This is a little primer of albums that work well to get into a spooky mood for the best month of the year. Each one comes paired with a film that hits the same vibe. Happy Halloween!
The Vision Bleak - Carpathia
Genre: Gothic Metal
Label: Prophecy Productions
Year: 2005
Horror is often a tough genre to sell. Often sitting between camp and ludicrous gore, the average film goer often looks down on it. Often you will hear the narrative that horror as a genre supposedly has less great films than other genres, which is statistically untrue. The Vision Bleak are one of the few bands of heavy metal that actively and deliberately go for the campy side of Horror without losing a grasp of what the horror atmosphere is. Carpathia: A Dramatic Poem is a concept album telling a lovecraftian story of madness, old dusty grimoires and occult rituals with all the tropes that it entails. The camp in it is honest, (unlike what horror punk does, for example) which makes it an unique experience. All with a wonderfully crunchy, strangely swedish guitar tone and actual riffs - often strangely Death Metal oriented ones, that contrast the Peter Steele meets Vincent Price style vocals. The narrative thorugh the album is also told musically, culminating in the long form song 'The Charm is Done', after exploring all the other different aspects of lovecraftian horror, especially egyptian exoticism and folk magic.
...goes well with:
The Call of Cthulhu (2005)
Director: Andrew Leman Stars: Matt Foyer, John Bolen, Ralph Lucas
Length: 47 min
Paired with it is Andrew Leman's The Call of Cthulhu (2005). Filmed in a style imitating the black and white movies, it is probably the best adaptation of a Lovecraft story. Similarly to The Vision Bleak, The Call of Cthulhu embraces the camp in all honesty and does not need to plant its tongue in its cheeck to make it all work. The film is notable for combining characteristics of both German and American black and white horror of the time, as it shifts closer and closer to German expressionism the closer we get to R'lyeh. The way it conveys the cosmic horror is unique, as it requires knowledge about film through a historical lens but it also just connects visually. Real black and white versions of Lovecraft stories also do not exist, making this a very unique pick. I really enjoy how much of a functional pastiche the film is, but its not just a gimmick - the way the story is told, relying on the title cards vs. actual dialogue - helps smooth over Lovecraft's aversion to writing dialogue and his generally stilted character voices. Makeup, cinematography and sets are also incredibly period accurate - at least within legal means.
Mortician - Hacked up For Barbecue
Genre: Brutal Death Metal/Grindcore
Label: Relapse records Year: 1996
Mortician is grimey and disgusting and there is always a degree of irony involved in liking it. Or is there? At this point I really don´t know anymore. Stomping guitars are supported by the bass performance of Will Rahmer, so distorted that it is all at the risk of turning into mush at any point - and often is - mortician is not for the faint of heart. They´re devoid of any subtlety, trying hard at every corner to be edgy, abrasive and disgusting...but that is a lot of fun, isn't it? With a band like Mortician, the metric of good versus bad really doesn´t quite apply anymore. Is it grind, or new york death metal or slam or what is it? Ultimately, only one answer can ge given: Mortician is Horror Obsessed Death Metal for troglodytes. Not to mention: Horror samples interrupt the album frequently. Are they way too long? Yes. You will listen to all of them and then you can leave.
(Side Note: Mortician have been memed to hell, especially on places like r/dankmetalmemes. Knowing the memes also adds another layer of enjoyment. Some more irony on top, if you will.)
...goes well with:
Motel Hell (1980)
Director: Kevin Conner Stars: Rory Calhoun, Nancy Parsons Length: 1h41min
I originally intended to pair Mortician with Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, as the chainsaw seems to be a no brainer and Will seems to really like the Texas Chainsaw series. Unfortunately, Texas Chainsaw 2 is an ironic takedown of the first one, but I don´t know how many people have seen it - TCM seems to almost be too entrenched in the public consciousness, where people think they have already seen it. So which movie have people likely not seen? Picking a movie with a similar tone, I decided on Motel Hell, a pseudo-slasher pushing into black comedy territory with an Americanized version of the Weimar Republic cannibals at the center of it - google Papa Denke or Fritz Haarmann for more info. Rory Calhoun plays the maniac farmer with a lot of delight and the film is overall not too gory as to alienate viewers who are faint of heart. The film is obviously comedic, but doesn´t play it quite as openly as something like Evil Dead II or the aforementioned Chainsaw Massacre 2. In some ways, you have to be aware of some of the tropes that this film is subverting, very early in the slashers existence, no less. Motel Hell is worth it for some campy fun, though, and the mid-section of it in particular is a blast.
Sadist - Above The Light
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Label: Nosferatu
Year: 1993
A band couldn´t sound more italian than Sadist. While american progressive Death Metal bands had aspirations to something higher, something elevated and mostly plucked from art music, Sadist seemed to embrace their countrie's progressive heritage above everything else. Italian prog is known for its use of weird instrumentation, noticeably fake synths and use of odd time signatures and has especially been fueled by the practice of hiring said bands - especially Goblin - to make music for films. Goblin seems to be Sadist's prime inspiration, too: The tense synth chords and simple odd meters all gel together to an album with a special atmosphere. Often the spookyness comes from how unfitting the elements seem to be at first glance, with synth lines often being surprinsingly cheery and how bright, plucky sounds are often chosen. But this is all par for the course for italian prog - the horror comes from the mismatch, the suddenness of sound and the abstract atmosphere conjured. I love how slowly the album starts, with the pulsating chords heavily treated with delay, almost reverberating into the empty space, as if its the front credits to an italian film that will become very, very gory later.
...goes well with:
Suspiria (1977)
Director: Dario Argento
Stars: Jessica Harper, Flabio Bucci
Length: 1h28min
The best fit for an album like this is probably a film which has a score by the masters themselves. Suspiria is often considered Dario Argento's best film and the score by Goblin has reached levels of being iconic that most other non-mainstream scores just cannot reach. As a film, it is often considered part of the giallo movement, despite not featuring a murder mystery plot and also subverting a lot of the usual tropes otherwise, as well. The soft, often warm color palette of the film and the use of ridiculously bright blood, especially combined with the lack of synch sound and post-dubbed dialogue makes the film a dreamlike experience - constantly just feeling a little wrong without outright turning into abstraction. Cuts are often abrupt and may seem like random choices, but are ultimately always at the point where the viewer can most easily trip. Argento further subverts the tropes of Giallo at the time by putting a woman with agency at the center of the plot - a continuation of his auterial preoccupations from Profondo Rosso. What's the story you ask? Uhm. Something with witches. It´s not that important. Also there's ballet - the jagged choreography almost mirrors the construction of the film itself. Or is that the remake? What is happening?!
Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Genre: Avantgarde Black Metal
Label: Avantgarde Music
Year: 2001
That Diabolical Masquerade is an extravagant band should be pretty clear. The swing-feel style bm is still not super common, but Blakkheim (certainly the mans legal name) et al. have been doing this since 1996. Furthermore, the band also seems to have pioneered the "Soundtrack to a Movie that does not exist", trend - a silly trend, if you ask me, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. It is fun to imagine what 'Death´s Design' would be like if it were a movie. How would these scenes go? Where would they lead? And would the music fit? As all Diabolical Masquerade, it is still strangely dancy and jolly. It even "quotes" actual film music, mainly the 'riddle of steel' piece from Conan the Barbarian. The pieces on the album are ridiculously short at times, but meant to be grouped together in about 20 movements - meaning on average, 4 tracks are meant to basically form a single piece. Listening to this on streaming, where there are these micro pauses between tracks, can therefore slightly throw off the pace. It is not the easiest to experience 'Death´s Design' right, but it is certainly worth a try.
...goes well with:
Vampire Circus (1972)
Director: Robert Young
Stars: Adrienne Corey, Thorley Walters
Length: 1h27min
We will pair it with Vampire Circus. Made in the period of Hammer Horror Films where the studio didn´t quite know what to do with all their properties anymore. Gothic Horror was njust on its way out, people weren´t scared of the monsters of olde anymore. The religious scares of The Exorcist and the all too real horror or being gutted by backwoods maniacs would replace the fears of more mythological monsters and Hammer had redone all of them at this point. But this makes the 70s Hammer flcks unique, in how they desperately tried to stay with the time. Vampire Circus, it does have that groovy 70s feeling to it that the cool cats loved at the time. This goes so far that a letterboxd reviewer remarks: '[...] this is the sexxxiest Hammer Productions movie about vampires yet!! To like, an uncomfortable degree!! To where I'm like, wait, is that what I'm into?'. The movie is hard to be taken seriously, but it doesn´t need to be - this is good, campy, colorful fun and the kids at the back of the car in the drive in surely would love to make out to it. Smoke a blunt (if its legal in your country, or not, idk, I am not your dad), grab some doritos and enjoy some late style Hammer camp. Only downside: You don´t get any of the Hammer staple actors.
Been feasting off these for a few weeks. Mortician fucks.