The Tuesday Top 10: Favorite Horror-Themed Songs

Day of the Woman's thought-provoking post yesterday on the intersection between music and horror has put me in a musical state of mind. And so, for today's Tuesday Top 10, I've compiled my all-time favorite horror-themed songs. Now, some of these tunes are scary, and others are just steeped in the horror milieu. So scariness was not a requirement. Rather, these are the top songs that come to my mind in connection with the genre I adore so much...

10. The Time Warp
What would the list be without a number from the greatest horror musical of them all. Just a fun, anthemic song that epitomizes what The Rocky Horror Picture Show is all about, and why it has gained such an infectious fan following. Plus, I just love Magenta's Marlene Dietrich impression.

9. Black Sabbath
The title song of Black Sabbath's self-titled first album is a genuinely terrifying song. Just listening to Ozzy wail, "Oh no, no, please, God help me!" gives me goosebumps. A sinister song that was probably partly to blame for legions of parents freaking out over their kids listening to this band.

8. Thriller
How could I not include Michael Jackson's pop ode to zombie culture? Plus, the video was even directed by John Landis. Big-time extra points for the rockin' appearance of the one and only Vincent Price, delivering perhaps the greatest rap of all time. "The funk of 40,000 years," indeed. V-Price could spit mad lyrics, yo.

7. Werewolves of London
God bless Warren Zevon. This staple of 1980s classic rock radio is the kind of song you just can't get out of your head. Plus, you've got major references to Lon Chaney Jr. and Sr., and the title itself is Universal-inspired. I'll never give up hope of one day seeing a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vick's. Hopefully, his hair will be perfect.

6. The Thing That Should Not Be
Metallica be some horror freaks, with a particular obsession with the work of H.P. Lovecraft. And this song is their magnum opus to the Cthulhu mythos, creepy as hell and grim in the extreme. In fact, I recommend you check out this excellent fan video created for the song--pointed out to me by the Vault's resident Lovecraft expert, RayRay.

5. Ghostbusters
Rumor has it that Ivan Reitman wanted Huey Lewis & The News to record the title song for his movie, but when they turned him down, he brought in smooth jazz crooner Ray Parker Jr. and got him to basically record a Huey Lewis-style song. Whatever the case may be, there is probably no one born between 1970 and 1980 who doesn't know all the lyrics by heart...

4. Surfin' Dead
God damn, but this is a great song by The Cramps, featured prominently in the soundtrack to The Return of the Living Dead. In fact, that flick is filled to the brim with rockin' horror tunes, so I figured I'd limit it to just one. In reality, I could probably fill this entire list with them if I wanted to.

3. Don't Fear the Reaper
Such bleak subject matter for such a mellow-sounding song! Blue Oyster Cult's biggest hit pops up in the original Halloween, and of course was also the opening theme to the miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand. Forty-thousand men and women every day...

2. The Monster Mash
So corny, but so much damn fun. Who doesn't love Bobby "Boris" Pickett's iconic novelty smash of the 1960s. A surf-tinged tune that conjures up all the innocent fun of the "monster kid" era. I can play this one for my kids 20 times in a row, and they'll still keep asking for it. In fact, it would've been very easy to slap this one up at number one. But I had to be brutally honest with myself and pick my true favorite...

1. This Is Halloween
It figures that Danny Elfman, formerly of Oingo Boingo, would come up with this deliciously eery theme song for Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The song is a perfect homage to childhood terrors, and sets the scene excellently for Burton's unique vision. This one always reminds me of what it's like to be a kid hiding under the covers from vampires... Plus, Marilyn Manson also did an awesome cover of it!

Some inevitable runners-up:

• "I Put a Spell on You" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by Bauhaus
• "Love Song for a Vampire" by Annie Lennox
• "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
• "The Downward Spiral" by Nine Inch Nails
• "Nature Trail to Hell" by Weird Al Yankovic
• "Sweet Dreams" by Marilyn Manson
• "Summer Breeze" by Type O-Negative
• "Mad Monster Party" by Ethel Ennis

Tweet

Crowley Flick Hits DVD

It hasn't made any waves yet here in the states, but the interesting little indy flick Chemical Wedding, in which Simon Callow plays the literal reincarnation of the infamous Aleister Crowley, has recently come to DVD after a successful theatrical run in the UK over the summer.

Blabbermouth.net reports that Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, who wrote and produced the film, was in France on Wednesday to promote the release there. He held a screening and a press conference, in which he also talked about the new distribution deals attached to the picture. For one, Anchor Bay will be handling the U.S. distribution, which I assume means it'll be  straight-to-video. Whatever the format, expect it in early 2009.

Here's the UK commercial for the DVD, which hit there in September:

Looks kind of cheeseball, but in a potentially classic way.

Tweet

Metal and Horror: What's the Connection?

Let me just get this out of the way right off the top: I'm not a huge fan of heavy metal. I was definitely the most interested during my adolescence in the late '80s/early '90s, but aside from some great acts like Metallica, Anthrax, Iron Maiden, Guns 'n' Roses, Motorhead, Ozzy and AC/DC, even then my tastes were largely classic rock. Since then, I went through my alternative phase like everyone else, then the whole "singer-songwriter" thing, but as an adult my taste in music now falls largely within the realm of trad. jazz/trad. pop/lounge. So admittedly, maybe I'm not the best one to pontificate about all this. But I'm going to anyway.

Recently, I started up a new blog about pop standards, and wondered how much overlap in readership there would be, since for the most part, heavy metal seems to be the music of choice for a lot of hardcore horror fanatics. I do have a handful of readers of both, however, and one of them recently got me thinking about exactly why it is that heavy metal and horror movies seem to always go hand-in-hand.

The easy answer is that both of them deal in shocking, sometimes violent imagery. Horror films depict it in a visually explicit manner, while much of metal evokes it through the lyrics and the tone of the music (the videos can also contribute a visual element). I can remember the first time I saw Marilyn Manson's "Sweet Dreams" video, and it's still probably the most disturbing four-minute movie I've ever seen.

But there's more to it than that. Heavy metal and horror films (at least in their modern form) can both appeal to something angry and adolescent within us. They both provide a catharsis. In the case of horror, many movies are positioned to the viewer in such a way that the violence is a release--one of the hallmarks of horror of the past few decades is that we are encouraged to enjoy the violence in some way, even as we recoil from it. And many fans of metal find empowerment in its bottomless rage. It's the ultimate teen male power fantasy, with its furiously bellowing singers and combative instrumentation.

Therefore, it should really be a no-brainer that so many horror movies have featured relentless metal soundtracks. The visual and aural imagery is a perfect match. Look at it this way. Arguably, heavy metal has been with us for nearly 40 years. And from the beginning, bands like Black Sabbath freely adopted the same kinds of themes that were already common to horror movies of the era. And once the earliest fans of heavy metal became old enough to be among the decision-makers in the film industry, the shift towards a metal-centric horror genre began. The phenomenon really hit its stride in the '80s, with The Return of the Living Dead probably being the prototypical example.

Particularly, the "new" type of horror movie that emerged in the 1970s gelled quite nicely with the metal aesthetic that was emerging at the same time. In the olden days, there was far less angst in horror films. Audiences were encouraged to identify with the heroes and heroines, and the monster was exactly that, a monster. A tragic figure at best, but still a monster. When the Frankenstein Monster follows Elizabeth into her wedding chamber, the audience was not gleefully cheering on the Monster. And almost invariably, no matter how horrific things might get, it all worked out OK in the end. Most of the time, these films were scored with moody, macabre, yet eerily beautiful orchestral music, whether original or classical in origin.

But with the rise of the youth culture and the glorification of adolescent angst, both music and horror movies changed. Modern horror movies are characterized often by unlikable protagonists whom the audience can't wait to see eviscerated. The monster is often portrayed as a "cool" anti-hero figure. While on the surface the status-quo of good vs. evil is there, it's really just lip service. God cannot be counted on to save us, and things almost never end happily. The spirit of the age is pure mayhem, and we, the audience, revel in it. No wonder, then, that heavy metal's subversive ethos is such a perfect fit, and that the two would appeal to a similar demographic.

The same morbid/juvenile fascination with blood, guts and chaotic rebellion that produced the modern horror movie also led to the popularity of heavy metal, with its preoccupation with death, anarchy and sacrilege.

Now before anyone gets up in arms, I'm not describing it that way because I hate modern horror and/or metal. Certainly, if I hated horror movies I wouldn't be writing this blog. And I don't describe much of metal as "juvenile" in a negative sense--there's nothing wrong with giving release to some of the more juvenile aspects of ourselves, within moderation. I mean, you're reading the words of a man who has about 5,000 comic books in his basement and every one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection box sets, so I'm the last one to preach about the sober, Spartan life. But we must at least acknowledge that this is the part of our psyche that identifies with these things--the ticked-off 13-year-old screaming at the world.

It's one of the main shifts that separates fright flicks pre- and post-1970, and one of the central connections, I believe, between heavy metal and horror films. For some, both things are fascinations of youth, which pass through maturation. The appeal of listening to Carnivore's "Jesus Hitler" and renting Faces of Death often dissipate with the onset of adulthood, delayed or otherwise. For others, like myself, the love of one subsides while the love of the other grows deeper than ever. I am living proof that it is possible to love Rob Zombie's movies, but not necessarily his music.

Tweet

Iron Maiden Singer Resurrects Mr. Crowley

Famed British occultist/pornographer/drug addict/megalomaniac Aleister Crowley has long been a folk hero of sorts within the heavy metal community. And now, Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson--another idol of dragon T-shirt wearing basement dwellers everywhere--is bringing Crowley to the screen for the very first time.

Dickinson co-wrote the film Chemical Wedding with Julian Doyle, the director. In the already completed movie, acclaimed English actor Simon Callow plays Haddo, a college professor who brings Crowley back from the dead. Interestingly, Haddo was the name of a character inspired by Crowley in W. Somerset Maugham's 1908 novel The Magician.

Chemical Wedding is set to be unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in May. According to Yahoo! Music News, Dickinson plans to fly a bunch of guests out to France in his own Boeing 757 for the premiere. Expect a full theatrical release for Chemical Wedding this summer.

* * * * * * * * * *

The legend of the Vault continues to grow. Earlier today, I was invited by Zombo's Closet of Horror to join the newly inaugurated League of Tanna Tea-Drinkers, a not-so-secret society of horror bloggers. I'm pleased by the honor, and especially love the Kharis-themed insignia! Other invited bloggers include Frankensteinia's Pierre Fournier and Kim Paffenroth, author of Gospel of the Living Dead, which sits proudly displayed on the Vault of Horror bookshelf.

Tweet