Spooky season has arrived, and John Travolta's sister Ellen Travolta is living it up this fall. The 86-year-old has brought her love of Halloween to the big screen for Hallmark's Haul Out the Holly movies series. In the series' third film Haul Out the Halloween, Ellen festively dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein in one of her fun scenes alongside actor Daniel Kountz, as they enjoyed a night out on Ever SCREAM Lane. The celebratory film premieres this Saturday, October 11 on the Hallmark channel.
In it she wore the popular rectangular-shaped wig with two parallel white lines, and a white long-sleeve dress with texturized hanging fabric throughout. The movie stars Lacey Chabert, Wes Brown, Melissa Peterman, Stephen Tobolowsky and Kimberly J. Brown also joined in on the action in the movie. Ellen is also featured in the other two films, which are a part of the trilogy including Haul Out the Halloween and Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up.
When you do what you love, it doesn't feel like work as they say and Ellen couldn't agree me. She recalled her time on set and said: "For me to be doing these is a great treat. There are beautiful young actors and actresses, and I get to play with them, and then we do other things outside of Hallmark. We meet in L.A., we'll have dinner. We'll have a weekend in Vegas, so we have a lot of fun together," per The Spokesman-Review.
During the film, Ellen showed off her rapping skills for a talent show that the community put together for their fundraising. She expressed: "The rap was fun because you have to do it right, and that makes me a little nervous remembering those words and then saying them as quickly as I can." For fans who also enjoy Halloween like Ellen, EverSCREAM Lane in Utah has opened its space for visitors to enjoy its quirks.
Ellen emphasized that the place isn't set up like usual horror-filled Halloween spots. She explained: "It's not scary-scary, but there's ghosts, there's monsters, but we're not looking at Freddy Krueger. It's not designed to frighten people. It's designed to make them use their imaginations, have fun and be a community." Ellen's passion for the spooky season started long before she joined the Hallmark cast. In fact, she grew a fondness toward the holiday during her childhood, which in total included six Travolta kids.
The siblings created homemade treats, thrifted for their costumes, and went trick or treating together, however they weren't allowed to keep their candy. Due to financial hardships, their parents told them: "When you get (a full bag of candy), circle around back and we'll put it in our bowl and we'll regive it." When Ellen was nine, her mother purchased an antique dress, and with a little imagination, the outfit came together, and Ellen ended up winning the "most unique costume" as a contest in New Jersey.
Once Ellen became a mother herself, she continued some traditions such as making costumes from scratch. She's made a pumpkin costume by dying a burlap oat bag, and she's even dressed up her son Tom as Danny Zuko, the notorious character that John portrays in Grease.
Ellen reminisced about the good ol times and said: "It wasn't nearly as commercial as it is. We're talking a long time ago. It was always great fun, and I loved it. Then my kids, they had a great time. My grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, everybody loves to get dressed up, but it's way more of an expense now than it was then." Now Ellen loves to spend Halloween alongside her daughter in Spokane, Washington.