Music Videos from Hell: Part 1

For some Halloween fun, I was thinking about taking a look at some scary music videos.

Sometimes they are intentionally "scary" like Michel Jackson's Thriller directed by John Landis, but other times I think the scariness was unintentional. I'll be showcasing both kinds of music videos this month.

The Aphex Twin video for Come to Daddy directed by Chris Cunningham is intentionally scary. Very aggressively scary, and according to the Wiki, "The music video was positioned number 35 in 100 Greatest Scary Moments, as voted by Channel 4 viewers in 2003."

Okay if you've never seen it, brace yourself for some seriously messed up stuff...


Man that's unpleasant to watch, but it's also genius. Chris Cunningham is a master at creating disturbing imagery. Check out his Rubber Johnny short for more of his expertly crafted grotesque weirdness.

Next is a video that I don't think was intended to be scary, but it is. Can your nerves withstand Bonnie Tyler and Total Eclipse of the Heart directed by Russell Mulcahy...



Wow there's everything but the kitchen sink this this video. It's so over the top you could write a dissertation on the underlying themes and symbolism.

Anyway as the video starts it's candles, slow-mo doves, and silk fabric blowing around. You may think it's just going to be some boring video filled with artsy romanticism, but then at the 45 second mark a school boy walks though the door with glowing green eyes. What the hell?

After the guy with the glowing green eyes there's so much other crap going on by the end of the video you practically forgot about him. Then wham! You get hit with the "Boys Choir of the Damned" who not only have the scary glowing eyes, but one boy even levitates.

I'm not sure the makers of this video were aware of how scary this stuff was. I think they were going for something more stylized than scary, but they unintentionally created a nightmare. Seriously what's scarier - the glowing eyed ghost pirates from John Carpenter's The Fog, a R rated horror film that was released around the same time as the music video...

John Carpenter's The Fog

... or the possessed boys choir from Total Eclipse of the Heart?

I don't know about you, but for sheer creepiness the ghost pirates ain't got nothing on that boys choir.

Makeover Leftover

When I was redesigning my blog for the Halloween season I planned to have a animated gif as my profile picture.

You know what? You can't use a animated gif as your profile picture. Well you can use an animated gif, but it will not animate.


You see this is what I wanted. Oh, well at least I got to use it someway.

The Scariest Film Clip in the World

Hey it's October, and time for a month long celebration of scary stuff until we reach the big day ol' day of Halloween.

In all honesty I don't know what the hell I'm going to post this month. I really have nothing planed so I assume we'll both be surprised together. Okay let's get going because the suspense is killing me.

I guess we'll kick off the month with what might very well be the scariest film clip in the world. I watched this film on TV at a young age, and this scene kept me awake at night for weeks...



Terrifying right? I lived in a very suburban neighborhood, with only a few small wooded areas here and there, but I was certain there was a very good possibility that Bigfoot could smash his hairy arm through my bedroom window one night. I was a kid who loved watching monster movies of all kinds, and never had a problem when it was Hollywood make-believe, but this damn thing was another story - it was supposedly real!

This film is one of Sun Classic's "great" documentaries The Mysterious Monsters (1976) and it's available on DVD. If I had children I'd buy this film, and show it around Halloween time for a good scare. I'm pretty sure today's modern internet kids with their iPads, Wii's and 8-Track tape players would still freak out at this stuff.

Boo!

Mammoth Cave Brochure

I love caves, and have a large collection of cave brochures from across the country. I'd gladly use them in posts more often, but the previous times I've posted something cave related it's always one of my least popular pages.

Since there doesn't seem to be much interest in caves, I'm not going to bother posting every page from this Mammoth Cave National Park brochure...

That cover looks dated, like something from the 1950's, but it's not. Well I'm sure the brochure was originally designed in the late 50's, but this cover was still used into the 1980's.

Actually it's kinda cool I think, also they probably used this cover because of the classic thriller that was filmed at Mammoth Cave...

The movie Mammoth! (1956) was made by the same team that created Niagara (1953) three years earlier. It's a movie that's not very well known even by movie buffs. It's not too bad, and anything with Peter Lorre is always worth a look. Add it to your Netflix queue, and be sure to let me know how you liked it.

Strange Change Machine

So that was a fun summer... let's see if I can get this blog back on track now.

In the late 60's the mighty Mattel toy company introduced the "Strange Change Machine" which was a fun little toy that was basically an electric hot plate with a plastic dome on top. You could heat up special little plastic cubes which unfolded into monsters and dinosaurs.

Check out the awesome commercial...



Man, I love that narrator and groovy science fictiony music. Indulge me while we watch the "extended dance mix" of the same commercial (but unfortunately worse video quality)...



Anyway, there are a lot of sites out on the vast interweb if you wish to know more about this toy, but what those sites don't have are big clear scans of Strange Change Machine instructions...


... and on the flip-side of the instructions, a full-color "landscape map" of The Lost World.

I shall return... hopefully

For anyone who may be wondering what's going on, I haven't died (well, not yet). Life has been extra crazy for me lately (and not in a good kinda crazy), but I'll try to return to my semi-weekly posting schedule once things settle down.

Thanks.

What's the deal with the audio on the Studio Canal logo?

Is the sound designer a mad genius, or was this odd sound mix a "happy accident" as Bob Ross might have said?