Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady"

Just like last year, I can't go the entire month of October without posting one of my all-time favorite ambient industrial audio tracks. Throbbing Gristle's "Hamburger Lady" is so dark, raw and visceral, and still just grinds on you even 49 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 just 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.

Enjoy...

Scream Through The Past - A Collection Of Vintage Haunted House Advertisements

This post is "Halloween Zines-adjacent." I was perusing Instagram a week or so ago and came across a post about books for Halloween inspiration (I can't remember who posted it now, or I'd give a proper shout-out). One book, Scream Through The Past - A Collection Of Vintage Haunted House Advertisements, by author Jeremy Warlen, was one that I had never heard of before. And the cover art, featuring classic old haunted house ads from the newspaper IMMEDIATELY caught my attention.

I did a quick check at the evil empire (Amazon, of course) and was surprised to see it in stock, so I grabbed a copy. Two days later I had it in hand, ready to dive in!

Now I have to point out that one of my fondest Halloween memories growing up was coming home from school every Friday in October and grabbing the Friday insert from the local newspaper. It was a separate section listing all of the entertainment events going on for the weekend. I would fiendishly scour each page, obsessing over the black-and-white haunted house ads. I still remember the smell and feel of the ink as it transferred from the newsprint to my little fingers. I would mark the ads that had the creepiest names, boldest claims and scariest clip art and then beg my parents to take me and my friends. And living in northeast Ohio in the 80s meant that there were a TON of haunted houses to go to!

So imagine my surprise to find that this book, which appears to be a brand new October, 2026 release, is from Cleveland! And it references haunted house ads from the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon Journal, the two newspapers I used to scour every Friday in October. These ARE the ads from my youth!!! Was this book written just for me?!?!

The Haunted Schoolhouse & Laboratory, Bloodview Haunted House, Hudson Haunted House, and even Hinckley's Haunted Hollow (one of the first and most memorable haunted houses that I went to as a little kid!). It's all in here!

The book itself is bare bones and straightforward, and almost zine-like in its simplicity. Page after page of black-and-white haunted house ads, each referenced with which newspaper and year of publication. And that's it. A quick intro blurb and 80 pages of classic ads. But that's all you really need for this. A quick blast of Halloween nostalgia harkening back to a simpler time. And the simplicity of this book perfectly encapsulates that feel.

So if you're in the mood for a fun look back at Halloween haunted houses of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, give this book a read. It fills a very narrow niche, but it's still a worthy addition to your Halloween book collection.

Grab Scream Through The Past - A Collection Of Vintage Haunted House Advertisements from Amazon.

Controlled Death - "Black Lucifer Rising"

Two weeks to go, and so much still to get done. Heading into the garage for a full day of prop making, so I'll need something good to listen to. Time for another release from my favorite new Japanese ambient/industrial/noise artist, Controlled Death!

Listen to spooky music. Create spooky props. And enjoy these last two weeks until Halloween! (And pick up this release from the incredible label, Deathbed Tapes!)

 

"Scary Sounds Of The Night" CD

Another Friday in October means another Freebie Friday!

This week's offering was another blind purchase. When the CD case states, "This CD is guaranteed to create the ultimate creepy atmosphere with its chilling sound effects, haunting melodies, and pulse-pounding orchestrations" you don't take that bold claim lightly.

But then you see the silly, childlike illustration of the owl and witch on the front cover and think there is no way the bold claim could be true. Could it?

This week's offering is Scary Sounds of the Night from 1997. I think. Because the polar opposites of the artwork becomes a theme once you actually open the CD case, too. The CD artwork says the release is called Scary Sounds of the Night. But when you actually insert the CD, the album is simply referred to as Halloween Night. A telltale sign that nefarious bootlegging is going on, but also a telltale sign that we are in for something good!

And yes, the audio itself is surprisingly good! It starts off with the standard, echoing "spooky sounds" collection, but then it morphs into a cool mix of organ and sounds, and then rolls back into a collection of high-quality sounds (thunder, organ, howling wolves, cats, heartbeats, etc.). Plus the CD quality production makes this a better-than-average release. And at just over an hour in length, it is well worth the listen.

Don't judge this book by its cover! Give this one a spin and prepare to be guaranteed to be scared!

DOWNLOAD "SCARY SOUNDS OF THE NIGHT" HERE.

Ken Russell's "The Devils"

In 17th-century France, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) is a priest whose unorthodox views on sex and religion influence a passionate following of nuns, including the sexually obsessed Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). When the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) realizes he must eliminate Grandier to gain control of France, Richelieu portrays Grandier as a satanist and spearheads a public outcry to destroy the once-loved priest's reputation.

“The restoration of the material is like cleaning the Sistine Chapel with saliva. It is insane, the epic size of the film. I mean, I’ve seen it on the big screen in Telluride at a theater – but I’ve never, never seen the movie until I saw this restoration.” - Guillermo del Toro

An enduring masterpiece of cinema starring Academy Award-winner Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed, Ken Russell's The Devils is a prescient epic of obsession and corruption – and a defining work of art from seminal filmmaker Ken Russell. 

Assembled from the original camera negative, this new 4K restoration presents Ken Russell’s definitive vision of The Devils by referencing the edit he privately constructed in 2004. Ken Russell's The Devils is the uncut and unfiltered theatrical experience that Russell always envisioned – and the first time the film will be presented restored and in 4K.

I actually didn't know anything about this 1971 film but was super excited to go see it in the theater after watching the trailer...only to find out that the nearest theater to me playing this is 22 miles away. Dang. Hopefully they release this on a streaming service. Go see this if you can, as it's only in theaters for one week starting tomorrow.

The Neighborhood Trick-Or-Treat Flyer (AND Signs!)

The annual neighborhood trick-or-treat announcement flyers have finally been printed and are ready to be distributed to 125 houses throughout my development. And this year, it comes with a little extra...

In recent years, I have become the unofficial official flyer creator and distributor, which I do without complaint. Designed and printed by me and distributed by my son and a few of his neighborhood friends, we fulfill the incredibly important task of signaling the countdown to the big night.

And every October, we have abided by the HOA-mandated trick-or-treat date being the Sunday before Halloween. We have followed our Township's general rule, which truth be told, didn't always make sense. Especially to a Halloween purist like myself. But I begrudgingly went along each time, and managed to still always have a good turnout and fun event.

Now fast forward to this year. Someone noted on our neighborhood Facebook group that Halloween fell on a Saturday and trick-or-treat should be moved to that date. And cue the hysteria. Neighbors agreeing. Neighbors disagreeing. Neighbors claiming a different date would only cause mass confusion. Neighbors creating polls to vote on the date (Halloween night won by a 75% to 25% margin), the HOA chiming in with a long list of points to not change the date, only to then come back days later saying the final decision was not legally up to them, and then finally a consensus decision to change it to Saturday, October 31st... and it only took THREE WEEKS of back-and-forth.

But did we just slay the dragon? Did we just get a say in planning our neighborhood festivities?? I think we did! So as the unofficial official flyer maker, I chimed in stating that the date change would be called out in the new flyer and I also volunteered to create signs for the entrances to our development. This way, there would be absolutely positively no confusion as to when it was.

This whole thing has been a crazy round-and-round, but I think the smart decision was made in the end. Why not have trick-or-treat on Saturday, Halloween night, so that kids can stay out later and enjoy the evening's festivities throughout the neighborhood??

So after all of that, the flyers will be going into every mailbox this afternoon and the new signs will go up at the entrances to our development. Job done for another Halloween. We are getting closer! Are you ready?