A Hard Day’s Fright

VOCAL: Graveyard Smash

One of the benefits of being fifty-one years old is that I have amassed quite a catalog of music. Aside from what I actually own, I enjoy a wide variety of genres, with my favorite probably being 70’s and 80’s rock. I’m also a huge movie fan, and horror movies have always held a special place in my heart. I know it sounds weird: why would someone want to be deliberately scared? I wish I had a good answer to that. But being scared, or even just being thrilled and titillated with anticipation, is fun to me. Being scared makes me feel alive. And what’s better that curling up with your BFF or your better half and holding onto each other for dear life because of a scary movie or TV show?

My love for horror and the macabre may have started because my mother and grandfather owned a funeral home. We didn’t live there but when I was little, I was there almost every day. I was taught to not be afraid of dead bodies, and to also show them respect. Then when I turned five, my Dad took me to see JAWS in the theatre. I loved it, and I never grew up being afraid of swimming or the water. I remembering him whispering, “That shark is made of rubber. It can’t hurt you. And that blood is made of sugar. You can eat it!”. Smart man. We were close and he also loved horror movies and books, and if you’re as old as I am, you probably remember the Disaster Movie craze from the 70’s, including “Earthquake”, “The Poseidon Adventure”, “Rollercoaster”, and “The Towering Inferno”.

When I was about ten years old, we got “cable” which was a big deal. My closest friends who lived across the street also got cable, and so began to secret society of watching Rated-R slasher flicks from 11pm to 3am almost every Saturday night. Our parents probably knew but didn’t care. It was 1980, and things were different then. They knew where we were and that’s really all that mattered. I remember the first time I saw The Exorcist, and the only parts that bothered me (and still do) were the ones that showed Damien’s mother. I knew that all the parts showing Regan, with green skin and a forked tongue, we’re just make-up and great acting.

In 1998 I was in Ireland having tea in a small, quaint pub with my cousin, Sharon. Suddenly, I thought I heard that haunting theme from the movie, “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield. Sharon confirmed that she also heard it (thank you, Jesus), and I asked our 80-year-old server what was happening. He explained that Mike Oldfield is an Irish composer, and they had been playing a CD of his collective works. I’m not that crazy after all.

The only horror movie that really screwed me up for life was The Shining. It still bothers me and yet I love it, in a perverse, twisted kind of way. The story is genius, as is the movie. The book is incredible but I didn’t actually read it until I was 18, alone on a holiday weekend in my college dorm. My room remained barricaded for two weeks.

My Dad didn’t want me reading Stephen King books until I hit puberty (good move) and he introduced me to Mr. King by buying me a copy of “Carrie” at a used book store. The movie had already come out, but I remember liking the book better, maybe because of my close relationship with my Dad.

So here is my list of songs that I think represent Halloween pretty well. I think there’s a little of everything for everyone: some to sing to, some to dance to, and some that will simply make people twitch, but that’s the point of Halloween, isn’t it?

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