Creatures of the Night: Scary Rock Music

Halloween is approaching, and I'm watching a lot of - mostly old - fright flicks. Films about things that go bump in the night. Evil and supernatural beasts and sometimes even humans who've gone off the deep end. I thought I'd assemble a little list of rock songs that feature creepy and monstrous characters and unnatural beings from horror movies or otherwise. Feel free to throw some more ideas my way... there must be plenty more out there that I'm missing. Enjoy!

Bela Lugosi's Dead, by Bauhaus (okay, so Bela was a real-life actor, but you know....)

Feed My Frankenstein, by Alice Cooper
Werewolves of London, by Warren Zevon
Night of the Demon, by Demon (I still remember this lesser known NWOBHM* song)
Season of the Witch, by Donovan
Witchy Woman, by The Eagles
Zombie Stomp, by Ozzy
Frankenstein, by Edgar Winter
Phantom of the Opera, by Iron Maiden
The Ripper, by Judas Priest
Mr. Crowley, by Ozzy (a real life occultist who practised black magic, among other things)
Maxwell's Silver Hammer, by The Beatles (a light-hearted ditty about a serial killer)
Psycho Killer, by Talking Heads
Freddy Krueger, by S.O.D.
Creature From the Black Lagoon, by Dave Edmunds
Vampira, by The Misfits
Abominable Dr. Phibes, by The Misfits (instrumental tribute to the Vincent Price classic)
Pumpkin Head, by The Misfits (a nod to the 80's horror creature feature)
I, Zombie, by White Zombie
Mummy Dust, by Ghost
Godzilla, by Blue Oyster Cult
Mothra, by Anvil

* NWOBHM = New Wave of British Heavy Metal (late 1970's through early 80's)

Re-viewing Favourite Horror Films

We all have favourite movies, ones that we revisit over and over again. Long ago, before home video came along, I used to find great flicks on TV, and my faves were shown repeatedly, not just over the years, but even within a single year. 

Just within the horror genre, I delighted in the fun oldies featuring the Wolf Man, Frankenstein monster, the Mummy, and Dracula at least a couple of times a year on the tube. Public television (TVOntario) ran a neat show called Magic Shadows from Monday to Friday, and on there, host Elwy Yost showed these stalwarts of the genre in serialized form... we'd get, say, Dracula split up over maybe four or five nights. Kind of a cool way to enjoy a film, At least I though so as a kid. Maybe not today. And come the weekend, there was Saturday Night at the Movies (again with host Elwy), which featured any number of October-y classics (commercial-free), like those mentioned above, and even The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Bride of Frankenstein, King Kong, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). 

Even on weekend mornings, I'd often locate on TV something like Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man or one of the Abbott and Costello "meet the monsters" movies (Mummy, Drac, Frank, etc).. 

Who ever said you couldn't build a great monster on a low budget?

Pumpkinhead (1988)

As a grown-up, and I'd assembled a reasonably-sized home video library, I watched and re-watched those ancient gems, and found other wonders to add to my re-watching experience. It's amazing what you can pick up from films on second, third, and fourth viewings... details you'd missed before, small things or actions in the background, quietly or quickly spoken dialogue, nuances in the acting - facial expressions and gestures, sets and locations, camera shots - like interesting angles, framing and lighting, use of music for effect, and so on. You can develop an even greater appreciation for these masterpieces of cinema through a re-watch. Or even learn to like the not-so-great flicks by noticing aspects besides the bad acting... even the so-called duds can have redeeming qualities!

Here are a bunch of my most re-watched movies up until a few years ago. I've since found I've simply seen these so many times - and know them so well - that I need much longer breaks, like years, in between viewings. These are still great, but I can't watch them very often now:

The Thing ('82)
The Uninvited
The Haunting 
The Changeling
Dead of Night
The Woman in Black ('89)
The Innocents
Curse of the Demon
Curse of the Cat People
Dracula (by Francis Ford Coppola)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Son of Frankenstein (actually, most of the old Universal monster movies)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
An American Werewolf in London
The Shining
Pumpkinhead
The Thing From Another World
Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Brides of Dracula (and several other Hammer horror films, including the following three...)
Curse of Frankenstein
Curse of the Werewolf
Horror of Dracula

The totally wacko last segment in Prometheus (2012)

And here are some of my most current favourites, movies I'm still avid about checking out at least once or twice a year. Somehow Alien has jumped off my "watched too much" list back onto my "re-watch" list... truly an enduring classic. The Wolf Man and Creature oldies are my faves of the Universal Silver Age... it seems they'll never lose their appeal. And since the 50's giant bug films were relatively newer discoveries (except Them!) for me, I am seeing them with fairly fresh eyes... I love the crisp B&W photography that captured the U.S. southwest desert regions, where atomic testing took place in the 1950's... often the reason for the monstrous proportions of the movies' antagonists. Here you go:

Alien
The Wolf Man
Werewolf of London
Creature From the Black Lagoon... and its sequels 
Prometheus
Under the Skin
The Howling
Witchfinder General
Them!
Tarantula
Black Scorpion
Deadly Mantis

Scary Stuff, Kids - Ramping Up for Halloween

'Tis the season for witches and hauntings, black cats and devils, and all manner of creepy and spooky beings. It's October, when on the 31st day we celebrate All Hallows' Eve, more commonly known as Halloween. For the youngsters, it's a time for costumes and parties and decorating and trick-or-treating. For the older kids and grown-ups, there may still be variations in those same activities, but many of us (like me) simplify the ritual to just watching scary movies. 

My two Universal Monster plastic model kits - Drac and

Wolfie - from when I was a kid... still holding up!

I watch horror movies all year long. If you've read some of my other posts, you already know that I'm a fan of the genre. Ever since I was a little kid, when I first stumbled upon Frankenstein and Dracula on TV, I have adored films that frighten. My fascination extended to literature, though not extensively. As a young teen, I read Dracula, Frankenstein, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I remember reading a few books about the folklore of vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. Of course, one Stephen King came to my attention back in the 70's. I was drawn to his movies and books for a while. And as an adult I read several of Anne Rice's and Nancy Baker's horror novels, plus a smattering of other supernatural books... collections of short stories and so forth. I suppose the most recent tales that gripped me were The Historian (a very cool modern day hunt for Dracula) and The Demonologist (a spine-tingler that I'll re-read often). 

Back on the movie side of things.... ever since the mid-1990's, I have been amassing a collection of films on home video. Of course, back then videotapes were still in vogue, so I grabbed everything I could find, horror and otherwise, to build a library of favourites. When the DVD format came along, I decided not to become an early adopter, instead buying at cut-rate prices all the VHS tapes my friend was selling off as he upgraded to disc. This was how I gathered together an impressive set of the best horror films of all time, stretching from the early days of cinema (1920's) until present day. Eventually, I did the same as my friend, and I sold off my tapes as I upgraded to disc, both DVD and Blu-ray.

A few of my old VHS tapes... still hanging onto them since some

are scarce on DVD, and are actually worth something

This October, as with every October, I itch to add something new to my shelves of horrific viewing material. I took care of that shopping early so that I'd have things to watch during the month... a disc of old Twilight Zone TV episodes (including The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet - starring Bill Shatner) and a set of five 1950's sci-fi chiller B-movies. When those collections of fun drive-in oldies are so reasonably priced, I can't help myself... it's only a few bucks per movie, and I can enjoy them over and over again.

I even go so far as to program my horror viewing for October, not designating a certain film for a certain day, but selecting and making a list of flicks to choose from whenever I'm ready to watch something... right on up until Halloween night. Out of that bunch, I pull a core of favourites that I'll want to see on the final days leading up to the 31st, and finally one or two of my best-loved movies for the big night. Very often, I choose The Wolf Man (the 1941 classic starring Lon Chaney Jr) for that evening. As a kid, I loved those old Universal monster movies, and I still do. Even if they aren't exactly scary, they are loads of fun in a nostalgic way, very atmospheric, and I can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into producing those cinematic gems. I believe that I'll put on The Wolf Man again this year, with that Twilight Zone episode about poor Shatner as a warm-up to the main feature. Yes, there will be popcorn or chips, or both. 

Universal Studios Monsters... cookies???

I ate 'em (not great) and kept the cool box.

Since I have many shelves of film history at my fingertips, I do re-watch a lot of movies. Within the horror genre, I certainly have favourites that I gravitate to at least once if not twice a year. For this October, I've picked out some of those faves, plus some stuff I'm less familiar with, both modern and older. Plus I plan to watch some old Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and Thriller episodes as warm-ups to the main features. Some of my key choices this year are:

The Awakening (on Netflix.... already watched it... pretty good ghost story)
The Lodger (watched it.... a great 1944 re-imagining of the Jack the Ripper tale)
Cult of the Cobra (one of those fun and crazy 50's B-movies.... already watched it)
The Leech Woman (watched it... rather awful 50's B-movie, but still watchable)
The Land Unknown (watched it... infamous for its cheap visual effects and rather a fun time!)
Vampire Circus (watched it.... a Hammer film, not great, but cool in its weird & bloody way)
Midnight Son (watched it... a very effective '11 film with a neat spin on the vampire concept)
The Blob (the 1958 original... I barely remember it, but it's a B-movie standard)
Repulsion (director Polanski's 2nd film... a young woman goes mad, all alone in an apartment)
The Invisible Man (the Claude Rains classic... more madness!)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920... stars John Barrymore, Drew's grandfather)
Nightmare, & Night Creatures (two of the lesser Hammer films)
Countess Dracula (there's no Dracula, but more of a Lady Bathory story)
one of the old Universal Mummy sequels... I'll decide later
Murders in the Rue Morgue (loosely based on the Poe tale, starring Bela Lugosi)
The Black Cat, The Raven, Black Friday (all starring good ol' Bela, two with Boris Karloff)
Carnival of Souls (didn't like this zombie flick on first watch, but I'll give it another chance)
Bell, Book and Candle (a supernatural comedy starring Jimmy Stewart)
The Mad Magician (Vincent Price in one of his more horrific roles... pretty gruesome for '54)
Under the Skin

On my final week leading up to Halloween, I'll try to check out these goodies:

The Creature Walks Among Us (this Black Lagoon sequel has really grown on me; weird & fun)
House of Dracula OR House of Frankenstein OR Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (mash-ups starring ALL the monsters)
Prometheus (yes, sci-fi, but still eerie and monster-ish... and a fave of mine)
The Howling V - The Rebirth (strangers gather at a castle, one of them a werewolf)
Pin (a bizarre 1988 Canadian thriller that fascinated me on first watch.... so, back at it)


And I believe this'll be my line-up on Halloween Eve:

The Warm-up: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Twilight Zone episode)

Main Feature: The Wolf Man (1941)

Rock In The Year 2116

2116. One hundred years from now. Will citizens of planet Earth still be listening to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, Nirvana, The Killers, White Stripes and Radiohead? Just how durable are the rock and pop artists of today, or of the past sixty or so years of rock and roll? I am guessing that The Beatles and Rolling Stones will still be on playlists in the far flung future. Their timeless appeal through great lyrics, songwriting and musicianship may see them through. But Peter Frampton or LL Cool J or Rob Zombie.... I don't think so. 

I heard a portion of a podcast over at The Classic Metal Show that inspired me to think and write about this topic. The guys at The Classic Metal Show were kicking around names of bands and songs they thought might still be popular in one hundred years. I think they had a few good guesses, but it's a really tough call. 

For one thing, how will people even listen to music in a century? Probably not on CDs anymore, or any physical medium for that matter. Hm, will vinyl still be a thing.... will there be such purists that far down the line? I know radio is as good as dead now. 

Will we (the future we) own home stereos? I am one of only a small number of my friends and acquaintances who actually have an audio system: CD player, amplifier, and speakers (and high-end headphones). Everyone else listens to music over their smartphone or laptop, wearing earbuds. Yeah, great fidelity there. I know a large portion of the world's populace is fine with that method, but I can't enjoy that highly compressed sound for very long. I suppose some enthusiasts connect their digital device to their compatible home theatre system and listen to their favourite streaming music service and playlists that way. 

So how will it be done in 2116? Stick a wireless device into a port behind the ear? Broadcasting implants? Speakers everywhere we go, with access to The Cloud, and our voice commands select the music we want?

Okay, I got a little off track there but I think how we get our music can affect what we hear. Force-fed playlists via satellite. Or more choice with delivery systems like Spotify. And there's iTunes. But back to the songs of the future... well, not what will come in the future, but what tunes of today will endure and remain a staple many decades from now.

Artists I believe will remain in the hearts and minds of future Earthlings will be the ones that had huge emotional impact on the world during the peak of their careers. So there are The Beatles and Stones. Led Zeppelin. Michael Jackson. Madonna. The Eagles. Journey. Queen. The Who. Oh, and Elvis, for sure! And maybe one or two AC/DC songs. There's more.

There is a strange category nowadays, the songs that are played at sports events. You know, stuff like Eye of the Tiger, We Will Rock You, Thunderstruck, Welcome to the Jungle, and Sweet Caroline (for the Boston Red Sox). I think at least a few of these will be played at venues in years to come, even though they aren't necessarily all great songs. 

Narrowing down to one genre for a moment, when I look at the top metal songs of all time, I wonder how a future headbanger would react to them. Master of Puppets, Angel of Death, Ace of Spades, Black Sabbath, Number of the Beast. Still powerful today, but in ten decades? Maybe. Hard to say. I'd like to think that Heaven and Hell (by Sabbath), Holy Wars (Megadeth), and Electric Eye (Judas Priest) would be considered hallowed classics by metal-heads long from now. But that might not happen. 

So. not in any particular order, here are some of the pop/rock songs that I think could remain in the public consciousness until the year 2116:

Jailhouse Rock - Elvis (how could The King not have a place on a future playlist?)
Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
Hey Jude, Let it Be, Yesterday - Beatles
Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin
Hotel California - Eagles
Don't Stop Believing - Journey
Eruption/You Really Got Me - Van Halen (Eruption will still inspire guitarists in 2116)
Baba O'Riley - The Who 
Closer to the Heart - Rush
Rock and Roll All Night - Kiss (anthemic party tunes will always be important to humanity)
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
War Pigs - Black Sabbath
Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man - Elton John
You've Got Another Thing Comin' - Judas Priest (and maybe their anthem Breaking the Law)
We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions - Queen (at sports events only, I predict)
Sweet Child o' Mine - GNR
Enter Sandman, Seek and Destroy - Metallica (sports events only?)
Back in Black - AC/DC (and possibly Hells Bells and You Shook Me All Night Long)
Rock You Like a Hurricane - Scorpions (an adult entertainment club standard... nudge nudge)
Pour Some Sugar On Me - Def Leppard (not a great song, but same as the Scorpions above)
Girls, Girls, Girls - Motley Crue (will only survive for the adult clubs... same as above)
Cherry Pie - Warrant (shamelessly shlocky hair-metal but... same as the three preceding tunes)
Vogue, Like a Prayer - Madonna
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

And the Best Actor in a Motion Picture...

Throughout my many years as a movie fan, I have been so focused on the films themselves - the stories, that I have very rarely thought about my favourite actors, or if I even had any. More recently, I've given some thought to the question, and I suppose there are actors - and by "actors", I include actresses - that I've looked upon as extraordinary in their craft. I might look at a movie based solely on the fact that so-and-so stars in it. But that sort of mindset isn't really the way I approach films, though, so I think I might simply be drawn to a picture, and if, say, Bill Murray is in it, I'll be more likely to give it a look.

Bill Murray rocked as the oddball Steve Zissou

So I have a starting point. Bill Murray. I remember watching the quirky actor's earliest movies Meatballs, and Where the Buffalo Roam... and then his string of 80's comedy hits, Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Scrooged. Murray's (usually) warm, if off-beat, sense of humour always appealed to me, and he carried that very natural approach to pretty much every film he did, from Groundhog Day and Rushmore to Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and Moonrise Kingdom. Funny how just about everything he touches becomes a hit, or at least an under-appreciated cult classic.

I'll stick with the comedy genre as I rhyme off some more faves: John Cleese (need I say more? From the Monty Python films to A Fish Called Wanda and beyond... a genuinely funny fellow); Jimmy Stewart (who also turned in fine dramatic roles in Winchester '73, Rear Window and Vertigo.... but his likable, self-effacing style in comedies like Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Bell, Book and Candle were what first attracted me to his work); Jerry Lewis (I grew up on his Martin and Lewis movies, and loved his early solo films, including The Nutty Professor and The Delicate Delinquent); Jim Carrey (duh! Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber were benchmark goofball flicks); Steve Martin (The Jerk, and Trains, Planes and Automobiles... his earliest movies were his best); Leslie Nielsen (Airplane! and The Naked Gun movies... pure gold!); early Woody Allen (Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Bananas... all among his best); Mark Wahlberg (excellent in both drama - Boogie Nights, Three Kings, and The Departed, but impressed me more in laugh-ins like Rockstar and Ted); and finally one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, Peter Sellers (The Party, The Pink Panther films, and Dr. Strangelove, just to name a few from his huge body of work). 

I have long enjoyed great action and adventure movies, so a whole bunch of old-timers come to mind.... John Wayne (the Duke did westerns, war pictures, and more); Sean Connery (Bond, anyone? But there's more...); Gregory Peck (known best for his dramatic talents in To Kill a Mockingbird, he also served as a "man's man" in The Guns of Navarone and Pork Chop Hill); Humphrey Bogart (classic Hollywood tough guy who did Casablanca, and In a Lonely Place); and moving into more recent decades, there's Arnold Schwarzenegger (redefining the action hero in roles such as Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, and Commando.... and so many more). Oh, and I mustn't forget Mr. Clint Eastwood, best known for his many revisionist westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, Pale Rider), yet I gravitate more toward his Dirty Harry shoot-em-ups. 

Tough as nails Gregory Peck in The Guns of Navarone

The horror and suspense thriller genre has entertained me more than any other during my life as a fan of the cinema. So it's no surprise that Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Basil Rathbone, and Vincent Price are among my faves. Especially Karloff, who made the Frankenstein monster the important pop culture icon that he is today. 

I've already mentioned many actors who've done work across many film genres, yet were often associated with a certain type of movie... like Clint to westerns, Bogart to crime dramas, and Arnold to sci-fi. Some others who fall less easily into particular categories are: Orson Welles, Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, Grace Kelly, Maureen O'Hara, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Costner, Tom Selleck (more than just TV's Magnum P.I.), Ryan Gosling, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Fassbender, Joaquin Phoenix, Natalie Portman (and I am not talking about her Star Wars gig), Reese Witherspoon, Jeff Goldblum, Gene Tierney, Claude Rains, Ingrid Bergman, Roy Scheider (not just a great shark hunter), Marisa Tomei, Amy Adams, Nicole Kidman, and Chloe Grace Moretz. 

An eerie study in duality: Natalie Portman in Black Swan

I'm sure I've forgotten someone... wait, I sound like an actor onstage, giving his or her acceptance speech. But it is something like that. Paying a little tribute and thanks to all the late great thespians who entertained me and those living, who continue to do so.