I can't go the entire month of October without posting one of my all-time favorite industrial audio tracks. Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" is so dark, raw and visceral, and still just grinds on you even 48 years after its initial release.
Add to it the horrifying nature of the lyrics (less "lyrics" but more a reading of a grotesque account of a fictional burn victim - hence the "hamburger"...) and the reverberation and repetition in which they are recited just adds to the unsettling nature of this track.
But it's so good. Like an accident that you can't look away from, you'll just keep listening to the grating, repetitive dirge of this song. A perfect creepy element to take us through another Halloween season.
Yes, it has become an annual mandatory Halloween viewing for all of us, but we've never had the opportunity to see Trick 'r Treat in theaters. Until tonight! From it's original straight-to-DVD release back in 2007, tonight marks the first time Mike Dougherty's mistreated cult classic gets the theater experience it has always deserved.
I have literally seen this film at least 30 times, but I'm still going to get out and see it on the big screen. We get two nights - tonight and Thursday - to see it. Maybe theaters can make this an annual occurrence and a new Halloween tradition? Let's make it happen!
In the meantime, Slashfilm has a great article that covers the full history of the maligned-to-cult-classic film. Give it a read before going to the theater! And then enjoy Douglas Pipes' incredible soundtrack! Enjoy!
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, September 9th! Because that's when Shudder and AMC+ will premier Greg Nicotero's newest project, Guts & Glory, a six-episode horror-based competition series.
This one sounds pretty interesting and with Nicotero's name attached, should at the very least provide some great visual reference material for the upcoming Halloween season! Not many details on the show yet, but I'm definitely going to give this one a watch!
From AMC Networks: Guts & Glory flips the script on the traditional competition show – thrusting players into an immersive horror experience full of unexpected challenges. The new series blends the intensity of a horror film with the pressure of a survival game where contestants are confronted with their fears in various scenarios.
Slasher Dave's brand new release absolutely oozes with that ominous 70s tropical island groove that would make any maggot-ridden Italian zombie sit up. A straight homage to the blood-drenched horror films of Lucio Fulci and the glorious soundtracks of Fabio Frizzi, Virus Of The Living Dead is a superb throwback to Italian horror flair. Modern synth with a late 70s vibe. This is a must-add to your playlist. Enjoy!
So nothing going on today at the Cemetery but the last of putting everything away for another year. Definitely a low energy day, and I wasn't even going to post anything today. Until I caught wind of this!
After TWELVE YEARS of working on this deal, Waxwork Records is FINALLY announcing the release of what horror score and soundtrack collectors (like myself) consider one of the true holy grails, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre original 1974 film score by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell!
I am beyond excited for this! And if the rest of the score is anything like this first track, it will be a mandatory purchase for horror and Halloween fans alike! Press play and 30 seconds in, you will know exactly what this is!
I couldn't go the entire month of October without posting one of my all-time favorite industrial audio tracks. Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" is so dark, raw and visceral, and still just grinds on you even 47 years after its initial release.
Add to it the horrifying nature of the lyrics (less "lyrics" but more a reading of a grotesque account of a fictional burn victim - hence the "hamburger"...) and the reverberation and repetition in which they are recited just adds to the unsettling nature of this track.
But it's so good. Like an accident that you can't look away from, you'll just keep listening to the grating, repetitive dirge of this song. A perfect creepy element to round out another Halloween season.
Belated happy new year to all you haunters! I took some much-needed time away from all things Halloween after another successful and fun season, but it's already time to get going again. Things are already moving for 2024, so it's time to dive back in.
Gonna start things off with another insanely great dark ambient mix from the Cryo Chamber label. I was instantly hooked by the incredible cover art on this one, and each track in the mix puts me right back into that dark and creepy Halloween mood. And it's only February.
So tonight I'm processing all of this year's haunt photos (tune in tomorrow!) and listening to some Samhain. What a great band, what a great record (and cover art), and what a truly great song. Some of Glenn Danzig's finest work... Enjoy!
One week to go until the big night, and the "to-do" list is starting to suffocate. So many little projects left to complete in an already full schedule. Couple that with a rapidly decreasing weather forecast, and the stress levels are starting to rise.
Luckily, I can just stop for a second, press play on an absolute classic dark ambient release like this, take a deep breath, refocus and put the hammer down. I'm still hopeful of getting it all done and still hopeful that this year's trick-or-treat isn't a complete washout...
An ode to the Lovecraftian lore of Shub Niggurath, Black Goat of the Woods was conceived as "the soundtrack from some lost low budget horror movie, rediscovered on an old and faded VHS cassette found mouldering in a deserted house in the depths of the woods."
Black Goat of the Woods pays homage to the dark denizen of the nocturnal glades, and is a true paean to backwoods horror.
I wanna start this one off with quick anecdotal story. The year was 1987, and 14-year-old me and my best friend Jim were fully engrossed in the 80s slasher horror craze. We would have sleepovers all the time and have our parents take us to the local video rental store where we would go straight to the horror section. Our parents (and the video store employees) were obviously not paying attention, as we routinely walked out with some really crazy titles.
As we continued to watch video after video, the next logical step in our progression was of course to write and film our own slasher flick! My family had just gotten our first VHS video camera and we were ready to go. We sat down and brainstormed ideas, eventually settling on Butcher Town as a title.
I sat down and began writing a script to what I thought was sure to be the next big slasher horror hit. And that's about as far as we got. 3 or 4 pages of a story. We eventually jumped to the next big idea (which I think was our first walk-through haunted house!) and Butcher Town was permanently shelved...
And that is why I love this video so much.
Halloween Party is an amateur horror film project that was created by Connecticut teenager Dave Skowronski and his friends in 1989. It was a straight forward slasher, following a killer in a mask (who, it looks like, rose from a grave in a cemetery?) who stalks a group of teenagers having a party on Halloween night.
Now I will come right out and say that this video is pretty bad. It's shot directly to VHS tape, every scene is too dark, and most scenes are of the girls talking over each other and you can't really hear what they're saying.
But damn if that isn't what makes this so good. Couple all that with the hilariously bad killing scenes, a solid killer character, an opening in a cemetery with actual scary music, and the early digital title type, and you have an absolute nostalgic gem. A perfect snapshot into the free-for-all that was 80s horror and the DIY projects that it inspired.
Huge credit to Skowronski and his friends for actually producing this. You can tell that they are true fans of horror and had an absolute blast making it. And, it even made a Halloween night broadcast on their local cable access channel (which is what this video was taken from).
Be sure to catch the local horror host after the film's end as well as a full blooper reel. It really is an enjoyable watch that really encapsulates Halloween and horror fun from those crazy 80s.
It almost makes me want to go back and revisit Butcher Town. If I could only find that original script again... Enjoy!
So I woke up late today to a cold, rainy, miserable day, still completely exhausted from a fun night of guest acting at the Akron Haunted Schoolhouse & Laboratory. With the late start, crummy weather, and a tired, depleted body, I quickly realized that everything I had planned for the day just went right out the window...
But I did want to drop this one for today. I originally posted this back in March, but I have been revisiting this release by Lords Of Infinity again lately, and I still find it to be an exceptional track to listen to during the Halloween season. Perfectly dark and creepy.
And how could you NOT love a track with THAT title!?
The underground Heavy Metal scene of the 1980s was just so rad. Case in point is this incredible gem from the (local to me) band, Axemaster.
Now picture it. It's 1986 and you're watching your local horror host on a Saturday night (in this case, it's Cleveland's own Son of Ghoul), ready for another unending roll of terrible-yet-hilarious skits and bad jokes, all enveloping this week's awful horror film. And then during one of the show's breaks, you get the privilege of this added bonus. A one-take "music video" of a local heavy metal band belting it out, complete with astoundingly low-budget video effects and a live "dungeon master" actor, complete with prop axes and a hood, who looks like he's not sure where he's supposed to be. IT IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.
You just know everyone is having a total blast with this, and that's what makes it so strangely authentic. The band is giving its all on a show that doesn't even take itself seriously. It's a campiness that is painfully missed today and a reason why I love this video so much. Enjoy!
And a silver lining to this video is that Axemaster is still around today, releasing new records and playing shows! True metal will never die!!
A few months back, I posted a video of the intro to Werner Herzog's fantastic 1979 gothic horror film, Nosferatu The Vampyre. In it were incredible clips of twisted and shadowed mummified remains, overlayed with a hauntingly beautiful score by Popul Vuh. It's still one of the most striking, and personal favorite, intros to a horror film.
I discovered the shots were actually of a collection known as the Mummies of Guanajuato, Mexico. And while they weren't as famous as their Italian counterparts, they were nonetheless just as interesting.
From my previous post: The famous collection of mummies from Guanajuato, Mexico dated back to an 1833 cholera epidemic. The naturally mummified remains were later unearthed after the failure of living relatives to pay 'burial taxes' of the time, and were stored together in an above-ground building adjacent to the cemetery. By the 1900s, these mummies began attracting tourists and eventually the building became a permanent museum.
(Tjalgahorn has since had a great post over at the October Branches blog on a new fungal growth spotted on one of the mummies - yes, The Last Of Us, indeed! Although in all seriousness, it could lead to decomposition and eventual loss of the mummies...)
The Museo De Las Mommas De Guanajuato houses the entire collection of 111 mummies, with 59 on permanent display. And their photography of the mummies is absolutely fantastic! A perfect source for Halloween prop reference, these photos have gone into my "inspiration folder" and will definitely be used for future prop reference.
Brand new ritual/horror ambient track released by Lords Of Infinity. So dark, grating and haunting. Another fantastic release from the Black Mara label out of Georgia (the country, not the state).
Grab the entire release, Lost Sense Of The Old Times, here.
So now that Halloween is over and everything has been put away for another year, I can finally get to a list of things I wasn't able to during the hectic haunt season.
First up is finally getting a chance to spin this absolutely gorgeous double-record soundtrack from Waxwork Records. Released 23 years ago this week, Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow is his wonderfully dark and gothic, yet witty retelling of the Washington Irving classic, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow.
And as with any Burton/Depp collaboration, you simply MUST have Danny Elfman creating an iconic, grand soundtrack to help complete the story. And what a soundtrack THIS one is...
What really sold me on this one was the stunning cover art, and the way it matches perfectly to the colors chosen for the vinyl. "Headless Horseman" black, blood red, and skull white swirled vinyl to be exact. The entire package ties into the film so well. Waxwork did an exceptional job on this whole piece.
And once you eventually get past the beauty of the package, you still get to drop the needle on the vinyl...
Another Elfman classic to be sure, and definitely a release to add to your vinyl collection. Keep an eye on the Waxwork site as even though it is currently sold out, this should probably reappear at some point in the near future. Enjoy!
Another outstanding, stark black-and-white, cut-and-paste typography layout giving it a totally bold, unique look. And like all poster releases on Mondo, this one will be limited and will go fast...
Another October week is in the books, so it's time to celebrate with another Freebie Friday!
This week's offering is another one picked up on a whim, based solely on the insanely cool cover art! 1989's Music For Your Nightmare by Steven Schramm and Jonas Kvarnstrom is a cool and unique release containing six different synth-based "horror soundtrack" tracks with just enough Halloween spooky sounds elements to keep it creepy and fun. (On a sidetone, this was put out by Total Records, the same label that also gifted the world with Halloween Sound Effects - Music And Effects Of A Terrifying Nature.)
With track titles like "Torture Chamber," "Funeral Procession" and "Dungeon Of Doom," you'd think you would be in for some screams, clanks, howls, and moans. But this is definitely a high-quality, well-composed production, making it much more than just another cheap "spooky sounds" release. Each track feels like the soundtrack to a different horror film, with the standout being "Dungeon Of Doom." The last track reals nails the uneasy, creepy vibe.
They have definitely managed to balance the intensity of traditional horror film scores, the campy fun of Halloween spooky sounds, and just a bit of cheesy, over-the-top 80's synthesizer notes on this release. It was a pleasant surprise and makes for a great and somewhat unique addition to the October collection.
It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...
Freebie Fridays!
If you're new to the Cemetery, you've stumbled in at just the right time! Every Friday in October, I dig up one of the vintage novelty Halloween soundtrack cassettes or vinyl records from my ever-growing collection and share it with all of my "spooky sounds" junkies.
I've been doing this for quite a few years now, and I still absolutely love doing it. It's a great way to share the love during the Halloween season, and a great way to discover some really neat-and-or-hilarious old novelty soundtracks from Halloweens past.
So let's get down to business!!
I just added this classic gem to the collection, and I'm so, so glad I did! Famous Monsters Speak is a horror classic from 1963, originally available from the the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. It features two "modern" tellings of classic movie monster characters, Frankenstein's Monster and Count Dracula.
I was THOROUGHLY surprised at how good both stories really are, but the winner for me is "Frankenstein's Monster Talks!" It's a deep, tormenting look at the tortured life of Frankenstein's creation, as unexpectedly and very eloquently told by the monster himself. Complete madness, anger, and despair. Such palpable revenge!
"Which one of you is next?"
The flip side, "Dracula's Return!", contains an equally interesting telling of a reporter's fateful story on meeting Count Dracula himself! A fantastic, rich vampiric character, completely channeling Bela Lugosi. A classic, gothic tale of the vampire set in a modern metropolis.
"My friend, it is time. I have come for you."
Famous Monsters Speak isn't a standard "spooky sounds" record, but it is so much more!! Such great production all around with two really great horror stories, and this one should definitely be in your collection, too. It's a really great, fun release all around.
A cold, weathered hand pierces the rust-laden earth of a late autumn night. Reanimated decay becomes the evening's guide. Masked faces bask in the fiery glow of a jack-o-lantern's illumination. A lifeless finger points the direction toward the next porch-lit house. For this is the night of ghouls and goblins and tricks and treats. This is the night of Hallowe'en...
