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Walt Disney Studios - "Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House (1979)" Record

The days of October are absolutely flying by and we have already reached another Friday... time for the next Freebie Friday post, where I share forgotten gems from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.

WARNING: This album will scare your socks off. Parental guidance suggested.

For the third week in a row, I'm serving up an absolute Halloween classic. This time around, it's Walt Disney Studios' Chilling, Thrilling Sounds Of The Haunted House - the second version!

That's right! After the initial success of the original Chilling, Thrilling Sounds... in 1964 (and 1973), Walt Disney Studios went back and re-released a totally new version in 1979, with completely different cover art AND audio tracks.

Gone were the original's individual story/audio tracks utilizing special effects sounds from the Walt Disney Studios collection, and replaced with a more traditional "spooky sounds" collection of sounds.

I have done a bit or searching to find out why this was done, but I haven't been able to find anything definitive. Either way, I find this version to be the superior one. The original, while groundbreaking for its time, lacks any real spookiness to it and is plagued with silliness in most of the tracks. And let's not even get started on that "Chinese Water Torture" track...

This re-released version fits well into the traditional "spooky sounds" genre with more mature Halloween sounds. Two sides of continuous audio with side one containing "Frightening Situations" and side two containing "Eerie Sound Effects." Both sides are equally great and have all of the classic sound effects within.

And I haven't even mentioned the new cover art yet. A fantastic, full-cover haunted house illustration with a skeleton rising from a grave and colorful, traditional creepy fonts make this one an absolute winner! I would expect nothing less from the talented artists of Disney.

Overall, this release is an absolute classic (even if it is still overshadowed by the original). It's campy and fun, but still has just enough nostalgic creepiness to make it an essential piece for your collection.

(And on a side note, this was just re-released in 2023 on a cool translucent smoke-colored vinyl and is still available here.)

DOWNLOAD CHILLING, THRILLING SOUNDS OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE (1979) HERE.

"Halloween" Record

We have reached the end of another week, so that means it's time for another Freebie Friday offering! Time to share another forgotten gem from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.

This week, we're diving into another classic release from 1969, simply titled, "Halloween" on D Records, a country and western label out of Houston, Texas.

If you have ever sampled any of my other Freebie Friday offerings, you already know that the "spooky sounds" cassette industry of the 80s and 90s was an unregulated free-for-all, repackaging older titles quickly and cheaply as new releases. I don't know how many times I have picked up a cassette, excited by the "spooky" title and art, only to find another cheap reproduction of a 70s classic.

Well, with this release we have just the opposite. This one is the original source material for many of the later knockoffs!

Side one starts off a little slowly, with a poorly thrown-together string of random, not-really-Halloween individual sound clips. Weird dog barks, a recording of possibly a Chinese New Year parade with drums and firecrackers, clanking pots and pans, odd springy "boings," and warbling circus organ music...

It isn't until about one-third of the way through this side that things suddenly switch and get interesting. And it's also when I knew I recognized the classic "spooky sounds" from some of those later knock-off tapes! Classic beast howls, creaking doors, howling winds, rattling chains, bubbling cauldrons and sinister laughs... THIS is the stuff!!

Side two continues to deliver the spooky sounds greatness. The harpsichord (I think?) and shrieks, more creaking doors, ghostly moans, werewolf howls, giggling goblins, a weird off-key horn, and whipping winds. It's all here and it's PERFECT! All the classics from the start of the "spooky sounds" craze.

And can you believe we've gotten this far and I still haven't mentioned the incredible cover art? A bold yellow cover with handprinted witch and bats shadows behind a creepy jack-o-lantern, cloaked skeleton, and whipsy ghosts. All under a wonderfully hand-painted "HALLOWEEN" font. It's the whole reason I bought this record in the first place! Still a definite eye-catcher in an ever-growing collection of Halloween records.

This one is a TON of fun and a sure classic that needs a prominent spot in your collection. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD "HALLOWEEN" HERE.

Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix [2025] - Side A: The Midnight Monsters Had A Ball

Just a quick post today, as I'm hard at work in the Cemetery garage...

Vintage Obscura has released their first of five weekly October Halloween mixes for 2025, featuring a great collection of 50's and 60's Rockabilly, Novelty, Country, R&B, Religious, and Horror Rock tracks.

A perfect playlist to pipe through the garage while working on your Halloween props and projects. Just like me! Enjoy, and we'll see everyone tomorrow!

(And if you dig this playlist, head over to Spotify and check out the comprehensive playlist of ALL the Vintage Obscura Halloween Mix tracks!)

"Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en" Record

It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...

The return of Freebie Fridays!

Every Friday in October, I dig up one of the vintage novelty Halloween soundtrack cassettes, CDs, or vinyl records from my ever-growing collection and share it with all of my fellow classic "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 (re)discover some really neat-and-or-hilarious old novelty soundtracks from Halloweens long past.

So let's get down to business!!

Up first, we have Spook Stuff For Hallowe'en dating all the way back from 1960! This is an early classic and a no-brainer addition to your collection based on the amazing cover art alone!

(During the same year, this was re-released with a new title, Howlin' Hallowe'en: The Sounds Of Spook Stuff with equally amazing cover art. It's not in my collection yet and although it's the same audio with a different cover, it still ranks high on the want list.)

A Haunting 40 Minutes Of Scary, Spooky Stories-In-Sound - Also Suitable For Dramatic Sound Effects And Party Fun The Year 'Round

If you have grabbed any of the other offerings here in Octobers past, you will immediately recognize many of the sounds on side one, as they have been used countless times over in later releases. Howling wolves and wind, crying cats, cracking thunder, cackling witches and goblins, bubbling cauldrons... but it's just SO GOOD!! Don't forget this was put out in 1960! Groundbreaking sound effects for the time that set the tone for the "spooky sounds" genre to come (including four years before Disney's iconic Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House!) that still hits the Halloween nostalgia vibe.

Side two continues the collection of sound effects, this time loosely segmented into themes: Haunted Mine, Cemetery At Midnight, Halloween At The Haunted Castle, etc. The descriptions on the back of the record sleeve are more inspiring than the sound effects themselves, but the whole side is still a really fun listen. Especially the super kooky Halloween At The Haunted Castle vocal effects tracks! From there, the last three tracks devolve into hilarious vocal effect weirdness, straying from traditional "spooky sounds" and experimenting with then-modern oscillation, echo and reverb.

All in all, a really great piece of Halloween "spooky sounds" history and a great piece to add to your collection.

DOWNLOAD "SPOOK STUFF FOR HALLOWE'EN" HERE.

The Halloween Art Of Hazel M.H.

Halloween may be over for another year, but the incredible artist inspiration continues!

I just discovered the amazing art of Hazel M.H. and was immediately recharged with those sweet October vibes. A huge collection of 2-color illustrations that really hit that vintage style with just a twist of unique, whimsical grotesqueness.

Hazel's stylistic illustrations absolutely nail that classic Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to add a few of her pieces (available at the Violet Weatherstone Etsy shop!) to my collection.

Be inspired and enjoy!

All images courtesy of Instagram / Violet Weatherstone.

The Halloween Art Of Sam Heimer

Another shot of Halloween inspiration, courtesy of the reigning king of Halloween artists, Sam Heimer!

Sam continues to kill it with his vintage and creepy October aesthetic. A perfect union of organic and grotesque, each piece still hints at that vintage Halloween nostalgia albeit through a slightly fractured lens.

Heimer's illustrations just gush with total Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to add more pieces to my collection.

Be inspired and enjoy!

All images courtesy of Instagram/Sam Heimer.

The Topstone Skull Mask

Well, I finally pulled the trigger on a really cool piece from my Halloween youth! I came across an original Topstone Skull Mask from the 1980s in great condition and decided that it was going into my collection.

Growing up in the early 80s, this mask was one of the main pieces in our "Halloween Costumes" bin and I incorporated it into a few different costumes through the years. But after years of use, poor storage, and then a family move half way across the country, the poor skull mask was lost to the sands of time...

Until now! I have always wanted to get an original just to have for nostalgia's sake, and now I have it. This will be taken care of (as with all early Topstone masks, the latex is VERY thin and flimsy), and will not be thrown into a "Halloween Costumes" bin this time around!

A collection of Topstone Skull masks, showing paint and sculpt variations over time. Photo courtesy of Ray Castile.

And here is my original mask from Halloween, 1982. Beware the Skull Army Pirate and his Crazy Clown kid brother!!

"Scary Sounds" Cassette

We have reached the end of another week, so that means it's time for another Freebie Friday! Time to share another forgotten gem from the murky depths of my Halloween "spooky sounds" collection.

After last week's dud of an offering, I'm really excited to rebound with this.

There are a ton of releases called Scary Sounds, but this particular version of Scary Sounds is in fact SIXTY full minutes of the creeps! I don't have much background info on this release other than it was composed in 1998 by Steven L. Hartman, produced by the Stanley-Lawrence Company, and released in cassette and CD formats.

The quality of this release is excellent, with two full sides of clean, rich audio. Both sides rely predominantly on heavy reverb and left-to-right channel "warbling" over a base of somewhat standard thunder, synthesizer organ, swamp critters, and a few echoing evil laughs and groans. And a few clips played backwards? But it all works! A real pulsating creepiness is achieved on both sides without any cheap, silly, or annoying sounds prevalent in many of the releases from decades before. I would sum it up by saying this is a more mature, atmospheric and developed "spooky sounds" release.

Each side is broken up into three segments. Side A being Ghoulish/Eerie/Creepy, and Side B being Morbid/Haunting/Spooky. Exceptionally great track names, but each side plays well as a single track. There are a few breaks in the sounds, but I couldn't absolutely identify where the track breaks are supposed to be. So for me, each side plays as one single track.

I bought this one on a whim, based solely on the cool pen-and-ink skull drawing on the cover, and it paid off nicely. It was an unexpectedly cool release for the price and offers a full hour's worth of the creeps! This one is highly recommended to add to your collection!

DOWNLOAD "SCARY SOUNDS" HERE.

"Horror Sound" Cassette

It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...

Freebie Fridays!

So let's get down to business!!

Up this week, we have the "Horror Sound" cassette. I didn't know anything about it upon purchase, other than I knew I had to have it based on the questionable title and cassette art.

Horror Sound. Not Sounds plural, but just one Sound. Definitely a glaring issue of lost-in-translation somewhere along the Chinese production line pumping out a vast array of ripoff "spooky sounds" cassettes from the 80s and 90s, for certain.

The cassette label itself is a wonderfully sparse smattering of clipart-level images of a single ghost, a single bat, and TWO trees. I just knew that this one was going to be a glorious stinker!

And upon dropping this into the cassette player and hitting play, my suspicions were confirmed. A really bad "copy of a copy of a copy" of Topstone's classic, Horror Sounds of The Night. Recorded with the volume turned up too loud, resulting in the speakers absolutely overpeaking with sound.

Nonetheless, "Horror Sound" is still worthy of being in my collection. In this case because it is so hilariously bad, but still a part of what makes collecting this genre so entertaining and fun. Grab a copy if you are a completist like myself, or just grab a copy of the superior original. The choice is yours! Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD "HORROR SOUND" HERE.

GrimQuiet’s Vintage Halloween Skeleton Trick or Treater

Last week, I posted about GrimQuiet's incredible new collection of 10" handmade Vintage Trick or Treaters. Four folk art-inspired figures, all with grotesque faces, unique, drab, and tattered costumes, and each with a wonderful pumpkin pail. Every character a feast for the eyes.

And, like most of Eric's cool offerings, these figures sold out in roughly four minutes...

But somehow I managed to grab this absolutely amazing Skeleton Trick or Treater! As soon as I saw the preview images, I knew this was the one that was going into my collection.

The twisted skull face and creepy pumpkin pail are fantastic, but the absolutely awesome skeleton costume really set this one apart. The worn, vintage costume looks like something straight out of the 1930s. So well done, all around. This one has taken its rightful place in the heart of my creepy collection.

Grimquiet's Vintage Trick Or Treater Figures

Okay, one more post before the big party because this is just too good not to share! As I look at my watch, it's currently 3:00 pm EST and there are just 2 short hours before these absolutely incredible figures go live.

Eric has REALLY done an exceptional job on these handmade vintage trick or treater figures. He perfectly nails the disfigured creepiness of each sculpt, and then completes each with a drab, tattered costume and twisted pumpkin pail. So much unsettling folk art moodiness and simplicity in each piece...

The Witch

The Ghost

The Skeleton

The Clown

These pieces go on sale at 5:00 pm EST TODAY over at the Grimquiet Bigcartel page. Get there quick, because these WILL sell out!

Good luck (but please save a Skeleton figure for me)!

Classic Horror Ads From Comic Books, Magazines & Newspapers

I recently came across this great collection of vintage horror ads from Cult Movies Magazine & TV's Facebook page (and thanks to Johnny Thunder and Hauntcast for posting this!). I can remember seeing a few of these crazy ads filling the back pages of horror magazines and comics as a little kid. I wanted to send a dollar to each, although even back then I knew I would receive a silly, cheap trinket in return. But wasn't that part of the fun??

Monsters! Vampires! Ghosts! HORROR! These ads pushed the creative limit, each trying to outshock the rest as they all fought for your attention (and your money) within the back pages of magazines and comics. They remind me of those great old haunted house ads that battled for my attention as I flipped through the local newspaper's Friday insert. Only the boldest and most shocking ads would be considered for a weekend visit! What a great time it was to be alive!

Enjoy this really great collection of the hilarious and crazy ads of the past!