With so much representation on the Shindig, in one form or another, it’s strange to see we’ve gotten this far without including Danny Elfman.
Easily my favorite anthology-form horror offering, HBO’s Tales From the Crypt positively scared the shit out of me in my youth, largely thanks to its creepy intro with that incredible model, the Cryptkeeper bounding from his coffin like a ghoulish jack in the box, and Elfman’s eerie theme here.
Perhaps my favorite theme of all time, and certainly my favorite of Elfman’s (maybe with The Simpson’s catching a close 2nd), creeping us a little further into the Shindig, here’s Tales from The Crypt.
13’s a pretty horrific number. You got 13 Ghosts, 13 floors, 13 turns in a hangman’s noose, that hockey masked guy, the Knights Templar and all sorts of Lunar and Witchcraft associations. It’s also a prime number and appears in Fibonacci’s Sequence. Hell, it even has it’s own phobia – Triskaidekaphobia.
So, it was a nice coincidence to see this song pull into the 13 spot after some sample/track merging (the playlist originally had separate tracks for all the lead-ins.)
From one of my favorites sketches from one of my favorite sketch comedy shows of all time, Mr. Show with Bob and David, comes the namesake of the entire playlist, Halloween Shindig.
It’s a spot-on spoof of paranormal phenomenon shows like Sightings entitled Probings, and it poses one of the greatest questions of our times..
Coming up next on the ‘dig is a ghoul after my own heart – Elvira.
“Every tricker’s treat” has been making Halloween playlists (or more appropriately, Hallowween albums) since I was knee high to a Gremlin. In total, she has 4 different Halloween albums, and they’re all chock full of great songs, Elvira halloweeniness, and even original cuts from the Mistress herself. And number 11 is just such a track.
Not to be out-done (in any respect), Elvira comes correct with her own brand of referential novelty in Monsta’ Rap, featuring so many shout outs, its hard to imagine fitting them all into only 4 minutes. Seriously, everything from The Thing to Rodan and everyone from Christopher Lee to Barbara Steele gets put on blast here, creating possibly the most referential song on the list. And if that wasn’t enough, Elvira’s rapping it all together.
Merged here with her own introduction for some Halloweeny atmosphere. Enjoy.
Yeah, I might just say that too, cause I know what you’re thinkin’, “Newfits? For real? You haven’t even posted any actual Misfits songs yet, and you’re coming with some Newfits bullshit?”
All I can say to that is, I like the actual Misfits more, so they’re buried deeper in the playlist, for when everyone’s good and sauced up and the stragglers have had time to settle in. And don’t worry, there’s no shortage of classic Misfits tracks on Halloween Shindig.
Say what you want about this secondary incarnation of The Misfits, they had some good tunes. Tunes that are kind of hard for a Halloween playlist to straight up ignore. Tunes like today’s track for instance, entitled Scream!
Despite its (perhaps) misleading name, the song is actually an ode to William Castle’s wonderful 1959 classic The Tingler, about a terrible creature living inside all of you, which feeds on fear, and grows up your spine and into your brain! A creature that can only be stopped by the sound of screaming!
It’s a great premise, and it makes for one hell of a bizarre and imaginative film. Castle, master of the in-theater gimmick, made it even more fun by rigging some of the seats with vibrators to give certain audience members a special jolt at the right moment. 3D? Fuck all that shit, this is Percepto!
The lead-in for this is none other than Williams Castle’s own introduction to the film. Oh, and that’s Bart screaming at the end from Treehouse of Horror IV’s “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace” segment. Enjoy!
