Halloween Dance Party! Tim Curry - Anything Can Happen on Halloween

This can never be watched too many times.


And here's the whole playlist, all in one easy-to-stream location!

Halloween Dance Party! Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party

We're getting down to the part of the day where we can stop thinking about work and start thinking about what insanity will be observed tonight.  Let's hope you're not all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Halloween Dance Party! Joyce Mordoh - Nudist Colony of the Dead

Yesterday, we looked at NUDIST COLONY filmmaker Mark Pirro on Hard Copy, so it's only natural to follow up with the movie's theme song!

Halloween Dance Party! Hytz - Backstabber

PSYCHO's shower scene needed recreating with a guy that resembles the love child of Hall and Oates.

Halloween Dance Party! The Shoes - Time to Dance

I like the song, and I love the video, and while I don't know how well they go together, it's still a heck of a ride as Jake Gyllenhaal gives his best Patrick Bateman.

Halloween Dance Party! Fred Schneider - Monster

Obligatory viewing for any occasion.

Halloween Dance Party! I Was Afraid to Love You

Nothing says romance like Dr. Pepper and random shots of Raymond Burr reacting to things in this video made to promote GODZILLA 1985.

Halloween Dance Party! Little Dragon - Pretty Girls

Don’t let the smooth, upbeat track fool you — this tale of voodoo, madness and a young woman is dark, hypnotic stuff, shot beautifully by Nabil.

Halloween Dance Party! Udo Kier - Der Adler

Udo Kier.  Creepy-ass actor.  Amazing presence.  Music video sensation.  (He also sings this in MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO.)

Halloween Dance Party! Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler

Another video directed by Richard Ayoade.  And also great. 

Halloween Dance Party! Jaymes Vaughan - Vampire

Vaughan is a Chippendales Dancer.  Who feels like a vampire.

Halloween Dance Party! The Blow Monkeys - Wicked Ways

Awkward dinner of sax and potential violence.

Hallowen Dance Party! Bobby "Boris" Pickett - I'm Sorry the Bridge is Out, You'll Have to Spend the Night

Bobby "Boris" Pickett is forever identified with Halloween due to his omnipresent hit "Monster Mash" -- so identified, in fact, that in 1995, he wrote and starred in FRANKENSTEIN SINGS, a film version of the 1967 stage musical he wrote in 1967. Here's the film's track taken from the stage production's title, sung by most of the cast, including Pickett, John Kassir, Mink Stole, Candace Cameron, Adam Shankman and Sarah Douglas.

Halloween Dance Party! Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl

What, like I'm not going to put a Rob Zombie video in here somewhere?  HALLOWEEN II wasn't THAT bad.  Well, okay, it was, but we forgive and forget.

Halloween Dance Party! Charlene's Lament

I have no idea why the makers of SATURDAY THE 14TH STRIKES BACK felt the need for a musical number right in the middle of it.  But I have no idea why they needed to make a SATURDAY THE 14TH STRIKES BACK.


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Halloween Dance Party! The Ramones - Psychotherapy

"Pet Sematary" seemed a little on-the-nose.  And this Ramones music video features such a fantastic crazed grinning guy and fantastically weird effects.

Halloween Dance Party! Landscape - My Name is Norman Bates

Good lord, did the PSYCHO franchise inspire a lot of music videos.  But that Norman Bates is such an average guy!

Halloween Dance Party! Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

This one's a bit of a gimme, but it's so well-made (by director Richard Ayoade) and the song is so damn catchy that I can't resist including it. 

Halloween Dance Party! Paul Broucek - Hollywood Halloween

Come for the song, stay for the look at '80s Hollywood's vibrant creatures of the night.

Halloween Dance Party! Dean Cameron - He's Rockula

SUMMER SCHOOL's Cameron is vegetarian vampire Rockula in 1990's flick of the same name -- and Cameron is still in the music video game, helming Steel Panther's latest, "Pussywhipped."

Halloween Dance Party! Umberto - Temple Room

Director Arche Noir shows off his giallo influences to great effect in this promo clip for Umberto’s similarly Goblin-esque track that gives off the required retro vibe without feeling dated.

Halloween Dance Party! Dokken - Dream Warriors

What would Halloween be without the theme to A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3? No Halloween at all.

Halloween Dance Party! Shari Belafonte - Get Dead

From the 1985 TV-movie THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, Shari Belafonte leads a dance of the undead that Michael Jackson would... well, at least watch for a few seconds.

Halloween Dance Party! The Fat Boys - Are You Ready for Freddy

Easily the best of the Elm Street-related songs.  Plus, the video has Bert Remsen!

Halloween Dance Party! Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put a Spell on You

The song has been covered so many times, but who sings it better than Screamin' Jay Hawkins? Nobody. Okay, maybe Nina Simone, but other than that, nobody. Here he is performing on "The Arsenio Hall Show" to promote MYSTERY TRAIN.

Halloween Dance Party! Kommunity FK - Something Inside Me

LA-based deathrock band Kommunity FK delivers some old school chills.

Halloween Dance Party! Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares

For some reason, the studio execs seem to have taken this video version of Gnarls Barkley's nifty track under the radar, but it's pretty fantastic, with Mario Van Peebles as a Blacula on the prowl.


Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares by cesardubo

Halloween Dance Party! Goon Squad - Eight Arms to Hold You

Meant for the soundtrack to THE GOONIES, the scene in which the song appeared was excised from the film before the final cut. Even so, it was good enough for the Billboard charts.

Halloween Dance Party! Carter Burwell - Scream of Love

I'm not sure who had the idea to make a music video for Carter Burwell's score for PSYCHO III, but I'm kind of glad they did -- here it is, complete with an Anthony Perkins introduction.

Halloween Dance Party! The Heavy - "Can't Play Dead"

Directed by Jason Willis, whose short film we featured yesterday.

Halloween Dance Party! Alice Cooper - Identity Crisises

Alice Cooper stars in 1984's MONSTER DOG as, of course, a rock star. Here's the opening of the flick, which never quite lives up to the expectations the opening sets up.

Halloween Dance Party! The Motels - Shock

From the New Wave Band's 1985 album of the same name.

Halloween Dance Party! Fastway - Trick or Treat

In the great, ridiculous horror pic TRICK OR TREAT, Marc Price (Skippy from "Family Ties") plays records backwards and summons a dead rock star played by DeLuca from A CHORUS LINE: THE MOVIE.  Ozzy Osborne and Gene Simons are in the movie, but the soundtrack is by Fastway, and it's completely appropriate.

Halloween Dance Party! Shyboy - Marion Crane

I know what you're thinking.  "It's been Halloween week," you say.  "Where are all the Halloween music videos?  Isn't that the sort of thing this vaguely-defined blog should be wallowing in?" 

It's true!  It is Halloween, and there has been a lack of Halloween-themed music videos on this blog.  But that's because I was saving them for today, Halloween itself.  Because today, it's all Halloween music videos all day, every 15 minutes from 9 am to 5 pm central.  Halloween Dance Party, everyone!

The first (and most recent) of our PSYCHO-themed music videos utilizes clips from Hitchcock's classic to great effect - especially since Shyboy's song is pretty explicit in what it references. Directed by David Kittredge (PORNOGRAPHY: A THRILLER)

Watch This Thing - NUDIST COLONY OF THE DEAD director Mark Pirro on Hard Copy in 1991

This featurette on super-8 filmmaker Pirro (A POLISH VAMPIRE IN BURBANK) may be the only time that CURSE OF THE QUEERWOLF was mentioned on network television.

Watch This Thing - Creepy 1980 short film LIVING DOLLS

With echoes of TOURIST TRAP and MANIAC, Todd Coleman's low-budget short film shot in Charleston, South Carolina about a janitor with a very special relationship with a group of bridal shop mannequins used to play in between programming on the USA Network in their less-structured days.

Watch This Thing - Toy Dracula endorses Duracell batteries in 1988

How good are Duracell batteries?  So good that even Dracula uses 'em.

Watch This Thing - Teen Titans Anti-Drug Commercial footage from 1984

In 1984, the George Perez era Teen Titans comic book was at the top of the comic book food chain, and there were plans to turn it into an animated series -- however, an apparently-lost animated commercial for drug awareness is the closest they got.  This internal marketing video shows off a bit of that commercial, along with selling the DC Comics roster as reliable figures for a drug-free message.  (Roy Harper does not appear.)

Watch This Thing - Vincent Price on the Dating Game

Even the greatest horror actor of all time needs to find love -- even if in this case, he's doing it in a toga, as an escort of sorts for a young woman known as "Miss X."  The results are strange, and Mr. Price is not amused by some young men's shenanigans.  This came out as Price was in DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN.

Watch This Thing - Take a luxury trip via the Jet World of Pan Am!

Plane travel wasn't always about whether or not to tilt back your chair or worry about ebola. It was the height of luxury, and this 1959 short (from the Prelinger Archives) invites even the ordinary man to "explore the jungles, discover the poles, to walk to streets of London and Athens."

Watch This Thing - Paranoid 1970 commercial for Virex Antivirus spray prepares you for winter viruses

Ebola? Pfft! Watch out for Hong Kong and Asian flus invading your cozy home. Good thing Virex is here to help. Or, as the narrator intones, "viiii-rex."

Watch this Thing - Tex Avery's 1943 screwball thriller "Who Killed Who?"

Tex Avery is known more for his outrageous animation stylings than anything based in the quiet, menacing mood of a horror film, but this 1943 short finds him setting up a scene of murder most foul -- though that's not to say it's not full of entertainingly ridiculous gags as well. Scary, isn't it?



Tex Avery - Who Killed Who (1943) by TYKUN

Watch This Thing - The Ventures and Josie Cotton perform "Secret Agent Man" in Japan

Kick out the morning doldrums with Josie Cotton and the Ventures singing "Secret Agent Man" on their 30th Anniversary "Super Session" in Japan.

Watch This Thing - Low-fi music video for Cloud Nothings' "Now Hear In"

You can go two routes when making a retro music video correctly -- you can try to use old-style visual effects to create an eye-popping spectacle with newer visual trickery and HD styling (BRTHR does this masterfully) or you can do as authentic as possible, making something that genuinely seems like it could have aired on MTV late at night in 1989. Jordan Blackmon's video for Cleveland-based Cloud Nothings' track goes the latter low-fi route, which makes sense, as the song is pure garagey indie rock goodness.

Watch This Thing - The mock trailer for THEY STOLE THE POPE'S BLOOD

I do enjoy a good mock trailer, and this one, for a film "banned in 47 countries, but especially in Peru" fits the bill. THEY STOLE THE POPE'S BLOOD is a tale of papal intrigue full of ridiculous plot twists, bad dubbing, and just a hint of religious satire. It's also a blaxploitation film. And a Mexican wrestling film. And a science fiction film with a robot. Or something. Written by Michael Varrati, who also wrote the recent TALES OF POE anthology.

Watch This Thing - A forgotten 1981 ALIEN parody in the 17-minute ILLEGAL ALIEN

If you've ever thought to yourself, "Y'know, I wonder what ALIEN would be like if it had a deranged clown in it," you'll appreciate the 1981 short film ILLEGAL ALIEN. Or even if you haven't, as this short by Jeff Kwitny (later of BEYOND THE DOOR III and ICED) is a pretty clever, and quite funny take on Ridley Scott's classic film. It received some notoriety by being included in the VHS short film collection "Cinemagic" (aka "Fright Show") but seems to have fallen into obscurity since then.

Watch This Thing -1974 mini-documentary of an Afrocentric primary school in Los Angeles

This short documentary on the Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School, an Afrocentric primary school in South Los Angeles, produced in 1974 by UCLA film student Don Amis is a fascinating timepiece of the Black Power movement of the era. The sole voice over comes from an employee of the school explaining the philosophies involved.

Watch This Thing - Trailer and clip for 1973's "Duo-Vision" classic WICKED, WICKED

Warner Archive has been digging pretty deeply into its vaults for new releases to their DVD-R service, but I was pleasantly surprised to see WICKED, WICKED newly among their ranks this week. Shot almost entirely in split-screen, WICKED, WICKED is a wild, weird, sleazy thriller about a series of murders at a hotel that deserves to be seen in a better setting than the cut-rate bootlegs that have circulated online. Check out the trailer, that sells the Duo-Vision process... but doesn't actually feature a split screen.

However, you can check out the split screen in this clip star Tiffany Bolling crooning the title tune in this clip:

Watch This Thing - An amazing animated short mixing art from '70s horror comics and a 1973 horror novelty album

Jason Willis is a fantastic talent who knows his psychotronia (he even designed cover art for Something Weird Video!) and you can read about him here and here. The piece below uses the audio from the 1973 Johnson-Smith Novelty Company "Horror Record" and animated versions of artwork taken from Eerie Publications like "Tales of Voodoo" and "Horror Tales." The result is a bloody good time, with eye-popping visuals and a soundtrack... to die for.


The Cast of Eerie Publications perform the Johnson-Smith Novelty Company "Horror Record" from Jason Willis on Vimeo.

Watch This Thing - James Urbaniak is a film nerd in a 1998 Blockbuster Video ad

Actor James Urbaniak is pretty much entertaining in anything, even playing a know-nothing film student in a Blockbuster Video commercial from 1998.

Watch This Thing - "Srazhenie," 1986 Russian animated short based on a Stephen King story

Stephen King's short story "Battlefield," published in 1978 and reprinted in "Night Shift," was adapted for television as part of the "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" anthology series in 2006, but this was the second time the story had hit the screen. Check out this 1986 Russian animated version of the tale about espionage in the world of toys where a hitman gets a host of unfriendly tiny visitors.

Watch This Thing - Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles commercial from TAPEHEADS

Sometimes Bill Fishman's TAPEHEADS feels like the ugly stepchild in the filmographies of John Cusack and Tim Robbins, but there's no compelling reason that the 1988 flick doesn't have a huge cult following. The tale of two losers who enter the music video industry, the flick is clever in its goofiness, features an amazingly bizarre cast (Clu Gulager! Susan Tyrrell! Lyle Alzado!) and some outstanding music. And also this, the lead duo's first project, an attempt to re-imagine a chicken and waffle establishment that appeared in regular rotation back in the days when The Comedy Channel was basically anarchy.

When's the last time you watched King Cotton hawking waffles? Well, that's too long, it oughta be unlawful.

Watch This Thing - Siskel and Ebert debate 1981's THE EVIL DEAD

"A thriller about hideous monsters in the basement of a vacation cottage." That's how Gene Siskel describes the 1981 "ghoulie" THE EVIL DEAD upon its original theatrical run. Neither approve, but Ebert complients Sam Raimi's craftsmanship. Meanwhile, Siskel's delicate sensibilities are offended.

Watch This Thing - The insanely catchy 1983 New Zealand hit "Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop Cumma Cumma Wang Dang"

I just dare you to watch this video and not have this ridiculously catchy song running through your head all day. New Zealand band Monte Video and the Cassettes, featuring lead vocalist Murray Grindlay, never had a follow up album after their 1983 debut, and it's probably best for my psyche that that's the case. No wonder Grindley went into advertising jingles.

Watch This Thing - Win a date with Brian Bosworth!

You've got the movie, now get one step closer to the action! A trip to L.A. to meet STONE COLD star Brian Bosworth is just $1.95 the first minute away in this commercial that appeared on the VHS for 1991's classic biker action pic STONE COLD.

Watch This Thing - 1980 martial arts short BLACK PANTHER: THRONE OF BLOOD, with effects by Greg Cannom!

Not the Marvel Comics character, but this 1980 short film, an homage to pulp adventure serials and martial arts flicks featuring Kang Yi as "Black Panther," who rescues a young woman from sword-wielding bad guys, would be notable enough even if if didn't feature special effects by future Oscar-winner Greg Cannom. Anyone have more info on this one?

 

Watch This Thing - Avery Schreiber dances and sings like a "Mechanical Man" to Sha Na Na

The world needed Avery Schreiber dancing and singing like a robot to Sha Na Na. And here it is. Still better than GALAXINA.

Watch This Thing - DEAR WHITE PEOPLE director’s early short MY WOMEN

Director Justin Simien is getting plenty of (justified) praise for his film DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, but while WHITE PEOPLE is his feature film debut, it’s hardly his first film. Many of the more intriguing looking early shorts of his don’t appear to be online (I’d love to see RINGS), but here’s an entertaining and disarmingly sweet work based on a Detroit-area Craigslist rant about former and current relationships.

(This is not sponsored by Roadshow Attractions or anything, I just liked the film a bunch.  However, if RA would care to send me some cash, I would not be philosophically opposed.)





My Women - Pilot for 'INST MSGS' (Dir: Justin Simien) from Justin Simien on Vimeo.

Watch This Thing - 1984 animated adaptation of "The Fall of the House of Usher"

There have been plenty of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher," and even at least a couple other animated ones, but John Schnall's 1984 short is certainly one of the most beautifully rendered. Granted, you don't get the full story in under ten minutes, but it captures the tone of Poe's masterwork quite well.

Watch This Thing - Frankenstein's Monster gets Shasta

The Monster (curiously called Igor by Frankenstein himself) is sent out for soda and comes back with enough Shasta to even give store clerk John Fiedler (the voice of Piglet) a glass in this 1976 ad.

Watch This Thing - Will Powers wishes you "Adventures in Success"

Welcome to Tuesday!  You have talents and abilities nobody else has! The self-help movement is the focus of "Will Powers"' 1983 track with a delirious and hypnotically oddball music video. Powers is the pseudonym of photographer and director Lynn Goldsmith, who recorded her album "Dancing for Mental Health" as a response to self-help shysters.

Watch This Thing - Roddy McDowall's role-playing group fends off a killer baboon in 1990's SHAKMA

Make no bones about it -- SHAKMA is the greatest film about a role playing group on a college campus that has to fight for their lives against a deranged baboon featuring Roddy McDowall and BLUE LAGOON's Christopher Atkins that you'll ever see. Prove me wrong, kids. It's streaming on Netflix, too, so if the trailer is enticing enough, you can watch he whole darn thing.

Watch This Thing - Future director Nicole Holofcener in the 1982 drug hysteria parody short ROLLERCOASTER TO HELL

Phillip R. Ford may be best known as the director of the drag sci-fi classic VEGAS IN SPACE, but he got that gig in part due to his 1982 short film, a deadpan parody of drug hysteria flicks. With future director Nicole Holofcener (PLEASE GIVE, LOVELY AND AMAZING).

Watch This Thing - The Apple Bra

Ladies, your boobs are like apples. Treat them as such.

Watch This Thing - A breakneck pace of perfect shots in the music video for Tiga's "Bugatti"

This is the sort of hypnotic image combination that electronic dance music is made for, and the video is a perfect companion to the song. Mildly NSFW, but deserves attention as a work of just being a great fusion of audio and video.

Watch This Thing - Karen Black and L7 sing "Bang Bang"

The late, great Karen Black is backed by L7 for a cover the Sonny Bono-written "Bang Bang" for a public access station in 1997. What more do you want?   And why wasn't this version used for the opening of KILL BILL?  (Okay, other than that it would have completely changed the mood of the film.)

Watch This Thing - 1976 Ford Truck Commercial emphasizing the Bronson flick "Mr. Majestyk"

1976 was glorious year when a truck commercial could emphasize its product's use in a Charles Bronson film about a vengeance-seeking watermelon farmer.

Watch This Thing - Slow computer got you down? Who you gonna call? MACHINE BUSTERS!

If those electrical devices are driving you nuts, let Ray Parker Jr. (along with Richard Simmons, Hervé Villechaize, Jerry Mathers, Barbara Billingsley, Rene Auberjonois, Fred Willard and more) tell you what to do about it in this clip from a 1985 ABC TV-special about life's little irritations. Bashin' will make you feel good.

Watch This Thing - A 1981 Disney animated short about smoking

Disney is certainly not an uncommon company when it comes to social interest films (just look up THE STORY OF MENSTRUATION) but this 1981 animated short about a dude ranch employee who tries cigarettes to impress a girl doesn't seem to have emerged on any of their compilations, even as a random bonus feature. Shame, as the animation style is pretty nifty, and the 16mm transfer here doesn't really do the colors any favors.  Director John Ewing was the layout artist on the Ralph Bakshi-animated "Spider-Man" animated series.

Watch This Thing - New Age Sandwich Slices commercial

What are New Age Sandwich Slices? All I know is that "it's not cheese."

Watch This Thing - "Bad" people turn "good" in the bizarre 1984 musical number "I Want It All"

Good morning! Today's the day for you! You're going to get it all! Because you want it all, just like this duo from Ulli (THE BOOGEYMAN) Lommel's insane, mostly-forgotten 1984 musical STRANGERS IN PARADISE. Good thing the brainwashing they go through will turn them into nice, traditional folk.

Watch This Thing - Famous album covers come to life in this fantastic video for Roy Kafri's "Mayokero"

Kafri and artist Vania Heymann collaborated on this short, which not only cleverly animates famous album covers to reflect the music it features, but also tells a  compelling story of "outdated" technology. Keep your records, kids!

The late Marcia Strassman stars alongside Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer in a 1985 short

Marcia Strassman passed away this weekend after a battle with breast cancer at the age of 66, far too young for such a talented comedic performer. While certainly most known her for roles in "Welcome Back, Kotter" and the HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS films, she was in a heck of a lot more than that. Check her out in this 1985 musical short mock industrial film about a corporate name change made for David Letterman's "Holiday Film Festival" TV special with Michael McKean, Harry Shearer (who wrote and directed) and Christopher Guest, the latter playing a bit of a proto-Corky St. Clair.