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Halloween: A User's Guide

Halloween is no Hallmark Holiday. While it may have evolved into a kitschy festival of hard candy and plastic masks, its roots are actually thousands of years old and every bit as dark and sinister as we like to pretend. Picture this.
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Halloween is no Hallmark Holiday. While it may have evolved into a kitschy festival of hard candy and plastic masks, its roots are actually thousands of years old and every bit as dark and sinister as we like to pretend.

Picture this. You're a poor sheepherder living in a small house built of stone or sod, watching the days get darker and colder. The last harvest is in, and you know there won't be any new harvest for several months. Snow could trap you in your home at any time, while the cold rain falls almost every day.

If winter lingers you could starve. Sickness travels quickly and the weakest will fall ill and die. Babies and new mothers are especially vulnerable, but it's hard to find warmth and food must be rationed carefully.

You don't believe in one god but several gods and demigods who could be cruel or kind on a whim. You believe in ghosts and mythical creatures, just as you believe that one night a year, Samhain, the line separating the world of the dead from the world of the living is broken and the dead walk the earth once again. Some of the dead reunite with families, others cause mischief, and others enter the bodies of druids after a sacrifice to predict the future.

People wear costumes, animal heads and skins to fool evil spirits and light bonfires to chase away the darkness, make sacrifices of food, and to beg the gods for mercy.

Then one day the Romans show up, conquering and pacifying as they go, demanding tributes in exchange for roads and grander buildings. The world gets a little larger but it also turns out that the Romans celebrated something similar to Samhain as well at that time of the year, a festival to commemorate the passing of the dead as well as a festival to honour the harvest on which all life depends.

About 700 years later Christianity will conquer Ireland, and soon after Pope Boniface would name November 1 All Saints Day to replace the still popular pagan festival of Samhain with something more holy. However, if you've read anything about saints and all the different ways they were boiled, burned and dismembered by non-believers then you'll realize that Boniface probably didn't do much to make Samhain less sinister. Samhain became All-Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween, mixing Celtic, Roman and Catholic traditions into a single festival.

From there it was really just a hop, skip and jump to modern day, where we have kept traditions alive, like carving scary faces in gourds (squash in the old days, pumpkins in present day) wearing costumes and generally causing mischief.

For any kid it's one of the best times of the year, something it takes several weeks to build up to as they digest movies and books with Halloween themes. For adults it's one of the biggest and least inhibited parties of the year, like New Year's but without the expectation that your life has to change the very next day.

Halloween is also one of the biggest events of the year for Whistler, one of the busiest nights in terms of nightlife and house parties, as well as the one night of the year when every kid in town old enough to walk upright is out and about.

To help you get the most out of your Halloween the Pique writers put together this primer, Halloween: A Users' Guide.

 

The ghosts of Whistler

Whistler can be a spooky place after dark. The wind whistles through the trees and creatures big and small rustle in the bushes. Clumps of mist can fog over the town morning and night, and when the moon sets early and the clouds roll in it's pitch black outside.

And there are ghosts in the Whistler Creek Lodge. Three of them, according to various reports although there could be more.

"Former employees have heard guests speaking of a ghost in the Whistler Creek Lodge - an older man they say. One former employee saw the ghost of a young woman standing with a child. And then there's the time a housekeeper saw someone walk down a hallway and then turn a corner which had no exit - when she investigated no one was there."

- Kevin Damaskie, 1995

A few years later another Pique writer told a story about a house in Whistler Cay that may have been haunted.

"(T)hey found themselves spooked by the sound of footsteps running across the roof and chilled by draughts they couldn't explain. They fought an on-going battle with the fireplace which refused to hold a flame no matter what kind of wood they used or how lovingly they tended the hearth.

"Then there was the constant problems with the furnace and the space heaters. You would think someone didn't want them to get comfortable. Maybe that someone was the ghostly figure, darting and dark, occasionally glimpsed by the thoroughly spooked tenants.

"Once, while chatting in the kitchen with friends, the tenants saw a cutting board move two feet along the counter before crashing to the floor.

"Each of the roommates also had their own experience with the resident ghost cat. Often glimpsed out of the corner of the eye it was heard meowing and jumping onto beds purring. Some even swear they felt its invisible body rub against their legs."

- Amy Fendley, 2001

 

A witch's New Year

By Claire Piech

The first thing Kelly Oswald says to me as we sit down to talk about modern-day witches is that "witch" actually means "wise."

We are in the tiny psychic reading room at the back of her shop, The Oracle, in the village. There's an oddly intimate feeling inside the room; the lights are dim and the table we are sitting around is covered with plush purple velvet. It doesn't take much imagination to picture how this could be a place where magic would happen. Outside on the village walkway the trees evoke an equally strong mood of necromancy as they turn shades of auburn, brown and gold with the October air.

Halloween is on its way.

"The whole thing about becoming a witch is your whole goal and your whole focus is becoming wise," explains Oswald in her slow, steady, calm voice.

"It doesn't mean you start out wise. It means you are always working towards it. Anybody who walks the path of witchcraft is basically signing up to become a student for life."

Oswald's skin glows with vitality today and her white hair is pulled back into an elegant ponytail. She isn't a witch herself, although through her eclectic practice of witchcraft, Christianity and Buddhism she has met many people who consider themselves witches, and her knowledge of the pagan religion runs deep.

Wicca is a religion with rituals and systems whereas witchcraft is spell casting, Oswald tells me. You can practice witchcraft without being Wiccan.

"Wicca is an honourable religion and one of the biggest principles of Wicca is 'Harm to None,'" says Oswald. "Basically the bottom line with Wicca is do what you want, but you can't hurt anybody. And lesser evils, like small harms to stop big harms, are still harming something, so you can't even do that."

Modern day witches believe everything in the world is interconnected and anything you do has consequences. In other words, if you shake one part of a spider's web the whole web is affected Oswald tells me, using her hands to illustrate her point. Even when witches cast spells, they do it carefully to make sure the results are always positive.

Contrary to popular belief, people who practice witchcraft don't necessarily wear black and they also tend to keep their allegiances quiet because of all the negative stereotypes surrounding their practice. In fact, Oswald tells me she knows a woman in Vancouver who is CEO of a large company and dresses every day in a power suit but at the same time is also secretly a high priestess in the Wiccan tradition.

"I think part of the reason that she was so amazing at her job was she just honoured everything," says Oswald. "People who worked for her adored her and would do anything for her because she never treated anybody poorly because of that 'Harm to None' thing."

As we talk, our conversation slowly turns to the autumn weather outside and Oswald tells me Halloween is an especially sacred time for Wiccans. They call it "Samhain," which means "summer's end" and regard it as their New Year.

While the rest of North America gets dressed up in costumes and spends the evening either drinking or trick-or-treating for candy, those who practice witchcraft celebrate their deceased loved ones. Modern witches may set a place for their old friends or relatives at the dinner table or they might create altars to remember those who have passed on to the other side.

"The New Year's celebration is huge," says Oswald. "It is a time of transformation, and the bottom line is it a celebration because all the leaves are coming off the trees and they are making room for new ones for next year. It is a celebration of ancestors that have passed over. The idea is that because everything in the northern hemisphere is dying, it is the closest we get to the death of our loved ones, so therefore it is a time to honour them and communicate with them."

Witches will dress in cocktail dresses and other party outfits to celebrate Samhain and circles of witches will get together to party. Oswald says she doesn't know of any Wiccan Halloween celebrations in Whistler right now, although she knows a few people in the resort municipality who do practice witchcraft and spell casting on their own.

Oswald's store sells books on witchcraft, and she tells me recently there's been significant interest in the occult literature from young people. She believes that probably has something to do with the popularity of The Vampire Diaries television show and the Twilight and Night World book series.

"That makes me to have the responsibility to make sure I am carrying books that are positive and are about that 'harm to none' thing," she says.  "Some of the witchcraft books are darker, so I am really selective on what we bring in."

So, what part of witchcraft does Oswald herself follow?

Even though she is not Wiccan, Oswald tells me she practices her own version of spell casting, or, as she calls it, spiritual alchemy. Complimenting people has a positive, spell-like effect on their attitude, she explains, whereas telling someone they look bad can cause the opposite reaction. A more traditional Wiccan practice, however, would use brooms, herb, and crystals to cast spells. A love spell for example might be done with pink candles, fire and rose quartz with the intention of causing romance.

Oswald also identifies strongly with the witch burnings in the 1600s in New England, and some members from her husband's family were even tried as witches in 1663.

"The story is that it was a mother and daughter, and the father has passed away. Across the street was a girl with diabetes, and the dad of the girl didn't know that the mother of the girl was getting help from them," says Oswald.

"They were giving herbs and things to help work with her diabetes and shifting her diet. The girl was actually recovering and doing well, and the father didn't realize why the girl was doing so well. When he found out he told the town and the women were tried as witches. Thankfully they lived, and I have my husband."

She says witches back then where actually doing healing work. They were using things like eucalyptus and St. John's wort, which are still used today. The image of witches casting evil spells hail from the Dark Ages and the Christian revolution.

Today, Oswald says some of society's views towards witches have changed since the witch-burning era, while other things, like the stereotype of witches being evil, have not changed at all.

"I still have people sending me letters every now and again saying they can help me and that they pray for me," says Oswald.  "That is nice, they are trying to help, and they don't realize that anything is wrong."

Before I leave, I ask Oswald if there is anything else she would like to add. She thinks for a moment, taking her time, and then says it is important for people to be open minded about Wicca. Any religion whose creed is "harm to none" cannot be too threatening.

 

The Tapley's Tradition

By Alison Taylor

The grand tradition of Halloween at Tapley's Farm continues this year and organizers expect it to be very busy.

With Halloween falling on a Saturday night, not only will Whistler's spookiest neighbourhood attract locals but other trick or treaters from far and wide are expected to appear too. And that means more witches and goblins and ghosts to feed!

The annual candy drive is still ongoing with collection points at both Spring Creek and Myrtle Philip elementary schools, the Whistler Children's Centre, Nesters Market and 6448 Toad Hollow. All donations are much appreciated and organizers will be collecting until Saturday morning.

Because Halloween falls on a Saturday, organizer Julie Hamilton expects Tapley's will be bigger and more exciting this year.

"It's extra special," she said of this year's festivities.

Roughly 70 houses at Tapley's Farm take part in the Halloween tradition, giving Whistler kids a place to gather for their trick or treating.

The Shaw Pumpkin Patrol will be greeting guests at the entrance to Tapley's and the Shaw Bear will be on hand too.

Hamilton said the bear is a good safety zone for kids who may get lost.

There is no parking at Tapley's but as in previous years there will be a free shuttle, The Goblin Express, to take trick or treaters there and back.

The bus leaves Marketplace, where there is free parking, every ten minutes from 5 to 8:15 p.m.

The fireworks, sponsored by Nesters with help from the local fire department, will begin at 7:30 on the soccer fields at Myrtle Philip school.

For more information call Julie Hamilton at 604-902-1860.

 

The Halloween Party

While most of us have never seen ghosts no doubt a few of us have probably seen a few things that weren't really there as a result of a particularly good Halloween Party.

To aid in the throwing of a Halloween bash, Holly Fraughton has compiled a few easy Halloween recipes, Feet Banks and Jesse Ferreras put together a pair of competing top-10 Halloween movie lists and Andrew Mitchell compiled a Halloween Mixed Tape.

 

Scarily good Halloween treats

By Holly Fraughton

Okay, this is traditionally the season for junk food fever - buckets and pillowcases chock-full of Tootsie Rolls and suckers, mini versions of Smarties and every other chocolate bar under the rainbow, little bags of salty, crispy treats. But why not whip up some of your own special Halloween treats to enjoy after the kiddies get home from the revelry? And for those of us sans-kids, here are a few recipe ideas to include in your own Halloween soiree.

 

Black Halloween Punch

1 package orange Kool Aid

1 package grape Kool Aid

2 cups sugar (if you got the unsweetened Kool Aid mixes)

12 cups cold water

1 litre gingerale

Vodka (optional)

 

Directions: stir together the grape and orange Kool Aid mixes, sugar (if using unsweetened Kool Aid) and water until solids are dissolved. Combine with chilled ginger ale just before serving, and spike liberally with your favourite vodka.

Terrifying tip: to make a traditional punch super-spooky, here's a neat trick I found on the 'net: wash a disposable dish glove inside and out, then fill it with water and tie the top off with a  rubberband. Put it in the freezer overnight and the next day you'll have a giant hand-shaped, creepy ice cube to keep your punchbowl extra chilly.

 

Vampire Bites

Vampires appear to be trendy these days, what with all the diehard Twilight fans lurking around every dark corner, so let's jump on the bandwagon, shall we?

 

1 ½ cups flour

¾ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp cinnamon

½ cup softened butter

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

Red food colouring

½ cup sparkly red decorator's sugar

24 smooth mini chocolate bars (like Milky Way)

1 tube vanilla decorator frosting

 

Directions: Combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon in a medium bowl and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. Slowly add in the flour mixture until dough is well blended. Add enough food colouring to turn the dough a bright red. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 375˚F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a ¼-inch thickness, and use a lip-shaped cookie cutter to cut out shapes (you can also form the dough into 24 balls and flatten each slightly, then pinch and shape the dough into lip shapes). Transfer to cookie sheets.

Sprinkle cookies with red sugar and bake seven to 10 minutes (until golden brown). Remove from oven and immediately press a mini chocolate bar into the centre of each cookie. Cool completely and pipe two little lines of white icing ("fangs") over the chocolate.

 

For other Halloween recipes you can check out All Recipes Halloween page at http://allrecipes.com/features/holidays/Halloween/2009.aspx.

 

Scary Movies

Who doesn't like to be scared a little now and then? Hollywood has been churning out horror movies for more than a hundred years now. The very first horror movie, weighing in at just two minutes long was made by French filmmaker Georges Melies in 1896 titled Le Maoir De Diable or The Devil's Castle .

It would take a few years for horror to become its own genre. The first vampire film was Night of Terror in 1916, the first film adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula was The Death of Dracula in 1921, and Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror followed soon after in 1922 - still considered once of the best vampire films ever made.

The first Frankenstein film was Edison's Frankenstein in 1910, weighing in at 16 minutes.

German director Robert Wiene also broke new ground by creating his own monster in the The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , which debuted in Germany in 1919.

Pretty much by 1920 horror movies were in regular circulation. Some were original works, while other directors trolled through stacks of horror fiction to bring titles like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Phantom of the Opera to life.

Now the genre of horror can probably be divided into several sub-genres. Some horror tends to be psychological, focusing more on building suspense than raining gore. Other films focus on the gore for shock value - not because gore is scary, but because the person spilling it is. Whatever your flavour, Pique 's resident film critic Feet Banks - extremely busy this time of year with the B Grade Horrorfest -  and movie buff Jesse Ferreras have each compiled a list of top-10 horror movies for your viewing pleasure.

 

Feet's Frighteners

1. The Exorcist (1973) - One of the few movies where the devil is actually really scary.

2. Jaws (1975) - A whole generation of people live with fear every time they go in the water because of this movie.

3. The Shining (1980)- The twins are creeps and this is Jack Nicholson's best performance. It's also the best adaptation of a Stephen King book.

4. Halloween (1978) - What's scary is what you don't see. Set the standard for the slasher genre.

5. Psycho (1960) - Alfred Hitchcock was the first to find pure evil in a regular person rather than monsters or aliens.

6. Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead 1992) - This movie didn't invent the splatter genre but sure turned it up a notch.

7. Alien (1979) - Sci-fi horror is tough to do and this is freak stuff. The erupting chest scene is a classic.

8. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) - Crazy inbred freaks. Shortcuts through the country become a lot scarier after this film.

9. The Ring (2002) - The American remake, not the Japanese version. This movie changed the horror aesthetic.

10. American Werewolf in London (1981) - A horror/comedy but very noteworthy for the fantastic transformation scene done using real special effects, not CGI. This is as good as it gets.

Bonus Pick: The Orphanage (2007) - This needs to be in there because some of the best horror, like this ghost story, is foreign. Don't be afraid of subtitles, this rules.

Jesse's Jumpers

 

Rosemary's Baby (1968) - When it comes to cerebral horror I can hardly think of a better example than Rosemary's Baby , a terrifying psychological horror whose quality has eclipsed the even-more-terrifying real-life practices of director Roman Polanski. The film draws on the fear and uncertainty experienced by expectant mothers, and the titular Rosemary has to live for nine months with the worry that she may actually give birth to the son of Satan... as well as her clingy, elderly neighbours who are all-too-protective of the flagitious fetus.

 

The Exorcist (1973) - Widely billed as the scariest film of all time when released in 1974, people didn't get a full measure of its terror until the "real" Exorcist was issued in 2000. Either version is a terrifying film about an innocent young girl who has the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu take up residence in her body. Two Catholic priests try to exercise the demon and have a Hell of a time contending with vomit, a spinning head and a spider-walker. The new version is worth checking out for flashes of demonic faces and a sensationally amplified telephone ring.

 

Suspiria (1977) - Remember that "la la la" song the Ginger Kids sang when they took revenge for their suffering on South Park? It all started with Italian horror master Dario Argento, whose films are remembered more for their iconic music than the quality of their acting or writing. Suspiria is a spectacular horror film about a young girl who runs headlong into evil spirits at a German ballet academy that has a terror around every corner, drawn in beautiful brush-strokes of vibrant reds and blues. As the trailer suggests, "The only things more terrifying than the last 12 minutes of Suspiria ... are the first 92."

 

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) - Not a particularly scary film but probably the most sumptuously-designed horror film ever made. Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of the eminent novel is a spectacular, passionate film and a tale of love that spans centuries. Gary Oldman plays the count, a soldier who long ago renounced God when he returned from war and discovered his wife dead by suicide and damned for eternity. Some 400 years later he stalks the wife of a lawyer he's imprisoned in his castle, believing her to be the reincarnation of his dead wife. Beautiful photography by Michael Ballhaus and a powerful score by Wojciech Kilar make this one a modern classic.

 

Poltergeist (1982) - Mom and Dad were hesitant about letting me watch Poltergeist as a kid. Like any good parents, they worried it would be too scary. Lucky for them they had a kid who got off on being scared out of his wits and this film did nothing to scar him. Tobe Hooper's 1982 classic drew on the fears that parents had about the corrupting influence of television. Young Carol-Anne is drawn into the TV and parents JoBeth Williams and Craig "Coach" T. Nelson need to contract a medium to get her back. You could make an equally-relevant film today about the internet. Wait, that's been done. It was Pulse , and it sucked. Anyways, Poltergeist rules.

 

The Shining (1980) - Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel has been unfairly maligned by critics throughout film history. Naysayers point to its slow pace, its lack of faith to the novel and an over-the-top performance by Shelley Duvall as the wife of a violent lunatic and mother of a boy who talks to his finger. Those critics will find many to agree with them but not me. The Shining is one of the most plodding, intense and terrifying films I have ever seen, and Duvall's performance does plenty to aid with that. Jack Nicholson plays a recovering alcoholic and frustrated writer who gradually goes a murderous kind of insane while serving as the winter caretaker at a massive hotel. His son Danny develops psychic abilities and is the only one who can anticipate his decent into madness.

 

The Changeling (1980) - Who says that Canadians can't be scary? No one, if they see Peter Medak's 1980 classic horror film. Produced by Garth Drabinsky, the Canadian impresario whose shady business dealings recently landed him seven years in prison, The Changeling focuses on a concert pianist who takes up residence in a Victorian mansion after the deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident. He soon discovers he lives alongside the spirit of a murdered child whose death has been covered up in a conspiracy that reaches the office of a powerful U.S. Senator. Great sound effects make this one a startler, and one of the best haunted house movies ever.

 

The Brood (1979) - This here's a contender for most misogynistic film of all time, alongside Lars von Trier's recent hellraiser Antichrist . I still think this one takes the cake. Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now and his bitterness at an ex-wife together inspire David Cronenberg's film in equal parts. It's about a psychotherapist who helps his patients deal with emotional pain by undergoing rapid, disgusting physical change. For Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar) it means birthing mutant, zombie-like children who try to kidnap her daughter back from her estranged husband (Art Hindle). It's about the most searing indictment of psychotherapy I've ever seen.

 

The Lost Boys (1987)- Again, not a scary movie but a perfect one for Halloween parties. Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys is like a tween template for Blade and it's a great one. It's about a family with two curious young boys (played by Corey Haim and Jason Patric) who move to Santa Carla, California and run afoul of a gang of vampires led by a pre-Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland. A fight to the finish ensues as the boys ward them off using squirt guns filled with garlic water. Twilight cannot hold a candle to this exciting classic, and Corey Feldman was awesome as the teen vampire hunter.

 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) - Wonder where Tim Burton gets all his crazy ideas? This silent classic may give you an idea. Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has served as an influence for innumerable films including Metropolis , Blade Runner , Beetlejuice and Dark City . The mysterious Dr. Caligari has a traveling show with Cesare, a creepy somnambulist who can predict the future. When Cesare predicts a grisly end for the ordinary Alan, things start to turn chaotic. Alan is murdered, Cesare is a chief suspect and the victim's best friend is out to find the truth. The sets are the real stars here, a surrealist universe with distorted homes and camera angles that suggest early influences for film-noir. Plus it's scary on its own terms. A must for film-nerds like the ones writing out these lists.

 

The Halloween Mixed Tape

By Andrew Mitchell

Some Halloween music is creepy, some Halloween music you can dance to in a gorilla costume.

There is so much good, dark music out there to choose from so for fun I narrowed the list down to bands from the 1980s. After all, I grew up in the 1980s, which is something I can at last admit now that bands from that era are becoming popular once again.

I think I can safely say that the '80s were one of the best eras for producing Halloween-friendly music. Many born earlier or later might disagree, with the former pointing to bands like Black Sabbath, KISS, early David Bowie and others, and the latter nodding to Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Nine Inch Nails and so on.

While I'll acknowledge that these bands and others have produced some great Halloween music I personally feel that bands from the '80s did it with a mass appeal that modern bands lack. Everything was a subset of pop music back then, and the golden age of music videos made style matter as much as substance. This was the real starting point for Goths, emos, headbangers, grungers and other culturual genres just made for Halloween..

I've made a few Halloween soundtracks over the years, and while I never intended to focus on the '80s or any other era of music it seemed like a good fit as a disproportionate number of spooky Halloween tunes were written during that time. No Halloween Party would sound right without them.

 

Killing Moon by Echo and the Bunnymen

This remains a great Halloween song with a spooky, ethereal sounding guitar at the start and gothic lyrics you can sing along to. It was also featured in the cult film Donnie Darko , which happens to feature an '80s-style Halloween Party and an '80s soundtrack that kills. "Under the Milky Way" by The Church and "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division are also on the soundtrack and should be on your Halloween playlist as well.

 

Halloween by Siouxsie and the Banshees

Really needs no explanation. You know this song even if you can't put a tune to the title.

 

Mama by Genesis

"Mama" is probably one of the freakiest songs ever recorded, with band member Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" running a close second - completely unexpected from the guy who also wrote "Groovy Kind of Love." While you're searching out these songs you might also want to look for former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel's spooky songs like "Shock The Monkey" and "Digging In The Dirt."

 

Charlotte Sometimes by The Cure

The Cure are Halloween night, and the entire month of October for that matter. There are a lot of Cure songs that you could put on your mixed tape, but "Charlotte Sometimes" is in a class of its own when it comes to atmosphere. "Lullaby" is probably a close second.

 

Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus

A song about a man who played vampires and werewolves on film is a strange concept and this is a strange but wonderful song that hits all the right notes.

 

Feed My Frankenstein by Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper may have gotten his start in the '70s but I personally think his best stuff was written in the '80s. No Halloween mix should be without "Feed My Frankenstein," or for that matter "Welcome to My Nightmare," or "Clones (We're All)." Which brings me to...

 

Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne

Not everybody at your party is going to be a Black Sabbath fan. I agree that's sacrilege, but when it comes to Halloween parties "Bark at the Moon" seems to be the Ozzie metal song everyone can agree on.

 

Under Cover of the Night by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones went through a weird era in the '80s and experimented with a new wave sound on a handful of albums. Some of the results were incredible. You can also add "Shattered," "Emotional Rescue" and "She's So Cold" to your Halloween list for good measure - all from 1980 or later.

 

Every Day Is Halloween by Ministry

This is an iconic song for the holiday, which is surprising for a band that couldn't be more out on the fringe. Even if you don't know Ministry or industrial music you'll still recognize this song within a few notes of the opening guitar riff. If this song fits the theme of your party then you should also look up "Halloween" by the Dead Kennedy's or "Halloween" by Mudhoney for raw Halloweeniness.

 

Pet Semetary by The Ramones

Those three Ramones chords aren't particularly spooky in any order but the atmosphere and lyrics of this tune are perfect. The lyric "I don't want to live my life again" takes on a whole new meaning when you consider the fate that would await three of the four founding members of the Ramones. Other great Ramones Halloween anthems are "Somebody Put Something In My Drink," and "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg."

 

White Wedding by Billy Idol

The guitar is pure All Hallows Eve and Billy Idol sings like I imagine an actual vampire would and not the sparkling in the sunlight Twilight variety. You might want to include "Eyes Without A Face" as a cool down song somewhere  on your mix.

 

Thriller by Michael Jackson

It's kind of expected, and for good reason. A Halloween without "Thriller" is like Christmas without "Jingle Bells." And zombies are so hot right now...

 

Underground by David Bowie

So many good Halloween songs by this guy but for atmosphere and '80s goodness you can't beat "Underground." I also like "Panic In Detroit."

 

Burning Down the House by Talking Heads

From the ghostly pipes at the start to David Byrne's opening screech of "Watch out!" this is one of the oddest songs ever written. Byrne lobs lyrics like pumpkins, and is perfect for any mix.

 

The Freaks Come Out at Night by Whodini

If your Halloween party is getting funky then this song is a must. While you're at it, add "A Nightmare on My Street" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince (you might know him better as Will Smith), "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., and "Nightmare" by Dana Dane. And of course...

 

Somebody's Watching Me by Rockwell

There are so many versions and remixes of this song that it took me a while to figure out who did it first. For a while I thought it was Michael Jackson, but thanks to Wikipedia I now know that the artist is Rockwell with Jackson contributing backup vocals.

 

Weird Science by Oingo Boingo

This is the classic theme song from the movie of the same name, from a band that couldn't be more '80s. Another song called "Dead Man's Party" could also make your Halloween list.

 

Never Let Me Down Again by Depeche Mode

It's technically a drug song like so many Depeche Mode songs but "Never Let Me Down Again" starts right with a soaring orchestra fading into a crunchy guitar riff and some killer piano. Other Depeche songs to consider for your mix include "Master and Servant," "Enjoy the Silence" (get the Laguna Coil version if you're looking to crank up the spook and dance factor), "It's No Good," "Personal Jesus" and the list goes on. Singer David Grahan was and is a troubled man...

 

Tainted Love by Soft Cell

A good song to dance to in a Gorilla costume. Take my word for it.

 

So Alive by Love and Rockets

See above...

 

Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics

Marilyn Manson did a cover of this song but somehow it was less scary than the original.

 

Love Kills by Joe Strummer

Formerly of The Clash, this is probably Joe Strummer's best-known solo song. It was featured in the film "Sid and Nancy" about the Sex Pistols, which is one of the few music biopics I actually enjoyed. And, yes, I saw "Ray" and "Walk The Line."

 

Life's What You Make It by Talk Talk

Great piano riff, haunting lyrics. This song has it all.

 

Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes

The video will explain this pick although the music also speaks for itself.

 

Rock Lobster by The B-52's

Don't focus on the lyrics so much as the backup vocals and creepy organ. This art rock band really knew how to set a mood.

 

That should be enough to get any Halloween Party started. Where it goes from there is up to you...

 

 

 



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