As a kid, I tried to treat my dolls and stuffed animals with the greatest care. Just in case they came to life. (I didn't want them mad at me for mistreatment.)
I've turned the bar that surrounds my kitchen into a representation of the harvest and the dying of the year: woven black place mats, topped with a horn of plenty spilling brightly colored vegetables and a wicker vase of (fake, otherwise the cats would eat them) autumn leaves in brilliant bursts of yellow and red. Interspersed between the fall foliage are various types of skulls - goblets, candle holders - and napkins bearing the cameo style silhouette of woman with bleeding fang marks on her neck.
This week, I'm anticipating my annual viewing of The Crow, along with a few other horror movies (maybe Mirrors, Stir of Echoes and The Hills Have Eyes).
And I've been thinking, if I were in a horror movie (or making a horror movie), what background music would I want?
In recent years, I've become very attached to the post-apocalyptic horror tale, a la The Stand or 28 Days Later. A world where the human population has taken a powerful hit, leaving most of the world empty and desolate.
A wasteland of silent cars and abandoned buildings. A world filled with the saccharine sweet scent of unmentionable things going to rot. A world that's so very quiet and so empty, you can't resist the urge to look over your shoulder to make sure you're truly alone. (Because we all know when things are too quiet, trouble is brewing.)
So here are selections from my horror movie soundtrack. What would yours be?
Last week's selection contained non-creepy songs that turn creepy in the right context.
This week, I'm onto horror movie themes. Songs that are creepy, no matter the context... I'm hoping they might give me a little creative boost as I meander through what's left of October and (hopefully) prep for NaNoWriMo. (Is anyone else throwing sanity to the wind this year and participating?)
The house is old and looks decades abandoned. In what was once the living room, the husk of a cigarette sits on the scalloped edge of an ashtray, guarded by two coffee cups. Were it not for the long dried coffee stains in the bottom of the mugs, it would seem the drinkers had just stepped into the next room. And perhaps they have... From upstairs, there's a hiss of static as a radio clicks on, followed by the lamenting cry of a violin. I say I'll go through fire...And I'll go through fire....As he wants it, so it will be...
There's something spectacularly creepy about music from decades past, specifically the 50s/early 60s. Well, when used in the right context. By itself, much of it is pretty sweet and upbeat but tack the songs onto a horror movie or post apocalyptic video game and they take on a much more sinister air.
I'm kicking off October (though I'm a week late posting about it) with some of my favorite creepy tracks encountered in movies and video games.
What are some of your favorite "not creepy until used in the right context" songs?
Around these parts, the shifting of summer into fall is heralded by a changing wind, the smell of woodsmoke, the goldenrod slant of sunshine through trees that are just starting to lose their leaves.
But for me, there's one particular, quite obvious, sign that the autumn season is at hand.
My TPMS light comes on for the first time in a year.
