A killer collaboration that cast Bloody Butcher corn bourbon in a starring role

If you’ve been hanging around the sinister scenes of horror metal and premium spirits lately, you’ve probably seen something scary swirling in the dark. That something: Horrorwood Reserve, the limited-edition whiskey experience born from the collaboration between gold-selling horror metal band Ice Nine Kills and Macabre Spirits. 

What started as a relationship to create bespoke merch for Macabre Spirits’ first release, Rare, Fine & Limited sotol, evolved into a partnership that marks the band’s first-ever spirits collab and gave horror fans something to really scream about. Allow us to pull back the curtain and show you how it all came together.

Act I: Setting the Scene

Every great idea starts with a spark, and for Macabre and Ice Nine Kills, that spark started flickering years before it finally caught fire. Spencer Charnas and Matthew Lillard were friends long before this collab started taking shape, sharing a love for horror, storytelling, and the strange alchemy that happens when creativity and chaos collide. 

Both had built worlds to complement each other well—Spencer through the blood-soaked theatrics of Ice Nine Kills, and Matthew through Macabre Spirits’ fusion of storytelling, art, and expertly-crafted whiskey.

When Macabre Spirits launched Rare, Fine & Limited sotol, accompanied by Mike Flanagan’s first-ever novella, the Macabre team was looking for someone to design exclusive merch to elevate the experience, and Matthew had the answer: Spencer and INK’s Creative Director, Michael Cortada. The response to the limited-edition merch drop (one hoodie, two t-shirts, and an unholy amount of excitement) was massive and fans devoured the collection.

That success planted the seed and soon after, the idea of going much, much bigger started to form. What began as a kernel of an idea of “what if we made a whiskey?” grew into a full-blown creative collaboration. Both teams leaned in, obsessing over every single detail: the bottle, the whiskey, the recipe cards, the entire experience. 

It wouldn’t just be a drink… it would be a moment.

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Act II: Building Horrorwood Reserve

Out of countless rounds of sketches and brainstorming emerged Horrorwood Reserve – the name, the concept, and the design. As the whole picture took shape and Horrorwood Reserve began to materialize in real time, both teams knew they were on to something special.

What truly made Horrorwood Reserve noteworthy wasn’t just the bottle, it was the experience that would accompany it. To make it immersive and personal, Spencer and Matthew brought together a dream (or shall we say nightmare?) cast of horror icons to contribute their favorite (or personally-invented) cocktail recipes. Each recipe would come with a little something extra: the horror movie they felt best paired with their drink, and a few never-before-heard personal insights that true fans would appreciate.

Those contributors read like a Hall of Fame of Horror: David Howard Thornton, Barbara Crampton, Skeet Ulrich, Nick Castle, James and Chelsea of Dead Meat, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kane Hodder, and Chris Jericho, as well as Macabre and INK’s fearsome leaders Matthew Lillard and Spencer Charnas. Their recipes and reflections were turned into a set of high-end collectible cards, each one designed to feel like a keepsake pulled from a too-cool bar somewhere between Hollywood and hell.

Ultimately the teams decided on two editions: Silver Scream and Golden Age. Both editions would feature a letter of thanks from Spencer and the same incredible whiskey—a five-year-aged bourbon crafted from Bloody Butcher corn and aged in new American oak, offering notes of nuts, cinnamon, leather, and spice. But whereas the Silver Scream Edition would come with two random cards, the Golden Age would come with the full set of all ten recipe cards plus an extra dose of killer flair: a custom brass skull stopper designed by INK.

As all of this took shape, Spencer’s creative wheels started turning. As a master storyteller, he sees storylines in everything, and he began envisioning how the whiskey could become part of the ongoing Ice Nine Kills cinematic universe. Soon, the idea crystallized: Horrorwood Reserve wouldn’t just be a product. It would be canon. 

The bottle, and an entire storyline around it, would appear in the band’s next music video, The Laugh Track, seamlessly blending the world of spirits into the band’s twisted mythology. This genius move also added immense value to the product for fans beyond being just another bottle of whiskey.

Meanwhile, Horrorwood Reserve wouldn’t be the only one making its INK cinematic universe debut… Matthew Lillard repped Macabre Spirits in The Laugh Track music video, which added levels of anticipation for INK and Matthew fans alike.

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Act III: The Big Reveal and the Delightful Chaos

The collaboration was kept under wraps until the very last panel of the very last day of Silver Scream Con in Worcester, Massachusetts. Not only is Spencer a master storyteller for the fictional INK universe, but he’s also a mastermind of building hype and intrigue, knowing when to tease and when to strike. 

Originally, the whiskey was going to be launched at Silver Scream Con, but Spencer was struck with a bolt of inspiration and decided the better play was to announce at Silver Scream Con and build up the tension until premiering it at the red carpet launch party for The Laugh Track.

So on September 14th, 2025, with Ice Nine Kills about to end their Q&A session, Matthew Lillard crashed the panel and made his way to the stage. Fans erupted as Spencer and Matthew together announced two major bombshells—first, that Matthew would appear in the next Ice Nine Kills music video, and second, that the band and Macabre Spirits had joined forces to create a whiskey called Horrorwood Reserve.

The internet exploded. Fans lost their minds. The announcement went viral within hours, racking up press coverage and fan theories about how Matthew would be involved. Between that reveal and October 7th, both Ice Nine Kills and Macabre Spirits teased out cryptic clues and images, revealing the bottle design and a couple recipe card contributors bit by bloody bit.

Then, on October 7th, the real chaos began. Presales opened exclusively to Macabre Spirits’ Fam Club and Ice Nine Kills’ Psychos Only members. That night, both teams gathered in Hollywood for a red carpet event celebrating the debut of The Laugh Track song and music video complete with horror legends, flashing cameras, and, for the lucky guests in attendance, the very first sips of Horrorwood Reserve.

Two days later, on October 9th, the music video was released to the public and within days, it had already racked up over 1.2 million views on YouTube. That same day, public sales for Horrorwood Reserve went live and within a couple weeks, the sets were nearly gone.

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The End

We’ve always believed in making spirits with a story. Working with Spencer, the band, and the entire Ice Nine Kills extended family has been nothing short of a dream (or more accurately… a wondrous nightmare). From the early merch days to taste tests, design mock-ups, stage-crashing, and finally launching, we’ve witnessed unparalleled collaboration, unfettered creativity, and the perfect, uh, blend of magic and mischief that happens when horror storytellers come together for a truly killer collab.

What we’re proudest of? Creating a piece of horror history that you can literally raise a glass to. 

So please, put on The Laugh Track, pour some Horrorwood Reserve, and Carpe Noctem!