the stranger across the comic shop. The one that tells people you belong to the night.

And when it comes to horror shirts—hell, when it comes to horror merchandise in general—one name reigns supreme: Fright-Rags.

I had the privilege (and clarity of mind, for once) to reach out to Ben Scrivens, the founder and creative force behind Fright-Rags. What followed was a conversation filled with nostalgia, risk, and raw passion for the genre. Here it is—unchanged, word for word. Read it while the power still holds.


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1. Fright-Rags has become iconic in the horror community. Can you take us back—what inspired you to start with horror-themed shirts in the first place?

Ben Scrivens:
Thank you for the kind words! It all started in the summer of 2003; I was working a day job as a marketing coordinator at a small company and was kind of bored. I'd spend a lot of my free time on horror message boards (this was before Facebook, Instagram, and even MySpace). I would engage with other fans about movies I grew up with as a lifelong horror fan and I was also interested in props, masks, etc. I was a member of the Nightowl Productions message board which was run by Justin Mabry (who went on to start Trick or Treat Studios and also sculpt the Michael Myers mask in the new trilogy of films). He and I became good friends and I wanted to create something of my own. Being a graphic designer, and also a fan of fun and quirky shirts, I realized I did not have any horror tees. Everything I saw online at the time wasn't something that fit my personal taste, so I thought I would try and create my own. This was around the time that the "What Would Jesus Do?" (WWJD?) craze was everywhere, so I took that idea and created a design that replaced the "J" with a hockey mask. I looked all over online to see if something had been done like that but couldn't find anything, so I mocked it up on a shirt along with two other simple designs. Justin offered to promote them on his message board and people started commenting that they would buy them. So over the course of a long Labor Day weekend in September 2003, I came up with a name, logo, and hand coded a website just so I could take orders. Then I put $600 worth of t-shirts on my credit card without knowing if they would even sell. Luckily, they did.


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It always begins like that, doesn’t it? A bit of boredom. A message board. A whisper in the wires. And then suddenly, you’ve built something the world didn’t know it needed—until it couldn't live without it.


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2. You’ve expanded way beyond shirts—now fans can collect everything from lounge pants to glassware. What drives those decisions, and how do you decide what’s next?

Ben Scrivens:
The main thing that drives us is our passion for horror and nostalgia. I tend to think back to my childhood a lot, and the things I loved to buy and collect and see if I can put a horror spin on them. For example, like most kids I grew up with ViewMasters and the reels of all sorts of cool 3D images from nature or cartoons, etc. But what if there were ones for horror movies? So we made them. I loved trading cards as a kid but wasn't into sports, so I only collected comic cards or ones from random movies. If there were sets for Halloween, Evil Dead, or Dawn of the Dead I would have been all of them. So we made them. It all goes back to what fueled us as kids.


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It’s a strange thing, nostalgia. We chase it like a shadow, only to find it’s chasing us right back. Ben and his team aren’t just making merch—they’re conjuring relics. Trinkets from a timeline that never was, where childhood magic met midnight terrors.


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3. Some drops sell out fast—fans pounce when new releases hit. Have there been any surprise items that you didn’t expect to be huge hits?

Ben Scrivens:
That's a great question. Even after 20+ years of being in this business, there are still surprises. I will say some properties like Joe Bob Briggs have been surprise successes overall; I was a huge fan of his back in the Monstervision days and when he came back for The Last Drive-In we were able to create a shirt for it. The show did so well, and the shirt too, that it's been going for the past 7 years and all of our products have done amazingly well for it. We've been honored to play even a small part in all of that.


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Sometimes, the monsters we least expect become the legends we can’t let go of. Joe Bob was one of us. He still is. And Fright-Rags? They gave him a shirt-shaped altar.


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4. The art and attention to detail are always on point. Can you tell us about the design process or a piece that was especially fun—or difficult—to bring to life?

Ben Scrivens:
Every item we release has a story. Some fall into place really easily, and some are like pulling teeth from conception to release. One that stands out most recently is the pint glass we released for the JAWS 50th anniversary. We've been doing pint glasses for a while now, but someone from a different manufacturer reached out to us one day and sent us a sample of an embossed glass. I had never really seen one like that before and we were eager to do something with it. So we decided to create a special glass for the 50th anniversary and it came out amazing. It just feels like something that harkens back to the 70s but also feels modern. It's one of my favorite things from this year so far.


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Embossed glass. Shark-infested nostalgia. I felt a strange chill reading that—something in my reflection shifted in the window. The sea remembers, even if we don’t.


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5. You’ve collaborated with some legendary horror franchises. Is there a “dream” license or horror property you haven’t tackled yet—but would love to?

Ben Scrivens:
We've been very fortunate to work with so many amazing titles/properties, and I am incredibly lucky to say that my bucket list of what else we'd like to do but haven't is pretty small. That said, I'd love the ability to create official merchandise for the Friday the 13th franchise someday. We've done limited drops in the past, but I would absolutely love to do multiple collections/products in an official capacity. Unfortunately, given the rights issues and new direction they are taking with the "Jason Universe", that will most likely never happen.


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We all have our white whales. For Ben, it’s a hockey-masked revenant lost in a rights war. For me, it’s whatever’s calling my name when the mirrors fog up.


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6. Fright-Rags clearly gets horror fans because you are horror fans. What’s your personal all-time favorite scary movie—and why?

Ben Scrivens:
John Carpenter's Halloween is my all-time favorite film, horror or otherwise. I saw the NBC network television premiere on Friday, October 30th, 1981. I was only 4 years old but I was glued to the television for two hours straight. That is where my love of horror began, and some could say, the seeds of Fright-Rags were planted.


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The beginning. The spark. The soft hum of static and synthesizers on a Friday night in October. It always comes back to Carpenter’s shape in the dark.

Ben Scrivens didn’t just build a company—he built a legacy stitched from childhood fear and grown-up reverence. Fright-Rags has become more than a brand. It’s a beating heart in the chest of horror fandom. One that still pulses with every limited drop, every exclusive tee, every whisper of the past made tangible.

If you wear your love of horror like a badge—or a curse—this is where your journey begins.


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And if you dare… drop a comment and tell me your favorite scary movie, urban legend, or horror memory.
We’re just getting started—and things are about to get dark.

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