Hellah Horrah: “Scooby-Doo and the Headless Specter” – Haunted Mansions, Funky Fears, & the Groove of Mystery

Written By Tya Alisa Anthony

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Oh, Scooby Dooo Where are you!? The seventies version of horror that made you laugh and clutch the popcorn at the same time. “The Headless Specter” aired in the golden rotation of Saturday-night cartoons when ghosts were groovy and fear came with a theme song. The animation had that unmistakable Hanna-Barbera flicker—backgrounds that looped like vinyl and colors that hummed like neon gas.

My brother loved the chase music, that twangy guitar riff that made every hallway run feel like a rock concert. He’d sing over it, “Scooby-dooby-boo, Hellah’s coming for you!”—and I’d shriek just for the joy of being scared. Our living room turned into our own haunted mansion, couch cushions for crypts, flashlights for moonlight.

The candy haul sat in a mixing bowl between us—Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, and the holy grail: full-size Snickers from the fancy neighbor’s house. Every reveal—Old Man Jenkins unmasked again—felt like the world made sense for a second. Fear undone, order restored, and friendship stronger than the ghoul.

Scooby and the gang taught us that mystery doesn’t mean danger; it means curiosity with a cape on. And maybe that’s the heart of every Hellah Horrah Halloween: the thrill of not knowing, the comfort of coming home, and the soundtrack of laughter echoing down the hallway long after the credits fade.

Tya Alisa Anthony

Tya Alisa Anthony is an American artist, photographer, writer, and independent curator whose work explores memory, mythology, ancestry, and the quiet ways people leave themselves behind in the objects they touch. For more than twenty years, her practice has existed at the intersection of visual research, education, and cultural storytelling, investigating resilience through the body, the landscape, historical archives, and the natural world.

Working across photography, collage, cyanotype, botanical collections, handmade books, and mixed media, Anthony approaches each body of work as an evolving archive rather than a finished statement. She is drawn to weathered photographs, heirlooms, medicinal plants, folklore, ritual objects, forgotten architecture, and the symbolic language that connects cultures across time. Her work asks how identity is preserved, transformed, and remembered.

Alongside her studio practice, Anthony has spent more than two decades building educational programs, exhibitions, and community-centered initiatives that expand access to the arts. Her leadership has helped shape institutions, mentor emerging artists, develop sustainable systems, and create spaces where creativity becomes a lifelong practice rather than a privilege.

Anthony’s artwork is included in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver’s Octopus Collection. Her work has been exhibited nationally and is held in numerous private collections.

She is currently creating Organic Tarot, a 78-card hand-collaged tarot deck and accompanying memoir that intertwines mythology, autobiography, botanical symbolism, and the archetypal journey of transformation. The project reflects the central thread running throughout her career: that art is not simply something we make—it is a way of understanding ourselves, preserving what matters, and leaving a map for those who come after us.

http://www.tyaanthony.com
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Hellah Horrah’s Midnight Chronicles: From Dusk Till Damn, Quentin
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Hellah Horrah Presents: “Witch’s Night Out (1978)” – Glitter, Ghouls & the Grooviest Magic Hour