In the late 18th century, the tradition of building decorative Christmas villages around the Christmas tree started here in the United States. These became especially popular starting in the 1970’s, and many companies started producing buildings for people to decorate with.
With Halloween becoming a larger holiday, some companies began to also make Halloween villages, debuting new themed buildings every year. One such company, Forever Gifts, produces both Christmas and Halloween villages under their imprint FG Square. They recently sent me one of their new offerings for 2024, the Flesh Eater’s Refuge.
The FG Square Flesh Eater’s Refuge Halloween Village
The 2024 FG Square Halloween Village line has buildings from several different horror genres. There’s an alien spaceship that’s crashed into a house, an evil carnival tent, a lighthouse under attack from a tentacled sea creature, and much more. The Flesh Eater’s Refuge is a dilapidated house filled with zombies.
The porcelain LED village house features haunting music and colorful LED lights. It measures 7.01″W x 4.88″D x 6.85″H, and retails for $59.99. It can be ordered directly from FG Square Villages, or from the FG Square store on Amazon.
Unsurprisingly considering its dimensions, the Flesh Eater’s Refuge comes in a very compact box. Encased in foam inside of the box is the 3+ pound buiding, and a power supply cord.
The cord plug into the back of the building, where there is also a power switch with two different settings. You can choose to display the building with lights only, or with lights and sound.
Here’s a video of the house with both lights and sound active (the lights you see are identical to the lights-only mode):
And here are views of the other sides of the house, as well as some close-up details:
The FG Square Flesh Eater’s Refuge Halloween Village – The Verdict
As you have probably guessed by now, I’m a bit of a Halloween guy. So the idea of a Halloween village fits in perfectly with my love of my favorite holiday.
The FG Square Flesh Eater’s Refuge has a playful aesthetic. The details aren’t as fine as villages from some other manufacturers, but on the other hand, the look of it very much suggests something hand-sculpted in clay, and not mass produced.
The lighting effects are good, with the static purple LEDs lending an eerie quality to the scene, and the red flashing lights suggesting both lightning and horror. I found the small speaker to be a bit overwhelmed by the sound, which nevertheless comes though clearly. There is no volume control, and the default sound is quite loud. The piece definitely would benefit from a way to adjust the volume. Thankfully, you can choose to display the Flesh Eater’s Refuge with only lights, which you’d especially want to do to avoid the cacophony if you had several buildings for your village running at the same time.
The paint job is nice and varied, with just some occasional sloppiness such as with the giant arm in the picture above. However, the use of colors is effective, and if you compare the finished product to the photos on the FG Square website, you’ll find that the two paint jobs are very close.
If you’re a Halloween fan and looking to start or expand a village, then take a look at FG Square’s offerings. There’s a nice variety of horror genres represented, and the overall execution is strong and playful.
For more information or to purchase Flesh Eater’s Refuge, head to the FG Square Village website.
Forever Gifts sent me a unit for evaluation, but had no input into this review. As an Amazon affiliate, I may earn a small commission from qualified purchases.
