For this Horry County family, riding in a hearse is an everyday experience

The first time he spied the hearse, David Brawner was dying to bring it home.

Oldsmobile, 1986 model. White body. Vinyl top. An odometer that showed 64,000 miles. The vehicle even had dried rose petals resting in the back from the last time it had given some soul a last ride.

The hearse was one of two Brawner and his father had watched creep into the mechanic’s shop beside their Colorado prop-making store. They asked what the coffin carriers were doing there.

“He told us they were for sale,” said Brawner, who now lives in Little River. “My Dad looked at me and he says, ‘If you don’t, I will.’”

Nearly five years later, the Brawner hearse is livening up the Grand Strand. The family moved their business, Little Spider Creations, from the Denver area to North Myrtle Beach in the spring and with it came the beloved deathmobile that Brawner purchased for $1,500.

He estimates he’s spent more than 10 times that amount sprucing it up.

The tricked out ride now boasts a powerful sound system where the dead once rested. There’s underglow lighting, detailed door panels and Brawner’s custom paint job of dark purple, cream and the image of a Grim Reaper on the passenger’s side door.

It’s not a car that’s designed to go unnoticed.

McDonald’s cashiers will pull their coworkers aside to point out the wagon at the drive-thru. Women walking down Ocean Boulevard will step into the street to snap photos or shake their hips with the vehicle’s pulsing bass. Brawner’s girlfriend, Amanda Meier, recently overheard a cop whisper to his partner, “Those are the guys who own the hearse.”

“They all know us because of the hearse,” Meier said, adding that the vehicle even comes up during trips to the nail salon. “My friend that works there was like, ‘I’m so sick and tired of seeing posts on Facebook about the North Myrtle Beach hearse.’”

Even before the family moved here, the vehicle got its share of attention. Brawner joined hearse clubs in Denver and Los Angeles where he could compare notes with other enthusiasts. He attended HearseCon, an event that showcased hearses detailed with monster truck tires and bat wings. One was retooled as a stretch limo. Another was designed to look like an ambulance.

Although Brawner is an artist, the car isn’t simply a showpiece. It’s made a few cross-country adventures.

“It’s a great road trip car, too” said Meier, who also works for Little Spider. “It is really practical. Super awesome gas mileage, it’s comfortable and we can watch movies on the little screen on the inside. Who can complain?”

For the Brawner family, turning heads is part of life and work.

Led by patriarch Marc Brawner and sons David and Tony, Little Spider built a business on Halloween, designing props, masks and other decorations for haunted houses, amusement parks, restaurants and miniature golf courses. Need a demon carved from Styrofoam? They can do it. How about a haunted house that rewrites the story of Little Red Riding Hood with Red getting her revenge on the wolf? That’s them, too.

For 10 months of the year, every day is Oct. 31.

It’s always been this way.

Marc Brawner started designing haunted houses with duct tape and cardboard. He wanted to impress the kids in his elementary school class. His mother wanted him to draw flowers and beautiful nature scenes. He preferred ghoulish creatures and dinosaurs.

He started his business about 25 years ago and his sons have always been a part of it.

As children, the Brawner boys had no time for trick or treating. Their earliest memories of Halloween are lying underneath beds in one of their father’s haunted houses holding a piece of PVC pipe with a foam hand attached to it. When guests would walk in, the hand would extend from beneath the bed to startle them. As teenagers, they played crazed chainsaw-wielding twins.

“We were always known as The Addams Family,” David Brawner said. “We always do Halloween and a lot times our work will come home with us. There have been more times than I could count where we could have a giant dragon set up in our front yard as we’re working on them.”

Over the years, the Brawners developed a reputation in the Halloween industry. First the miniature golf courses started calling, then came the amusement parks.

The family’s work can be seen at Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Fright Fest and Six Flags Great Adventure’s Fright Fest, which were recently voted the No. 1 and No. 2 theme park Halloween events in the country by USA Today readers.

In an industry that frequently turns to gore, the Brawners pride themselves on their ability to find the creative in the creepy without being excessively bloody.

“It’s always the same thing,” Tony Brawner said. “It’s always the same demon. ... He’s possessing. He’s killing. He’s gutting. And we’re so tired of the industry just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat and go for the shock value.”

“We can scare you perfectly fine without grossing you out,” David Brawner said.

For a group that craves originality, the hearse makes the ideal family vehicle. And buying the funeral anchor was inevitable, Marc Brawner said. Once they learned the pale Delta 88 was available, they knew they were bringing money the next day.

“If neither of us did, Tony would,” he said. “It’s in our DNA.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 8:03 PM with the headline "For this Horry County family, riding in a hearse is an everyday experience."