I came across a playlist of Halloween songs the other day; it was a selection of songs in the “heavy metal” genre. While appropriate for the occasion, I’m an “Old Fogey”, and I don’t particularly care to have people screeching at me and calling it “music”.
When it comes to Halloween music, it seems to me that we overuse the same old music – just as with Christmas. There’s a heck of a lot more out there that you can add to your own playlist.
While Christmas commercials get almost all the love, Halloween isn’t one to stay in the shadows. A whole bunch of advertisers get in with the spirit of the spooky season, too.
There’s one I wish I could find (I’ve forgotten the soap brand behind it), since it encapsulates the mix of horror and comedy that’s so prevalent this time of year. A woman arrives at her isolated old home in the forest, and the first thing she decides to do is take a shower using the advertised brand of soap. Even though she has the bathroom window wide open, the running water prevents her from hearing a mask-wearing, axe-wielding Bad Guy approaching the house. (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS) Well, she holds the bar of soap just right, so it squirts out of her hands and flies out the window….. You can probably guess what happens to the Bad Guy; and the tagline is something about how the brand of deodorant soap gives you long-lasting protection….
Anyway, here are a couple of neat spots that I *could* find: Continue reading
Way back in Ye Olde Times when I first started this vanity project, I came across a blog called “Countdown to Halloween”. They were pretty much a “hub” for dozens and dozens of Halloween themed blogs. I had a bunch of thematically appropriate posts ready to go, so I signed up as a “Crypt Keeper”. I got everything I wanted to post out under that banner, so I didn’t sign up in the years following (even though I kept posting a few Halloween-related things each year).
Well, the Countdown has been going on without me, and many of the same bloggers are still active. Many even post year-round!
In addition to all the artists, craftspeople, and reviewers (and assorted personal blogs), here are a few that I think will be worth your occasional time.
It’s that time of year again. TV networks and streaming services roll out their libraries of horror movies to throw a “Friday Night Frights” or “Nights of Horror” thing at you.
Should you want to try something different – or perhaps you don’t have enough time for a full-length movie – there are plenty of short (typically less than 30 minutes) horror films out there online.
ALTER and CryptTV are YouTube channels devoted exclusively to horror. Short of the Week and Omeleto are for general short films, but they both have a category for horror.
DUST is a channel for science fiction shorts, but since the two genres frequently overlap, they’ll occasionally drift into horror. For example, here’s “Laboratory Conditions” by Jocelyn Stamat (and starring Marisa Tomei and Minnie Driver):
Since one can easily get tired of blood, gore, and ghosts, it’s nice to find a horror-comedy every now and then. Like Dylan Chase’s “A Night in Camp Heebie-Jeebie”:
And sometimes you’ll come across something that on the face of it looks like a typical horror tale because the elements are all there, but it quickly goes somewhere completely different. To wit, “Summon a Fiend” by Eleanor Cho…..
Pleasant dreams!!!
It’s the time of year when people turn to ghost stories and hauntings and graveyards and all that. There is a small – about ¾ of an acre – graveyard not too far from where I live. It’s old, too. And run down, of course. Perhaps there are some stories about it?
At the very least, a little exploration ought to result in a blog post…
It’s that time of year again!
Atlas Obscura is putting the spookier of its worldwide Places and Things of Interest under the banner of “Fright Club” this month.
We’ll be taking you to a mountain of mannequins, the gender-fluid masquerade balls of Imperial Russia, and a church wall in dire need of an exorcist. You’ll learn about Cambodian ghost cakes, the practice of skull blasting, the history of Mischief Night, and more.
USA Today digs deep into how a blend of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg made Pumpkin Spice the flavor of Autumn. They start back in Medieval Europe, when those spices were worth their weight in silver (if not gold).
During winter months, medieval European physicians prescribed the use of warming spices like ginger, clove and cinnamon to accentuate the “hot” and “humid” qualities of roasted meat.
Need some background sounds for your Halloween party, display, or whatever? Check out the free soundscapes at Ambient Mixer:
“Witches, vampires, werewolves, and other ghastly creatures roam the streets. Nightmares come to life with the sounds of old castles, abandoned asylums, or a creature hunting you through the dark woods.
Whether it’s for a haunted porch, a reading or writing session or even a gaming session, create your own eerie and scary ambient noise mix for free!”
And if you’ve got a little one who loves being read to, you will both love “Scaredy Cat” by Heather Franzen.
Support the author/artist and buy a copy! Keep in mind they’re assembled individually by hand, so give plenty of time for delivery.
A story without words, but it doesn’t need any….
The Countdown to Halloween is up and running; they’ve been linking to and supporting blogs in the spirit of the season since 2009. The links to this year’s Cryptkeepers are in a sidebar on the right.
I was also musing earlier today about witches. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, Frankenstein’s Monster, even mummies get their due this time of year. But witches? They’re just a generic wicked or magical character….. That doesn’t seem right to me. There are plenty of witches of note in literature and popular culture.
The Witch of Endor in the Old Testament. The three witches in Macbeth, who almost certainly established the potion-brewing spellcaster archetype. Margaret Hamilton and the role of a lifetime as the Wicked Witch of the West. Witch Hazel, the comic foil to Bugs Bunny. Broom Hilda of the comic strips. Elizabeth Montgomery bewitching viewers as Samantha Stevens. The Halliwell Sisters of “Charmed”. Sabrina “The Teenage Witch” Spellman, hanging out in Riverdale with Archie and the gang. Wanda “The Scarlet Witch” Maximoff…..
And those are the ones I didn’t have to look up.
Maybe I’ll do a full-length post sometime.
Why do we love Halloween so much? It’s the second biggest – in terms of “stuff” that happens around it – holiday after Christmas. All the decorations, TV specials, food and drink (and candy!) that only comes out in October…. What is it about this one day that has no significant “reason” to exist (like Independence Day) or “cause” behind it (like the spring festival of Easter) that brings out all the Jack-O-Lanterns and Haunted Houses?
Perhaps it’s that the occasion is so attractive to so many people for so many reasons.
So the latest word that I’m hearing from the CDC is that kids should not be allowed to Trick-or-Treat this year. Apparently, the concern is that groups of kids going from house to house is an ideal way to spread the virus.
I am afraid I must differ with them. Not that I am one of those nutcases who thinks the disease is a hoax or not as bad as it is, but for other reasons.
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
Tom Doherty Associates
(c) 2011 by the authors
It’s kind of tricky reviewing an anthology, especially one where multiple authors are involved. What are you reviewing? The individual stories? The editorial choices involved in their selection? The presentation? I’m just going to go with the overall principle of “Should you get this book?” Rather simple, but for an amateur reviewer like myself, it will do.
The Weird is a massive collection of – well, you can’t really call it “horror”, because the stories are generally more unsettling than outright scary. Think “Tales from the Darkside” rather than “Tales from the Crypt”. There are 110 stories in the book’s 1100+ pages, dating from 1908 to 2010. Included are authors you should have heard of (Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft), authors that horror buffs should know (Clark Ashton Smith, Daphne du Maurier, Algernon Blackwood), and authors that will be new to you (Augusto Monterroso, Stefan Grabinski, Haruki Murakami). There’s an amazing variety; only two authors get to have two stories. Many of the stories are translations; it’s great to see so many “non-English speaking” authors and other cultures being represented
It’s that time of year again! Way back when I first started this blog, I became one of the “Cryptkeepers” at the Countdown to Halloween in an effort to bring traffic here. Haven’t figured out if it worked.
Be that as it may, I’ve been posting a few Halloween things in the Octobers since. You can check them out with the “Halloween” tag over in the “Tag Cloud” on the right. You might also find a few scary movies under “Movie Reviews”.
For this post, I’ve just got a few odds and ends for the season that don’t justify their own post.
Pure Blather 