Halloween Horrors: The Playlist

It's no secret that I like songs of the strange. The more off-beat, the better. And there's no time like Halloween to compile a ghoulish list of tunes. These songs can really put you in the spirit of the season. And as always, I welcome any additional suggestions.

The Party Mix: Approved for all ages and great for dancing.
"Toccata In D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach
"Zombie Zoo" by Tom Petty
"I Put a Spell On You" by Creedence Clearwater
"The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley
"The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by Charlie Daniels
"The Mummy" by The Naturals
"Beetlejuice" by Danny Elfman
"Witchcraft" by Wolfmother
"Witch Doctor" by Sha Na Na
"Time Warp" by Rocky Horror Picture Show Cast
"Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.
"Monster Mash" by Boris Pickett
"The Boogie Monster" by Gnarls Barkley
"Love Potion No. 9" by The Clovers
"This Is Halloween" by Marilyn Manson
"Costume" by The Mollies
"Trick or Treat" by Fastway
"Witchcraft" by Frank Sinatra
"Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon
"Thriller" by Michael Jackson

The Unexpected: For an older audience or not as fun for dancing.
"Enter Sandman" by Matalica
"Already Dead" by Beck
"Dragula" by Rob Zombie
"Dead!" by My Chemical Romance
"Voodoo" by Godsmack
"Candyman" by Christina Aguilera
"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
"Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo
"Spill the Blood" by Slayer
"Soul Meets Body" by Death Cab for Cutie
"Snake Devil" by Scary Kids Scaring Kids
"Bodies" by Drowning Pool
"DOA" by Foo Fighters
"Wolf Like Me" by TV on the Radio
"The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails
"Feed My Frankenstein" by Alice Cooper
"Doctor Blind" by Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
"Die, Die My Darling" by The Misfits
"The Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Devil Inside" by INXS
"Love Me Dead" by Ludo

Halloween Horrors: I don't do scary

Really, I don't. I don't watch scary movies, I don't read scary books, and I don't go to haunted houses. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl. So while I have books lists for paranormal, supernatural and mythological, none of those books will leave you with that unsettled feeling of fear at what might lurk just around the corner, or even worse, that horrible feeling you get when you just know something bad is going to happen and there's not a thing you can do to stop it.

So if you want a scary Halloween read, you won't get it from me. You're just going to have to ask Neil Gaiman or your local librarian. Because chances are I wouldn't touch the book with a ten-foot pole.

Fantasy Freak Week Meets Halloween Horrors Week

From Edgar Allen Poe and the macabre to Steven King and the scream queens, elements of the fantastical walk hand in hand with horror fiction. Even the bible features witches and nightmares right along side the wonders of miracles. And John Kendrick Bangs might have given it a name, but Dante Alighieri was writing Bangsian Fantasy (a literary sub-genre featuring famous figures in the afterlife) hundreds of years earlier.

Paranormal: Phasmophobia is a fairly new idea. In many Asian and South American cultures, death is something to be respected, not feared. The Greeks viewed the Underworld as a place of waiting and the unknown--just look at the story of Orpheus' journey to there and back, which is more a heartbreaking tale of love lost than one of fear. Probably the earliest literary reference of scary ghosts comes from Shakespeare in both Hamlet and Macbeth.

Supernatural: It's only because Charlaine Harris wrote the Sookie Stackhouse books that The Vampire Diaries is able to enjoy its status as one of the critics current favorite shows. And before that, Bram Stoker's Dracula cashed in on the relatively new phenomenon of supernatural fiction in the late 1800's. But even he received inspiration from local legends and the ancient Mesopotamians and Greeks stories of bloodsucking fiends. Since the beginning of oral tradition stories have featured dark super-human beings to illustrate the battle between good and evil. Are these night-dwelling creatures real or made up to frighten people into walking a straight and narrow line?

Romance: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight might have made it popular, but flooding the classic dark elements of horror with the bright light of romance is nothing new. Joss Whedon did it with Buffy, Anne Rice did it with Lestat, the Greeks did it with Persephone and the Egyptians did it with Isis. Everyone loves a story about love that transcends death, but I'm not sure I want to know how this turned into borderline necrophilia.