You may know Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Stu Macher, or William Afton. But we know him as the founder of Find Familiar Spirits, a spirit maker for fandom.
Find Familiar Spirits’ first brand, Quest’s End Whiskey, launched last fall and is dedicated to fans of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games. Since then, the brand has sold out all three initial releases and even won silver in the World’s Spirits Competition for Quest’s End Paladin and Quest’s End Rogue. The third drop in the Quest’s End line — Warlock — is currently available for sale with Quest’s End Dragon coming soon.
“I was tired of Hollywood saying, ‘It’s time for you to work.’” Lillard said. “It’s kind of a crappy way to live a life when you’re waiting constantly in your life to be like, ‘Please, let me work. Please let me work.’ I learned a long time ago … I just have to do other things other than wait for Hollywood speaking up. It’s been really, really successful and a blast.”
This year, Lillard and Find Familiar Spirits have found a new fandom to satisfy — the horror fans. Instead of whiskey, Macabre Spirits focuses on tequila. The first tequila the brand is launching is a reposado from Jalisco, with notes of caramelized sugar, caramel, smoke, white pepper, and more.
“As horror fans, we’re an eclectic tribe, but we all share a passion for stories that come from this wild, deep part of our imaginations,” Lillard said. “Macabre Spirits brings together two of my favorite things on the planet: wicked horror stories and delicious tequila.”
To sweeten the pot (and the bottle), the first launch from Macabre comes with Rare, Fine, & Limited, a horror novella from Mike Flanagan, who’s best known for directing The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep, and other horror movies and TV series. Both the cover art for the novella and the Macabre bottles will feature art from oil painter Mia Bergeron.
“It’s so creepy. It’s the most terrifying short story you’ve ever read,” Lillard said. “And while you are sipping tequila, you can have the snot scared out of you by Mike Flanagan. That’s a perfect evening.”
The Rare, Fine, & Limited reposado is only the first drop for Macabre Spirits, with more releases to come featuring agave spirits and stories from acclaimed horror writers. Rare, Fine, & Limited will be available exclusively online at macabrespirits.com. The first preorder will feature 5,000 numbered bottles and will open on Oct. 22 for members of the Macabre Spirits mailing list before a general preorder starts on Oct. 24.
Looking to the future, Lillard hopes to expand to even more fandoms in the future and continue to build community within the fandoms that Find Familiar Spirits already caters to.
“Our belief is that if we create something for community in an authentic way, that people will find it and respond,” Lillard said. “We want more. We want to engage. We want to find different ways to engage. And so we’re going to try to provide that opportunity early next in 2025. Look, I think the reality is that if you find community that you authentically build for and you find an authentic way to provide value to them, that they’ll, not only will they engage, but they’ll be thrilled and grateful for your authentic product.”
