tales from the crypt

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Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas (1994)

Well, it just wouldn’t be Christmas around here without a little ghoul-tide cheer from Father Cryptmas himself, The Crypt Keeper.

From 1994, the height of Cryptmania, comes this absolute gem of holiday horror, and one of my favorite Christmas albums of all time.

Not only are these spoof’s clever and humorous, but John Kassir is so 100% onboard for this shit, that it just effortlessly works .

If you don’t like Christmas music, I certainly doubt this album will change your mind. If you don’t like the ghoulishness of Halloween infecting your Christmas spirit, then definitely give this a pass.

But if you do like Christmas music, and you do a like a little gore decking your halls, then by golly, have a very scary little Christmas…this year.

 

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Ghouls Night Out

TRACK #25:

Ghouls Night Out by The Misfits

Webster’s defines Ghoul as

  1. legendary evil being that robs graves and feeds on corpses
  2. one suggestive of a ghoul; especially  : one who shows morbid interest in things considered shocking or repulsive

So basically, we’re all ghouls. And if there was ever a night for ghouls, it was Halloween.

So, take it away boys.

(Cut in with Stephen Weber from Tales from the Crypt’s S3 Episode Mournin’ Mess, and well, that’s Bill the Butcher at the end there from Gangs of New York.)

 

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The Crypt Jam

TRACK #24:

The Crypt Jam by John Kassir and Chuckii Booker

In the early 90’s both hip hop and Tales from the Crypt were riding high on the pop culture wave, so it seemed only natural to some sleazy executive to combined these two concepts.

The result is The Crypt Jam, a rather curious musical number that finds our pal the Cryptkeeper inviting us to a “monster bash, if you will.”

The next 3 minutes or so is The Cryptkeeper (voiced by the great John Kassir) rhyming and punning his way through a generic 90’s hip-hop beat.

Even better is the video, featuring our pal dressed up in typical gansta threads of the era, dancing with a dozen or so fly-girls and a coupla pop-lockin’ zombies.

Was it a good idea? Well, The Shindig certainly thinks so, as this type of thing is right up our alley over here. However, that may not be everyone’s conclusion regarding this particular Monster Rap. Either way, the Cryptkeeper’s in the house, and we couldn’t be happier about that.

 

 

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Tales From The Crypt (Theme)

TRACK #23:

Tales From the Crypt Theme by Danny Elfman

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.