By: Kory Kasler, Promotions Director
For me, Halloween is a lot more than dressing up and marveling at the drunken spectacle that is the OU Halloween block party (in fact, I didn’t do either of those this year). Instead, Halloween is the time of the year when I can make myself a playlist full of punk and metal songs and watch a lot of horror flicks. So, for this edition of Exec Recs, I’ve decided to celebrate Halloween with a few of my favorite horror punk songs, black metal songs and an assortment of scenes from both classic and modern horror films. Many of these may not be new or obscure, but they are certainly good for Halloween, so Happy Halloween!
1. The Misfits – "Skulls"
Horror punk, or punk music influenced by horror and science fiction, owes an awful lot to The Misfits. They are no doubt the most well-known and most influential band in horror punk, and certainly one of the biggest players in punk in general.
“Skulls” is the perfect Halloween song, with lyrics like “Corpses all hang headless and limp / Bodies with no surprises / And the blood drains down like devil's rain / We'll bathe tonight / I want your skull / I need your skull” and “Collect the heads of little girls and put ‘em on my wall / Hack the heads off little girls and put ‘em on my wall.” I’d highly recommend playing through the entire Walk Among Us album on Halloween – there’s nothing more fitting for the occasion.
2. Halloween (1978)
While it’s a rather obvious choice to watch on Halloween based on its title alone, it’s also a great horror film in general. Halloween features the classic slasher film storyline – a masked killer wreaks havoc on a group of teenage friends, leaving one survivor by the end of the movie. Halloween was one of the slasher films, along with Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, to popularize the genre in the late '70s and into the '80s.
3. False – “The Key of Passing Suffering”
False puts out some of the best black metal I’ve heard in a long time. This album only consists of two tracks, each a little over 12 minutes, and “The Key of Passing Suffering” is just great. It starts off with a lot of intensity without any intro at all, and continues all the way to the end, only pausing a little before the eight-minute mark to throw in a well placed organ piece in the middle. A lot of times the haunting organ piece can be a bit overdone in metal music, but this one is an example of when its use doesn’t take away from the rest of the song.
4. Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)
This movie probably won’t scare you (unless you’ve got a fear of clowns), but it will definitely make you laugh. In the film, alien clowns come from outer space, terrorize a town and turn the townspeople into a ball of cotton candy. The only way these clowns can be killed is by destroying their noses, and to save the town the clowns must be stopped. Tell me that’s not hilarious.
5. AFI – “Halloween”
Once again, a very fitting song title, and another track that is great to listen to on Halloween. This song is actually a cover of a Misfits song, but I think it’s better than the original. The lyrics celebrate everything that makes Halloween what it is – fall imagery and horror-inspired verses like “Bonfires burning bright / Pumpkin faces in the night / I remember Halloween” and “Candy apples and razor blades / Little dead are soon in graves / I remember Halloween.” Definitely listen through the entire album. It’s one of AFI’s greatest, and certainly better than whatever pop-influenced stuff it is they’re putting out these days.
6. The Ring (2002)
Everyone has something that really creeps them out. For me, it’s creepy children, and The Ring definitely has plenty of that. The little girl in the film, Samara, is just plain creepy with her long black hair draped over her face, and it gets creepier in this scene with her crawling out of the well and out of the TV. It’s a great horror film, especially if creepy children get you as freaked out as me.
7. The Lurking Corpses – “Werewolf Queen”
All you have to do to know this band fits Halloween is look at the song titles. Songs like “Werewolf Queen,” “Mark of the Devil” and “We Are Vampires” all fit perfectly with the theme of Halloween, and clearly show the Misfits-like influence the band has. Definitely check them out.
8. Evil Dead (1981)
Evil Dead is a classic low-budget horror film, and it’s definitely one of my favorites. The storyline is fairly simple, with a group of friends going to a remote cabin, being killed or turned into zombies. As with many horror films, only one of them is left after the rest are possessed, and it’s his job to survive. Evil Dead, in my opinion, is the best zombie movie ever, and it’s definitely perfect for Halloween.
9. The Misfits – “Vampira”
To finish off this edition of Exec Recs, I thought I’d throw in another Misfits song, since they’re the undisputed heavyweight champs of horror punk. Many Misfits songs are inspired by horror films, and this one is inspired by Vampira, a famous horror film actress, and the lady you see in this video. The lyrics clearly show someone had an attraction to Vampira, with lyrics like “Two inch nails / Micro waist / With a pale white feline face / Inclination eyebrows to there / Mistress to the horror kid / Cemetery of the white love ghoul, well / Take off your shabby dress / Come and lay beside me.”
10. Jerry Only Wrestling
Just for fun, here’s a video of the Misfits’ Jerry Only wrestling in a cage match. Somehow a guy ends up covered in barbecue sauce and Jerry Only ends up winning. Nothing more needs to be said.
