A little Sunday Halloween inspiration, courtesy of one of my favorite Halloween artists, Drew Rausch.
I'd put him up into the group of Halloween-based illustrators like Rhode Montijo, Sam Heimer and Austin Pardun, who really nail that vintage and creepy, yet totally whimsical and fun, October aesthetic.
Each piece just gushes with total Halloween spirit, and I can't wait to see what he continues to create through the season.
Be inspired and enjoy!
A little "cryptwave" for your Saturday! Another really cool, totally random YouTube find.
Each Autumn in the late 80s and early 90s saw the abundance of Halloween cassette tapes available in every retail store. These tapes would include sound effects, music, spoken word, or a combination of two or three of these elements, often with cheap packaging and illustrations. They were meant to add atmosphere to Halloween parties and in-home haunted houses, and could often be heard playing on boomboxes while trick-or-treating. As cassette tape became an irrelevant format, these soundtracks made a brief transition to compact disc before disappearing entirely in the age of digital streaming music.
As a defender of the old and the irrelevant, and as a conjurer of nostalgia and tradition, Netherworld Nate has brought this concept back from the dead and created the first such soundtrack since the days of yore - Bloodcurdling Sounds, a homage to old Halloween scare tapes! Created entirely on synthesizers and sounding as if it was recorded in a moldering coffin, this is Cimitir at it's most atmospheric!
Those 2 paragraphs describe me to a T. Enjoy!
It's the first Friday of October, and that can mean only one thing...
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 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!
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.
Immerse yourself in a perpetual state of Halloween nostalgia and chilling ambiance with "Halloween Atmospheres," a mesmerizing compilation of eerie visuals and haunting music crafted to evoke the magical whimsy of Halloween all year round.
Nearly two-and-a-half hours of Witching Season Films' trademark visuals guaranteed to give you the black-and-orange warm fuzzies. SO much lush, nostalgic Halloween atmosphere to help get you into that seasonal spirit. Kick back and enjoy these amazing October vibes!
Welcome. Here we are again. October 1st...
IT'S OFFICIALLY THE HALLOWEEN SEASON! And it's time to kick off the annual Countdown to Halloween! An orange-and-black blitz of 31 posts in 31 days, all leading up to our high holiday of All Hallows Eve!! This is my 14th year celebrating all things creepy and cool with the Countdown to Halloween blog party, and we are still going strong. Can you feel that crisp, electric excitement in the air!!??
We've got a long list of blog posts all lined up and ready to go. A full month stuffed with tricks and treats, so be sure to check back daily because this party is going nonstop straight through the 31st! And you don't want to miss out on the good candy, do you??
So let's get this thing started, shall we!?
Each October, I like to start the festivities with the unveiling of my annual yard haunt logo. It's a great way to set the tone for the spooky season, and it gets me motivated to finish all the planned projects for the year's haunt.
For the past 20 years, I have created an increasingly defined and prominent Highbury Cemetery haunt logo for the season. The logo is used across social media and a very small batch of t-shirts. Each year, the t-shirts are hand printed here at the Cemetery and then given out as a thank you to everyone who helps put on the yard haunt on Halloween night. A well deserved treat for all of the hard work that goes into this crazy thing every year.
So ladies and gentlemonsters, boils and ghouls, without further ado I proudly present the ghastly and gruesome logo for Highbury Cemetery, 2024:
YEAR TWENTY-ONE. So many good memories, and still so much fun!
Only 30 days until the big night, so let's get the party started. Let's do this!!
