Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972) Spanish Poster

AKA Dr. Jekyll vs. the Werewolf, Dr. Jekyll vs. the Wolfman, Dr Jekyll and the Wolfman, Doctor Jekyll and the Werewolf

I'm compel to tell things that I like, dislike and mixed about Monster High live action movie *also spoilers ahead*

Things that I like:

Frankie being non-binary and played by actor Ceci Balagot

Monster High setting looks kinda nice

Friendship between Frankie and Clawdeen. Its makes sense both being new students. Clawdeen never been in monster world before and Frankie being literally 15 days old. Everything is new for them.

Draculaura practices witchcraft (odd decision but its kinda cool)

Its small insignificant detail but I like that Dracula's painted nails. We need more boys with painted nails

Oh They did great job in the music and songs.

Things that I dislike:

Aside Clawdeen new look. I didn't like the whole half-human half-werewolf plot. I get it that in previous MH generations were creatures doesn't have fully human or beast mode (except MH G2). Even Garret thinks they took Cerise (from EAH) and Jackson (MH) backstory and put it on Clawdeen

They never properly explain what exactly Clawdeen's mother deal is. Is fearleader captain?, top A student? Prom Queen? What?

I don't like Deuce clothing. Everytime that I seen him its reminders me Jughead (Riverdale) with glasses

The fact that Cleo doesn't have her mummy bandages. Is so easy to mistake her for human

Lagoona, Abbey, Heath and Ghoulia didn't contribute too much in the movie.

Scenes with Deuce and Clawdeen alone

Even Mr. Komos doesn't get much screentime. Despite he's main villain. What exactly is his plan anyway: Wait until Clawdeen and her friends figure out how to open his dad's lair. He thought Clawdeen is the choosen one considering she going to make report of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Guess its budget thing that we don't get to see Lagoona (waterbending) , Abbey (ice bending) and Heath (fire bending) fight against Komos.

Speaking budget: Komos final form is ridiculous. I guess animate bull head is expensive

I wish Clawdeen used Cleo's mirror pocket instead cellphone

I'm little annoyed how quickly that Dracula's accepting that his daughter is practicing witchcraft. What the whole vampires vs witches thing (Well you have to watch MH sequel to answer your questions)

Things that I mixed:

Deuce telling Clawdeen about Cleo's mummy issues. Its BIG oof for G1 fans knows Cleo's backstory

Cleo and Deuce breakup. I didn't understand why they break up? Its because Deuce wants to be different? I don't get it

Its just me but is weird that Dracula, Mr Hyde and Clawdeen's mom went High School together.

Either Monster World has different passage of time from Human World or Probably Dracula and Hyde are descendants from real Dracula and Mr Hyde

And that's pretty much it. Overall in my opinion the movie is not bad but could be 10x better with right cast, good writing, special effects and costumes

Jack and Ted running into Dracula and a fight ensues? (Jack did mention fighting him once or twice in wwbn before Ulysses apparently killed him and I'm pretty sure they've had run ins in the comics). Good old vampire vs werewolf fight, pls.

Monstrum

Summary: Jack and Ted encounter an old rival of Jack’s.

TW: Violence, knife, mild body horror

Jack smelt him before he saw him. Him and Ted were currently attending a Halloween costume party at a local club, and while the smell of alcohol and cheap costumes clouded his sensitive nose, there was one distinct smell he zeroed in on immediately, the smell of blood and filth. During his long career of hunting, he’d come to associate that smell with one of the most dangerous kinds of monsters there were, Vampires. He turned to face where he assumed the smell was coming from, spotting a blonde woman in a rather revealing angel costume talking to a sharp dressed man. 

The man was bald, with a stubble-dusted face and striking blue eyes, and Jack all but snarled. Carpathian. He expected better of the Vampire, truly he did. Attacking someone on Halloween? That was just tasteless and tacky. He watched as the woman laughed at the Vampire’s jokes, unaware of the beast that lurked beneath but a few inches of latex-like false skin.

He needed to find his boyfriend. Tonight wasn’t a night of the full moon, so there was no way he stood a chance against Carpathian by himself, but with a little help… 

Finding Ted wasn’t an issue, as he was currently surrounded by people trying to take selfies and photos with him. He waited until Ted was done with his current photo before standing next to him. “Ted, we have an issue,” he whispered, trying to make sure no one heard him.

His boyfriend moved away from the crowd surrounding him, giving a grumble. 

He pointed to where Corinthian stood, watching as the Vampire prepared to lead the woman out the side door into the connecting alley. “You see him? That’s Carpathian.”

Ted’s eyes widened, he had told his boyfriend about Carpathian before, but he had never met the Vampire in person. Ted had jokingly asked if Carpathian was his ex at one point, to which he merely rolled his eyes. Sure he respected Carpathian, but that was only because Carpathian had the dubious distinction of being the only monster to survive more than one hunt against him. Even if his human guise was moderately attractive.

“We need to stop him before he sucks that poor woman dry,” he said as the Vampire exited the building.

Ted nodded, giving a grumble.

He and Ted made their way after Carpathian, pushing through a few other partygoers on the way. It was funny, despite all the costumes and makeup of monsters and beasts, three very real monsters were among them, and one of them wanted nothing more than to bring harm to each and every one of them.

They exited the building, and Jack turned to the side and spotted Carpathian leaning in towards the woman, her eyes closed. “Hey, Carlos! Long time no see!” he shouted, trying to get the Vampire’s attention and make the woman leave.

To his luck, it worked. “Oh, am I interrupting something?” she asked, looking back at him and Ted. She seemed to take their silence as a yes, awkwardly walking back inside as Carpathian scowled, something large visibly shifting beneath his false skin.

“Jack,” Carpathian said, Eastern European accent oozing with venom, “Long time no see.”

“I hoped it would be a good long while before I saw you again,” he responded, unimpressed, sliding a hand into the pocket of Dr. Jekyll outfit, wrapping it around the pocket knife inside. He usually didn’t like confrontation when it wasn’t a full moon, but he kept the knife on his person at all times, just in case push came to shove.

The vampire turned to look at Ted, “Who’s your friend here? I don’t think you’ve ever spoken to me about him before.”

Henarrowed his eyes, “Yeah, because I was too busy trying to kill you. And his name is Ted by the way, my boyfriend.”

Carpathian laughed, “I didn’t take you for the type, Jacky, being in a relationship I mean.”

Ted gave an angry grumble.

He growled, “It’s fine Ted. Why are you even here?”

“Well,” Carpathian grinned, “a man has to eat, doesn’t he?”

“Sure, that doesn’t explain everyone else you kill after you’re done.”

Carpathian shrugged, “Nobody’s perfect.”

He scowled, “Just leave, Carpathian.”

Carpathian grinned, his blue eyes giving a predatory gleam, “No, I don’t think I will. You interrupted my meal, so it’s only fair that you join me for it.” 

In an instant, the Vampire bounded towards him, and he removed the knife from his pocket, slicing the Carpathian’s face with it. The wound didn’t bleed, only exposing the pale flesh underneath it. Carpathian laughed as he tore at his false skin and suit, tearing it off like cheap latex to expose the pale, hairless flesh of his true, bat-like form. A pair of huge, leathery wings extended from his back as he ripped the face of his human guise off.

Ted gave a shocked groan.

He turned to quickly nod at his partner, “Yeah, not too nice to look at, huh?”

Carpathian glared at him with his beady, oversized black eyes, “Your boyfriend isn’t winning any prizes either.”

He prepared to slam the knife into Carpathian’s eye, but the Vampire responded like a bolt of lightning, grabbing Jack’s arm with his spindly, taloned fingers. Carpathian laughed, leaning his head back to prepare to rip into his throat, “Don’t worry Jacky, it won’t hurt, I’ll make it quick.”

Jack braced for the fangs, but in an instant Ted punched the Vampire clean in the face from over his shoulder, sending Carpathian flying backwards down the alley. Carpathian got back to his feet with a hiss, “You’re a lucky man Jack, that boyfriend of yours is pretty rough.”

“Just shut up,” Jack scowled.

“Fine, I’ll be taking my leave, I’d rather live to fight another day anyway,” Carpathian’s bat-like face shifted into a grin before he flapped his wings, taking off and soaring out of the alley.

Ted gave a concerned grumble, looking at where Carpathian grabbed him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded. He gave a tired smile, “I think we should head home though.”

Ted gave a grumble, pulling him in close for warmth.

“Yeah, Carpathian certainly is a character,” he smiled. As awful as Carpathian was, the two of them had a sense of mutual respect for eachother. He honestly deserved better than being killed in a shoddy back alley next to a club in Florida. Carpathian was one of the few monsters the wolf wasn’t able to immediately kill, and in his mind, he deserved a far more dignified death.

Ted gave a teasing grumble.  Jack gave an unimpressed look, “I told you, he is not into me!”

How I’d Rewrite The Monsters Arc

I think someone’s already doing, like, an actual rewrite for this (that I am defs reading for spooky month), but as a gothic horror fan, I wanted to do my own take

1. The vampires aren’t controlled by dracula

Basically, anyone infected still retains their mind and isn’t controlled. The issue comes from the bloodlust vampirism causes.

2. Casey and april would come along for the adventure, but Casey’s still a vampire

Since the main issue from vampirism is bloodlust, there’d be no reason to leave april and Casey behind. So why don’t I also still have april infected? Simple. She’s already really op with her psychic powers, she doesn’t need vampire powers on top of it. Casey can still be a vampire cause

1. Vamp Casey is fun

2. Him trying to fight his bloodlust would be a good little arc for him about learning to keep his mind and soul stable so as to not hurt others.

3. To replace Crypt of Dracula, the team would instead meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hot take: I find their Dracula boring. You can keep his hate romance with savanti, but I don’t see the point in giving him a whole episode about how savanti recruited him.

I would stick to the original book take of Dr Jekyll, where mr Hyde is Jekyll minus his inhibitions. I wouldn’t blame the animators for making mr Hyde look completely different from Dr Jekyll, since making him look like Jekyll but acting so differently from the doctor he’s unrecognizable would be difficult to portray.

This would be a good ep for Leo. Leo is a very extreme person. He tries incredibly hard to be the most morally good person possible and when he can’t, he goes the other extreme. Him hanging out with Dr Jekyll and trying to help him could teach Leo how to find balance between how he wants to be seen and whatever part of himself he doesn’t like.

I’d also probably have a B plot where Casey gets captured by vampire frightened townsfolk and april tries to help him, but ends up accidentally using her powers in public and being accused of being a witch. It’d be a good “shoes on the other foot” for them to see what it’s like for the turtles.

I’d also have renet save them with her diplomatic skills she was taught to have to be a time mistress, because renet is awesome.

4. The Frankenstein episode would be closer to Mary Shelley’s original book

Basically. Just like the book, Victor is a college dropout who abandoned the monster. Mikey and Donnie would go find the creature cause Mikeys actually read the original book (why would Mikey read classic literature? He read the comic and got curious about the original source material).

Donnie would develop a bond with the monster and would try to keep the monster from getting revenge on Victor as a sort of sequel to heart of evil. (The monster would also be a bit more intelligent like in the book) Now Donnie has to stop someone else he cares about from seeking vengeance before they get themselves hurt.

I’d also have raph get captured by savanti and his monster crew, but instead of a vampire, he’d be turned into a werewolf, making him feral and easier for the pharaoh to control. (Listen. If the headless horseman can show up outta nowhere, so can wolf man)

Raph wouldn’t be on the enemies side for long, since Aprils psychic powers would probably be stronger than werewolf feralness or pharaoh magic, but she’d have to stay near raph until they can cure him to keep him from losing it

5. Donnie would take the monster with them in the present and Leo would use the Jekyll/Hyde serum Dr. Jekyll gave him to even the playing field

Basically. Last episode. Monsters vs monsters. Donnie wouldn’t be turned into a vampire. They’d still go through time and Mikey would still kill Dracula in the past cause that was awesome. The Hyde serum Leo took would wear off, raph and Casey would be cured, yada yada. Happily ever after, here we are.

Bonus!

6. Make it a gothic musical

Yeah. This one’s just me being self indulgent.

I know this isn’t explained that well, but what y’all think? How would y’all rewrite the monsters arc, if you would?

Halloween 2022 Countdown Ranked

59. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

58. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

57. Curse of The Swamp Creature (1968)

56. Monster From The Ocean Floor (1954)

55. Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966)

54. Teenage Cave Man (1958)

53. Lost Continent (1951)

52. Attack of The Killer B-Movies (1995)

51. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

50. Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966)

49. Full Moon High (1981)

48. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

47. The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

46. The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

45. The Invisible Woman (1940)

44. Anthropophagous (1980)

43. The Slime People (1963)

42. Casper’s Halloween Special (1979)

41. The Crawling Hand (1963)

40. Scream (2022)

39. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

38. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

37. Invisible Agent (1942)

36. The Descent (2005)

35. Eegah (1962)

34. Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)

33. The Midnight Hour (1985)

32. Ringu (1998)

31. Halloween is Grinch Night (1977)

30. Attack of The Giant Leeches (1959)

29. Monster Mash (2000)

28. Bloodz vs. Wolvez (2006)

27. The Man From Planet X (1951)

26. Child’s Play 3 (1991)

25. Hansel and Gretel (1983)

24. Cat-Women of The Moon (1953)

23. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

22. The She-Creature (1956)

21. The Terror (1963)

20. The Exorcist (1973)

19. The Navy vs. The Night Monsters (1966)

18. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

17. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t (1979)

16. Hobgoblins (1988)

15. Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

14. The Abomination (1986)

13. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

12. Lake Mungo (2008)

11. Day of The Animals (1977)

10. Atom Age Vampire (1960)

9. The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)

8. Night of The Blood Beast (1958)

7. Child’s Play 2 (1990)

6. The Crawling Eye (1958)

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

4. The Old Dark House (1932)

3. Child’s Play (1988)

2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

God this was such a bottom-heavy marathon compared to last year, alright let’s get this shitshow started.  I can’t believe I willingly put myself through some of this.

The 1950′s-1960′s science fiction extravaganza: Curse of The Swamp Creature is, I think, one of those TV remakes of 1950′s films starring monsters designed by Paul Blaisdell.  This is one where I thought “okay should I give it credit for making me laugh in the first 30 seconds and then not once for the entire rest of the runtime?”  The answer was no.  Monster From The Ocean Floor is a dreary slog of a film, one of those cheap shits that only features the titular monster for all of 30 seconds while people just aimlessly do nothing for the entire runtime.  Teenage Cave Man I only watched because the monster suit from this film was reused in Night of The Blood Beast, and otherwise it’s Ayn Rand wet dream of the freethinking teenager being magically smarter than everyone else on top of the offense of being a caveman movie with no dinosaurs.  God, speaking of which, Lost Continent is another Lost World ripoff that’s decades behind the curve and who’s only saving grace is stop motion dinosaurs which magically improve any movie they star in.  The Slime People is an oddity because the monster suits and concept are star studded but it just, I guess, doesn’t have the money to see through actually showing us slime people emerge from underground and completely take over Los Angeles.  Weird and disappointing.  The Crawling Hand has one of the best trailers for any monster movie I’ve seen complete with a slowed down version of “Surfin’ Bird” but aside from some humorous spouts of bad acting and the 100% out-of-nowhere gag ending, it’s nothing remarkable.  Admittedly there has been a couple films about disembodied hands killing people and I can’t find the concept scary no matter what, sue me.  Attack of The Giant Leeches is in decent/mid-tier territory, boosted by reusing music from Night of The Blood Beast (Roger Corman lives up to his cheap reputation) and genuinely gruesome scenes of the leeches’ human victims still being alive after progressively blood feedings, it mostly loses me for just not doing anything remarkable with its finale.  The Man From Planet X is working with a pretty stock script but is boosted by how atmospheric its directing is, every shot is just littered with shadows or fog.  Cat-Women of The Moon is definitely one of the more humorous genre outings I’ve seen of this type, living up to its title 100% other than I guess having long nails and sharp eyeliner making you a “cat” woman I guess.  The She-Creature isn’t the best Paul Blaisdell monster movie I’ve seen but that’s expected given his work crops up in some really interesting ones, this one being a murder mystery involving both hypnosis and prehistoric evolutionary links somehow.  The Navy vs. The Night Monsters is like a better version of The Thing From Another World what with an indeterminate number of US army guys having to deal with a monster(s) at their fort and their progressively more extreme methods of having to deal with it.  Atom Age Vampire is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a *while*, an Italian knockoff of Eyes Without A Face that hits all the same plot points just far more crudely and with a manster (man-monster) thrown in to boot.  Watch the English edit for full effect.  Night of The Blood Beast is one I was excited to revisit and it did not disappoint, being one of the definitive genre precursors to Alien (1979) and just an all-around shock to the senses in general with how isolated the cast can be and what they have to be put up against.  The star of the show is The Crawling Eye however, a genuinely insane film that actually got under my skin with this viewing with the sound design, effects work, and some really gorey moments like flesh being desolved or multiple decapitations.  As far as alien invasion films of the 1950′s go, this is definitely up there.

We have a pair of oddity western-horror mashups between, uh, actual people and fictional characters with Billy the Kid versus Dracula and Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter.  Only thing of note with the former is that John Carradine reprises the role of Dracula after playing the character in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).  Carradine was one of the most prolific actors in the history of the medium so it’s not surprising to see him crop up here and there without expecting him, but suffice to say he brings nothing to the role and just blends in with the rest of the drab film.  Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter gets extra points solely for featuring the creation of an awkward and haphazard Frankenstein monster, which is generally the only reason to seek out random odds-and-ends Frankenstein movies.

Full Moon High is another Larry Cohen film that looks good on paper but I don’t really find myself enjoying at all.  As a comedy there are a decent number of funny lines (”I’m not one of those types to believe in vampires and werewolves and virgins, I’ve never seen any of those.“) but it almost forgets it’s a werewolf movie for a lot of the runtime as the main plot involves how being a werewolf prevents you from aging and blah blah blah I can’t be bothered to care when you present something I didn’t come here to see (1950′s football player returns to his school in the 1980′s to find it littered with violence and drug use).  The Werewolf of Washington is similarly dreary experience that only exists to present lackluster post-Watergate political satire.

Oh how the mighty have fallen; I made an attempt at finishing out The Invisible Man series but couldn’t even bring myself to watch the dedicated Abbott/Costello film.  Truly the worst Universal sequels barring whatever happened with The Mummy.  The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent are a full-on comedy and action-adventure film respectively, so in some way I feel cheated for how they’re consistently lumped in with the rest of the series as a whole, which are to say, horror (beyond not doing anything that hadn’t been shown to us in the first two installments).  The Invisible Man’s Revenge makes an attempt at trying to get the series back on track but all it does is make me realize I could just be watching the first two films.

Anthropophagous has been one I’ve been curious about for years, mostly because the poster is a really gristly shot of a guy eating human entrails, and while I *guess* that does feature in this film it’s just another slog to get through with no interesting characters, locations, or plot beats to string you along.  Avoid.

Scream 5 exists for no reason other than to drop the entire series’ GPA.  It’s the entry wherein the genre commentary overshadows everything else to the detriment of this being the first Scream film where I can’t be bothered to care about any of the returning characters.  I wrote extensively about this one in my Letterboxd review so I’m only going to touch on some finer points here.  Scream (1996) is allowed to reference I Spit On Your Grave (1978) because the former is better, this one is not allowed to make snide remarks about The Witch (2015), I’m not having it.  If you’re desperate for a creative shot to the arm that is a grand return after an 11 year absence, just watch Scream 4 (2011).

The Descent was borderline funny to me in the sense that my reaction to so much of what the characters are put through is “shit I would just die, what else is there to do?”  I mentally tuned out when the film switched from “being trapped in a claustrophobic cave system with no sense of direction” to “being hunted by underground monsters.”  I usually scoff and roll my eyes at “oh my god it’s scarier because it could actually happen” but this is rare case where, yeah, being trapped underground with no way out is more terrifying before you add monsters to the mix.

Alright, brief “worst of the worst” roundup: Eegah, in spite of being one of the most notable MST3K punching bags, is not *that* bad.  It peters out by the finale but there are enough funny moments and actually good stuff (Eegah talking to the corpses of family members in a proto Texas Chainsaw scene) to string you along for the better part of an hour.  The Terror is a fascinating film for me, made solely because Roger Corman finished The Raven (1963) two days early and still had access to Boris Karloff.  What we get is a bizarre and haphazard jumbling of horror cliches in a story that is almost bursting at the seams over how overwritten it is, but the making of this one is so interesting to me personally that I can’t bring myself to dislike it, even if Jack Nicholson never was good at “charismatic leading man” type thing before he settled on crazy motherfuckers.  Hobgoblins was one I was surprised over how hilarious it was, another convoluted mess you can’t help but laugh at.  The hobgoblins hypnotize people to let them live out their greatest fantasies albeit with some horrific twist, giving us some golden scene like a guy going to makeout point with an imaginary woman so the hobgoblins can push the car over the edge.  Lordy lordy lordy.

1970′s role call: Dracula vs. Frankenstein continues the trend of awkward and frustrating messes, this one originally being an unrelated horror film that later had the two characters thrown in mid-production.  What ensues is an unusually violent at times boring at others movie that I can’t help but derive at least some ironic enjoyment from.  The untimely tragedy of this film is that this was the last role for Lon Chaney Jr.  Bela Lugosi got stuck with Ed Wood, Karloff with Corman, and Chaney Jr. with Al Adamson.  Chaney Jr. could have been a great actor if it wasn’t for the horror typecasting and seeing play just another bumbling grunt in this is almost painful.  See also: somehow this film is also the final role for J. Carrol Naish, who played Daniel in House of Frankenstein (1944).  Odd.  Let’s Scare Jessica to Death just blends in to the larger genre trends of leaning more towards provocative material what with explicit concerns of mental illness in our protagonist and questions of reality around her, but aside from the soundtrack this one has already completely left my memory.  The Exorcist isn’t *quite* the most overrated horror film out there, but it does surprise me that is one of the ones that escaped into the mainstream; it’s mostly middling for the first hour of its runtime before becoming a decent enough demon story.  I will say I can’t for the life of me find the devil scary in this, “your mother sucks cocks in hell!” will always be funny to me, they’re like a Freddy/Chucky joke dispensing precursor.  The Town That Dreaded Sundown, hoo boy, had this one had a more consistent tone dodging the comedy relief, it could have been an all-time great from this decade with an entire town plunged into despair over unsuccessful efforts to apprehend an anonymous serial killer.  This one goes all out when it comes to the more suspenseful moments, making the gags all the more frustrating.  Day of The Animals narrowly edges out being just another part of the glut of killer animal films in the wake of Jaws (1975), by just having everything out to kill people.  In spite of its inherent ridiculousness I can’t not say it’s better produced and more oppressively intimidating than it has any right to be, almost reminds me of a version of the environment itself is trying to kill you a la backrooms.

Ringu kind of sets in that the late-1990′s-early-2000′s period of J-horror just isn’t for me compared to the likes of films we saw in the 1960′s and 1970′s.  They tend to bleed together in my mind and Ringu is disappointing in that way.  I will say I was surprised that we get a satisfactory explanation for the origin of the tape and that only the final scene exhibits the famous “crawling out of the television” moment, which somehow became the most memorable thing from this one.

Bloodz vs. Wolvez I’m going to defend on the basis that this could have been a genuinely solid effort, what with the concept of bougie black vampires trying to integrate into human (read: white) society but working class black werewolves are stuck in poverty and this class disparity is the driver of the conflict between the two groups.  What holds this back, and of all the films I watched for this season, this one pains me the most to say it’s only average, is the fact that this may be one of the lowest budget films I have ever seen.  Everything is restrained by the fact that this must have been over consecutive weekends on $100.  Holding out for a remake that does this one justice.

Brief 1930′s aside: I’ve never seen any adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde prior to this year so any amount of expectation or set ideas on what should be done with the story escape me.  Suffice to say this is an impressive one overall, with a lot of POV shots and split screen effects that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a prior film.  The 1931 film is another slow to start but when it gets going it unfolds into one of the most explosive finales to any 1930′s horror film (though admittedly I’m not sure what separates Mr. Hyde in this from your average London man but what have you).  Oh yes, The Old Dark House.  This is the ultimate “minimalist” horror film, using the absolute bare essentials it can to craft an uneasy atmosphere that dominates everything else.  No supernatural phenomena, no body count, just extreme thunderstorms trapping everyone inside one dark house and them being forced to make it out with their minds intact.  “This is an unlucky house, two of my children, died when they were 20, eh-he-he...” “Laughter and sin!  Laughter and sin!  This too will rot!”

Die, Monster, Die! is the rare pre-1980′s Lovecraft adaptation, very loosely taking from The Colour From Outer Space, and comes together thanks to starring roles by Karloff and Nick Adams along with going into some unusual territory concerning mutations that befit the subject matter.  Slow to start but strong finish.

The Abomination is another one of those pushing-for-the-edge 1980′s obscurities that mostly exists to up the gore to previously unseen levels, and I can’t say it wasn’t successful, with practically an entire house being converted into an eldritch monstrosity that eats people piece by piece.  It’s frankly disgusting at times but if you’re on the search for more of these have at it.

Out of all the bizarre mishmash that is the group of films that I decided to watch this year, Lake Mungo is the biggest outlier to the group.  I’m not sure if I’d classify it as horror, it’s a piece of weird fiction that seems to escape genre.  Unlike, it seems, pretty much everyone else, this one doesn’t really scare me at all, but I can’t help but be fascinated as the narrative ebbs back and forth in an emotional cacophony that leads to gut punches.  I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, it could have gone anywhere in the ranking and I wouldn’t be wholly satisfied with its position, but I guess that’s why you can’t truly assign a number value to art.

I made an effort to try and make it through as many actual Halloween specials as I could this year in between the feature lengths.  Attack of The Killer B-Movies sees Elvira and a bunch of teenage schmucks watch several low-tier 1950′s science fiction films that have been colorized, cut for time, and with new soundtracks, with MST3K gags strewn in between.  It somehow makes these films worse, which is a monumental accomplishment in cases like with Monster From Green Hell (1957).  Avoid unless you and some pals have to see everything Elvira.  I’m not familiar with anything related to Casper prior to the 1995 film and the seemingly deluge of material featuring the character for the following decade, and Casper’s Halloween Special didn’t do anything to convince me to rectify that, blah.  The Midnight Hour is one I was disappointed to return to, not nearly as insane as I recall it being.  Functionally a proto-Hocus Pocus (1993) wherein a witch returns from the dead to curse an entire town, The Midnight Hour wants to be a zombie film, a party film, a romance, and about two other things but doesn’t meet the manic energy required to pull it off.  An absolute must see is the musical number riffing on “Thriller” in the middle of this one, “Get Dead.”  “I’m dead, you’re dying, everyone should try and get dead!”  Halloween is Grinch Night is a fascinating watch just being an unyielding onslaught of color and sound that doesn’t know what a quiet moment is, the oft mentioned “weird” Grinch scene makes perfect sense in context however, not sure what everyone was on about with that.  Monster Mash is an adorable enough fist-shaking, involving Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Wolf Man being forced to assert that they’re still scary in spite of being sell-outs in a world of slashers.  Best part is one of the monsters they’re up against is Freddy D. Spaghetti, who wears a pasta strainer in place of a hockey mask, love that dude.  Hansel and Gretel is a retelling of the story by Tim Burton, and it makes for perfect background material at a party for its ambiance coming from the fact there are only like five characters existing on solid monochrome sets that have virtually no decorations.  I’ve never cared for the story itself but the presentation here is hypnotizing.  The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is another cute and inoffensive one, with Dracula forced to call all the world’s monsters together to have a witch doing her scaring duties lest the holiday be cancelled all together.  Ends on a disco party because it’s the 1970′s, fuck you.  Nothing however can beat The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters, a reprise/semi-sequel to Mad Monster Party? (1967), which I watched for last year’s countdown, and one that perfectly rights the wrongs of that misfire.  The light plot concerns Dr. Frankenstein making a bride for the Monster and calling in the rest of the major terrors to come to the wedding, and it’s almost entirely a springboard for gags.  The difference between this and Mad Monster Party? is that this is actually funny, whether it be the reining-in of some obvious Halloween gags (ha-ha the monsters want to eat roast black widows) or there being two human characters to counterbalance the monsters, one absolutely terrified of them and one who’s a major Universal fanboy.  Just when you think the film is ending it turns 90 degrees into another direction with 10 more jokes on the way.  “Oh I’ve made a terrible mistake, the bride is alternating current, and the groom is direct current!”

There isn't much going on in The Blair Witch Project so I can't comment on much, suffice to say this one has still got it, marketing campaign or no marketing campaign. Slowly becomes more and more claustrophobic until you get to that final shot of standing in the corner. It having been spoiled for me years prior doesn't at all change how effective it is in context.

Time constraints prohibited me from watching every Child’s Play film but I enjoyed my time with the first three entries.  If anything surprised me about the first film it’s that it is a genuinely scary experience, the only one where Chucky is intimidating.  The people saying that they could just drop kick him?  Yeah, Chucky will fucking kill you.  This is what A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) wishes it was.  Child’s Play 2 does its services as a not-quite-as-good horror sequel but it’s strong continuity with the first and upping the stakes and scope make it a worthwhile watch.  Child’s Play 3 is decent enough but can grow tiring over how much it forgets it’s a Child’s Play sequel and not a Full Metal Jacket (1987) parody.  Too much of the run time is eaten up by shit that is inconsequential and yeah, not too bad compared to a LOT of slasher sequels but I can see where people are coming from when they say this is the weakest entry in the series.

If your body horror film doesn’t make me feel like the person having their flesh twisted, you failed.  Industrial music.  Stop motion editing.  Semi-undead mechanical sex.  Tetsuo: The Iron Man commands it all.  If you turn your head for five seconds while watching this you will have missed the equivalency of a Lord of The Rings prequel’s volume of information and even then a lot of this indecipherable on every level.  The beauty of practical effects is a lot of the time I genuinely couldn’t tell you how the effect is done, and Tetsuo does that seemingly every 10 minutes.  I’ve come and gone with this film but make no mistake, everyone needs to see this.  It will change you.

Alright, final stretch.  There is no series in the history of film that has a wider gap in quality between entries as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Watching the majority of the series this year also ran the gamut of how good or how bad a movie in general can be.  I did not rewatch 2 because I figured it would get better on a rewatch (I don’t care for it) and I didn’t bother with Leatherface (2017) because come on just look at it.  Let’s begin: Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is relatively inoffensive, I’d say I prefer it to 2.  It’s ostensibly a mainstream studio remake of the first film and while there are great scenes found within, it’s major drawback is that I can’t “buy” any of it.  At no point do I believe these people are a group of mass murderers, they’re actors playing mass murderers.  This is an issue plaguing the majority of the series but more money doesn’t mean you can effectively capture that feel.  The Next Generation is the first of several abominations I had to sit through, featuring what might be the worst set of performances I’ve seen in any film.  This is the one that reveals that the Sawyers are secretly working for the Illuminati as part of a massive fear spreading campaign and has an ending that resembles a Nirvana music video more than anything and makes me question everything that led up to committing to watching this, the less said the better.  The 2003 remake is Leatherface, again, though it benefits from being the second entry in the series aside from the first to have some consistent aesthetic going.  Can still be easily skipped.  The Beginning is the first entry that devolves into pure torture porn, and doesn’t take any advantage of the fact that these characters can’t survive at the end, opting for just repeating bare slasher essentials except for killing off the final girl.  Texas Chainsaw 3D opens with a montage of footage from the first film then hard pivots into a plot about the Swayers being murdered in mass by a vigilante mob and “the Sawyers didn’t deserve this!”  No mention of the killing and cannibalism I guess as Leatherface, despite collecting a body count in this film alone, is turned into the good guy.  “Do your thing cuz!”  Just when you think things can’t get any worse, we are presented with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, no “The,” the new low bar for the series, if not the genre and maybe film as a whole.  Make no mistake that this is easily one of the worst films I have ever seen, involving gen-Z gentrifiers trying to buy up a small town to make into an upscale getaway, but Leatherface is there and blah blah blah you could have called this film anything else and you know what would have happened?  It would still be as bad but I wouldn’t have had to watch it, no one would have noticed it, no one would have to be as angry or anything because the only thing this has going for it is the connection to the first film.  It’s like if the Star Wars prequels weren’t called “Star Wars” they’d be as easily forgotten as Jupiter Ascending (2015) or Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets (2017), where no one would have batted an eye, called them shit in a single breath and then easily forgotten about them without a second thought.  Fuck this movie, fuck it for being another stain on the legacy of the original, fuck everyone that says “I just want to see stupid teenagers get killed,” fuck any defense of this.

Only thing that came of having to sit through these was another opportunity to rewatch the 1974 film.  As soon as I had settled on this being up for viewing, the #1 spot was sealed.  If someone were to say that this is the greatest horror film ever made, I don’t think I’d agree but at the same time I wouldn’t be able to put up a counter argument.  I said a few days ago that I define horror as a genre by its presentation of violence, and this is a perfect example.  The opening text crawl lets us know that even if this was a singular event, the resulting trauma and open wounds will be carried forever.  The soundtrack itself is oppressive, camera shutters and industrial machinery in the place of actual music at times, the opening credits burned by footage of solar flares, the entire environment taking place in the blazing Texas sun with dried up water beds and radiators and dilapidated buildings.  It’s one of the ultimate descents into hell that have ever been presented by any film, horror or not.  Innocent people unknowingly walking to their doom, the discovery of seemingly endless amounts of human and animal remains and never putting the pieces together until it’s too late, the final survivor being forced to see how the meat we eat is made.  “I just don’t take no pleasure in killing.”  It’s been nearly 10 years since I first saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this is one of the rare films that absolutely changed me, and while no subsequent viewing will have that same impact, I can’t not love it to the upmost extent that I can love any movie.

The Werewolf (1956)

The Werewolf is a 1956 American horror science fiction film directed by Fred F. Sears and starring Don Megowan and Joyce Holden.

Set in contemporary times (i.e. the 1950s), the storyline follows an amnesiac man who, after being injected with "irradiated wolf serum" by unscrupulous doctors, transforms into a werewolf when under emotional stress. The film "marks precisely the point in which horror, which had been a dormant genre in the early '50s, began to take over from science fiction", and is the first of only three werewolf films made in the US during that decade, preceding Daughter of Dr. Jekyll and I Was a Teenage Werewolf (both 1957). The Werewolf was released theatrically in the US as the bottom half of a double feature with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).

Okay so like, out of the original 8 dolls half of them have ties to one of the Universal Classic Monsters (Werewolf, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy) and the ones that don't have stories that are a big part of pop culture (Dr. Jekyll, Zombies, Medusa) or are Lagoona (who I keep forgetting isn't actually related to the Creature from the Black Lagoon). They go away from this pretty quickly because there aren't really a lot of Universal Monsters.

Ever After High's whole Thing is when the main characters in fairy tales grow up and have kids, each kid is supposed to perform the same role in the same tale that their famous parent did. I.e., Apple White is expected to be cursed by Raven Queen because their moms are Snow White and The Evil Queen respectfully. It's unclear what happens to characters that are supposed to die in a story - Mr. Badwolf is one of the teachers for example- but it's also implied Sleeping Beauty's story happens in real time. While they were running with this as the main conflict of the series it had a big destiny vs agency thing going on. They eventually dropped it because that is a very messy concept to use with A) Grimm's Fairy Tales and B) a fashion doll line, but the show was poorer for it.

So Monster High AU (probably of G1, the current active version doesn't have as many ties to external horror and is very much its own thing) where instead of it just being a high school for monsters, it's a specialized school that prepares monsters for the role they have to play in their Story. But unlike EAH, monsters in stories almost always have bad endings so.....dark au.

Lost, Star VS, MP100, MHA(up to s7), Owl House, LMK, Dragon Prince, Infinity Train, Tangled, Breaking Bad, FMA:B, The Twilight Zone, House MD, The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, Arcane, Fiona and Cake, Adventure Time, Dungeon Meishi, Dorohedoro, Chainsaw Man, Scrubs, SpyxFamily, Letterkenny, It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia, Serial Experiments Lain, Russian Doll, The Great Canadian Pottery Show, lucky star, nichijou, Mysteries of Mental Illness, Gurren Lagann, star trek, one punch man, scavengers reign, the cyberpunk anime, the good place,

Moulin Rouge, FNAF the Movie, 57 Seconds, the Hulu Fyre Festival documentary, The Colourful Mr. Eggleson, The Blair Witch Project, Uncle Buck, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Day After Tomorrow, bill and ted, last night in soho, Green Room(2015), sinbad, the Oceans movies, world war z, speed, speed 2, the big short, too big to fail, the florida project, kung fu panda 4, jerry maguire, dnd movie, challengers(2024), the bad guys, shark tale, the descent, the descent part 2, mothers' instinct, sting, burn after reading, michael clayton, being john malkovich, oppenheimer, die hard(SERIES), cocaine crabs, Mutant Mayhem, the shining/doctor sleep, abigail, monica and david(2009), BYE BYE TIBERIAS, Dude, Where's My Car, skinamarink, The Rocky Horror Show, Kinky Boots, Spiderverse 1 and 2, The Celluloid Closet, Vivian Meyer, Jeff Wall, The Fruit Machine, The Third Care Bears Movie, baby garfield, need for speed, payback, fast and furious, if, tomorrowland, gravity, the ides of march, jaws, one cut of the dead2017, king kong1933, halloween1978, shaun of the dead2004, Diabolique, the invisible man2020, nosferatu1922, invasion of the bodysnatchers1956, rosemary's baby, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Eyes Without a Face, Train to Busan, the ring, night of the living dead, his house, talk to me, repulsion, frankenstein, vampyr, freaks1932, night of the hunter, dawn of the dead, scream(SERIES), peeping tom, godzilla1954, a girl walks home at night, the fly, suspiria, zombieland, the birds, the innocents, whatever happened to baby jane, x(2022), pearl(2022), the cabin in the woods(2011), the amusement park(1973), it follows(2014), raw(2016), dead of night1945, dracula1931, carrie 1976, the host2006, 10 cloverfield lane, kwaidan1964, 28 days later, dont look now1973, thelma2017, barbarian2022, The Wolf Man, evil dead, evil dead 2, ready or not, eraserhead, hereditary, return of the living dead, TCM, phantom of the opera1925, the conjuring, cat people, the thing, house of wax, dr jekyll and mr hyde, mandy, the cat and the canary, let me in, tenacious d the pick of destiny, village of the damned, duel, an american werewolf in london, the wicker man, dead alive, you wont be alone, beast, poltergeist, the evil dead(SERIES), fear street(1,2,3), theater of blood, gremlins, the haunting, the witch, annihilation, the dead zone, the others, rare exports: a christmas tale, santa sangre, the night house, the black phone, the endless, the exorcist, the mummy, dead ringers, day of the dead, the omen, the autopsy of jane doe, predator, fright night, crawl, fresh, better watch out, goodnight mommy, the abominable dr phibes, candyman, carnival of souls, halloween, warm bodies, sisters, house of usher, the house of the devil, smile, 1408, innerstellar, failure to launch, how to lose a guy in 10 days, the wedding planner, jason x, existenz, scanners, the brood, fast company, rabid, mission impossible, ella enchanted, the princess diaries, brokeback mountain, thelma the unicorn, charlies angels(SERIES), everest, oceans 8, the emporers new groove, mario movie, the boy and the heron, cocaine shark, gremlins, the bourne ultimatum, mad max, citizen kane, gone with the wind, the shawshank redemption, lord of the rings, its a wonderful life, cassablanca, blade runner, rocky, saving private ryan, edward scissorhands, better watch out, cam(2018), extremely goofy movie, planet of the apes, my oni girl, in the heights 2021, scream 2022, your monster 2024, bed rest 2022, southbound, v/h/s, devil's due

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Welcome to Night Vale, The Magnus Archives, Red Valley, Creepy Podska, qanon anonymous, Stuff You Missed in History Class

Under the Dome, Gideon the Ninth, Dungeon Meishi, The Celluloid Closet, Harrow the Ninth, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, The Fox and the Hound, House of Leaves, Stone Butch Blues, Wool, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, that photo book, For Folk's Sake, the ROTTMNT Comic Book, The Prince, Discourses, The Art of War, Five Rings, this is how you die, The Rescuers, asops fables, the raven cycle, reanimator, watership down, the wizard of oz, beastars, the most dangerous game, how Europe underdeveloped Africa

Dr. Jekyll vs the Werewolf

One of your last replies touched the Lovecraftian corner of my heart -- how/who/what/where/when/why is Teen Wolf Cosmic Horror?*

*Even as I wonder that, I also realise that there is perhaps one recurrent theme in Teen Wolf which is Lovecraftian in form, but that it is not unique to his work, and not really the 'Cosmic ' side of his stories: the danger that comes from the unknown and from not knowing. Everyone seems to know far more about the supernatural than the main characters. There is a moment when Scott, referring to The Dread Doctors paperback, says "we shouldn't have read that book" [paraphrasing], which is a Lovecraftian theme at heart, but this is a trope of teenage supernatural shows to add oomph, plot and mystery. The main characters cannot know everything because then they would know better than getting involved in supernatural stuff. There's Scott and his pack in the dark, but there's Deaton, Gerard, Peter, et al 'in the know'. But there's Buffy and the Scooby gang vs Giles, Angel, Spike, etc.

To summarize my opinion, Teen Wolf is not Cosmic Horror. It's Personal Horror. Attempts to paint it as Cosmic Horror seem to me to be yet another attempt to decenter the protagonist by making Scott McCall's decisions and actions irrelevant to the story in itself.

I've been flippant in the past while dismissing that particular argument because it seems obvious to the casual observer that the tone and plot of Teen Wolf doesn't presume to render judgment (and one could argue it purposefully refuses to do it) on the nature of the universe. The questions and consequences on which it focuses are fundamentally specific and individual.

To start, I think it's important for me to define what I mean by the different genres.

Cosmic Horror is a story where the actions and beliefs of the protagonist are irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the story. No matter how they struggle or what motivates them, the protagonist is at the mercy of an indifferent universe. No matter what Henry Armitage has learned, Dread Cthulhu still waits dreaming. No matter how much a man struggles to save his family, in the end they will join the apocalyptic zombie horde as either meat or more walkers. The destiny for the protagonists in the Cabin of the Woods are either entertainment/sacrifice or witnesses to the end of all things. Ultimately, resistance to the darkness is a delaying tactic at best and pointless self-mutilation at worst.

Personal Horror can be just as dark, but the actions and beliefs of the protagonist are fundamental and specific to the story. Even the victims are victims because of decisions -- no matter innocent -- they made. Those poor campers made the decisions to go to Crystal Lake while ignoring the stories surrounding it. Dr. Jekyll's decision to test a potion designed to unleash his darker emotions on himself was his alone. Louis made the decision to accept an offer of immortality by a dandy-fied Lestat.

I would propose that there is a third type, Social Horror, where the actions and motivations of individuals are robbed of their value not by some unknowable and unbeatable force beyond their experience, but by the actions and motivation of a group of individuals whose aggregate power overwhelms the individual with intent. I think Squid Game is a good example of that.

That being said, I think it's quite clear that for all the death and mayhem in Teen Wolf, it's a story of Personal Horror. The universe does not step in to reward the good and punish the bad -- and it most certainly doesn't -- but the universe is not indifferent to the actions and motivations of the characters, either. The supernatural rules create clear consequences, most specifically embodied in "The Shape You Take Reflects the Person That You Are." For example, a werewolf's eyes turn blue when they take the life of an innocent (or the werewolf believes they took a life unjustly -- which is in a way saying the same thing). A true alpha's power come from their convictions and strength of will, not from acts of murder or inheritance. Demon wolves grow stronger and more twisted the more acts of atrocity they commit. The most potent form of evil comes from corruption of good, not from banal, everyday evil. Etc.

In that story, things can be changed and the horror exists in when people choose not to try. In stories of Cosmic Horror, the outcome cannot be changed. In The Call of Cthulhu, even though the Alert rams Cthulhu, it doesn't stop the threat -- the Great Old One retreats to his sunken tomb to sleep until next time. The Walking Dead had ten seasons (I've lost count) and the dead are still walking. The source of horror doesn't end, regardless of the protagonist's condition or survival.

But the source of horror changes constantly in Teen Wolf. Derek found another way. Deucalion renounced violence. Meredith truly helps. Mason won't be possessed by Sebastien Valet again. There's still death and physical violation and injustice, but it's never, ever, ever seen as inevitable. It's individuals hurting other individuals; it's not a function of how things have to be.

The attempt to label Teen Wolf as Cosmic Horror is an attempt to repudiate the central protagonist's actions and philosophies. To them, Scott McCall believing he can somehow change the nature of a cruel and violent universe through his belief in compassion, mercy, hope, and second chances must be defined as an evil arising from delusion. People still die after all, and people are still unhappy.

Their interpretation requires the application of the Nirvana fallacy, something that happens quite often with minorities, where one or two failings are seen to negate the entire premise. To be valid for them, Scott's way must flawlessly lead to perfect and complete victory, otherwise it is nothing but self-indulgence. (The show itself busted that fallacy in Season 5, which was sort of the point of the season.)

To these people, the walk-off in The Wolves of War was a comforting phantasm concealing an uncomfortable truth -- that Scott and his pack (except for the ones they liked) were White Knights, childishly and stubbornly clinging to a foolish belief system that perpetuated injustice in the face of the true nature of reality: the rule of claw and fang.

But I say that while Scott and his pack didn't know everything, but the show made it clear that they didn't have to know everything. Scott and his pack couldn't beat everything, but the show made it clear that they didn't have to beat everything. Their stories were personal; the horror was personal; and the triumph was personal.

Just Out of Curiosity, What Have Buffy and Angel Been Linked Too?

Within the show’s run and in other official canon material, Buffy and Angel have had crossover links to:

The Wild Bunch, Dracula, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Lord of the Rings, Aliens, Buckaroo Banzai, The X-Files, Evil Dead, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Doctor Who, and Godzilla. The “Expanded Universe” Material (Dark Horse Comics before Season 8, the IDW comics, Licensed Novels) add:

Frankenstein, James Bond, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the legendary figure of Springheel Jack, Sherlock Holmes, An American Werewolf in London, The Wolf Man, King Arthur, Zorro, The Cthulhu Mythos, Tarzan, Hellboy, Predator, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series), The Devil’s Footprints, Rosanne, Marvel Comic’s character Cytorrak (the thing that empowers The Juggernaut), Ghostbusters, the Dungeons & Dragons Multiverse, Peter David’s Fallen Angel, and Highlander: The Series. Buffy and Angel have been referenced by other series as well in the crossover sense. Those add:

Eureka, Simon R. Green’s Ghost of a Chance, Andy Barker P.I., Hack/Slash, Supernatural, Gen13, Blood and Bullets, House of the Dead 2 (movie), Marvel’s Legion of Monsters (featuring Elsa Bloodstone, Morbius the Living Vampire, N’kantu the Living Mummy, The Manphibian, Werewolf by Night, Tomb of Dracula, & Daimon Hellstrom), West Coast Avengers (featuring Kate Bishop, Clint Barton, Gwenpool, America Chavez, Quinten Quire, Fuse, Jeff the Land Shark, Madam Masque, Alloy (Ramone Watts), and Noh-Varr), and American Horror Story: Apocalypse. Those nods come in works that also reference: Carnacki: Ghostfinder, Drinking the Midnight Wing, The Monkeys’ Paw, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, Halfway to the Grave from the “Night Huntress” novel series, Sonja Blue, Blade (either comics or film series), Solomon Kane, and Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. Buffy and Angel have been featured in what I like to refer to as “Megacrossover” tales as well, adding a plethora of other series to the mix. The additions include: White Zombie, The Black Coats, Arsene Lupin, Marvel’s Brother Voodoo, Child's Play, Tales of the Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies, James Bond, Angel Heart, Duke de Richleau, I Walked With a Zombie, John Thunstone, Kolchak the Night Stalker, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captian Blood, Lorna Doone, Gulliver's Travels, the works of Stephen King ("Jerusalem's Lot"), Leatherstocking Tales, Charmed, Treasure Island, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (the original short story), John Carter of Mars, The X-Files, Moby Dick, The Narrative of Arthur Gordan Pym of Nantucket, Mayfair Witches, Doc Savage, The Phantom, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Wild West (TV Series), Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, The Lone Ranger, Martin Hewitt, The Shadow, The Body Snatchers (the story on which Invasion of the Body Snatchers was based), L'Enigmatique Fen-Chu, Atlantida, The Exorcist, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Stepford Wives, Young Frankenstein, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Pretender, Beauty and the Beast (1980s Television Series), Bionic Woman (original series), Modesty Blaze, Knight Rider (original Series), The Equalizer, The Nyctalope, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Invaders (1950s Television Series), Blake and Mortimer (a Belgian comic), Sâr Dubnotal, Blithe Spirit (1941), Lensman, Simon Ark, Dark Shadows, Semi-Dual (The Occult Detector (1912)), Doctor Strange, John J. Malone, Kenneth J. Malone, Network (1976 film), I Dream of Jeannie, Northern Exposure, Jane Arden, The Continental Op, Nate Heller, Judex, Dr. Spektor, Some Like It Hot, Little Caesar, Scarface, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Dick Tracy, The Big Lebowski, Morris Klaw, Suicide Squad (Novel Series that began with Mr. Zero and the FBI Suicide Squad), Theodosia Throckmorton, John Thunstone, Fergus O'Breen, Rocket to the Morgue, Call Northside 777, "Bell, Book and Candle", Mr. Mulliner, Special Unit 2, The Quincunx of Time, Baal (of Renée Dunan's 1924 novel), Female Vampire (1975 Film), Doctor Omega (a Doctor Who pastiche), The Adventures of a Parisian Aeronaut in the Unknown Worlds, C. Auguste Dupin, Fantômas, The Merkabah Rider, Quantum Leap, Monk (TV Series), The Manitou (film), Simon of Gitta, Meaner than Hell, Kull, Conan the Barbarian, Steve Harrison, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Kung Fu, Indiana Jones, Batman, Something Wicked This Way Comes, House II: The Second Story, Winchester '73, The Quick and the Dead, Hombre, The Lone Ranger, The Pearl of Death, House of Horrors, The Brute Man, John Kirowan, Bran Mak Morn, Carmilla, World of Watches, Nosferatu, Underworld, Black Sunday, The Vampire Chronicles, Vampire City, The Black Coats, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Most Dangerous Game, The Vampyre (1819), The Count of Monte Cristo, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Lord Peter Wimsey, Waldemar Daninsky, Curse of the Crimson Altar, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, P. G. Wodehouse's Works, Viy, The Mummy (1932), Harry Dickenson, The Spider, Varney the Vampire, The Simpsons, Hellraiser/The Hellbound Heart, The Master Mind of Mars (part of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Mars series), The Wandering Jew’s Daughter, and She: A History of Adventure. Buffy and Angel also have two products that show up regularly in fiction.

One is Sugar Bombs or Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, which appear in Calvin and Hobbes, Marvel’s Runaways (featuring Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean, Chase Stein, Gert Yorkes, Molly Hayes, Old Lace, Xavin. Victor Mancha, and The Swarm), and The Incredibles 2. They also show up in the videogame series Fallout, but that is most likely an alternate universe. Morley Cigarettes are the other product that has a good travel life, enough to have its own Wikipedia Page. As such, I’ll only mention a few notable cases: Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead, Murder in the First, Platoon, Psycho (1960), The World’s End (2013), 24, American Horror Story “Birth”, The Americans, Beverly Hills 90210 (1990s series), Burn Notice, Californication, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Dick Van Dyke Show, ER, Everybody Hates Chris, Friends, Heroes, Jake 2.0, Judging Amy, Justified, Lost, Malcolm in the Middle, Medium, Millennium, Mission: Impossible (TV Series), Nash Bridges, NCIS, New Amsterdam, Orange is the New Black, Pushing Daisies, Reaper, Seinfeld, Space: Above and Beyond, The Strain, That 70s Show, The Walking Dead, Twin Peaks, Warehouse 13, Weeds, System Shock 2, and The Twilight Zone “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. Obviously, some of these would be alternate universes. Finally, there are two notable parody examples to bring up: Vampirella vs. Fluffy. Vampirella has had a LOT of crossovers, so she’s one step removed from Buffy at best, ergo, they probably met and given the tone of the comic, Vampi did not leave too happy with Buffy’s remarks about her outfit, or Willow. Big Wolf on Campus actually provides a rather respectful crossover, and all things considered, the title character likely met Faith before she came to Sunnydale if taken as a proper crossover. Totaling things up, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel) have had 10 nods to the Cthulhu Mythos, 7 crossovers with Dracula, 5 with Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes, 4 with Ghostbusters, and 3 with Doc Savage, Solomon Kane, Evil Dead/Army of Darkness, The X-Files, and Hellboy. And all that from just Buffy and Angel. Can you imagine what you find when you got a link further than that? Or two links? Six? 

To give a hint: The Mythos can add over 200 works, Dracula 160+, 79 from Frankenstein, 17 from Ghostbusters, 24 from Hellboy, 29 from Evil Dead, and 51 from The X-Files. There is a lot of overlap, of course, but it still sets a good idea of just how big this world is. Now, all Buffy needs is a crossover with Batman, and she’ll have hit the all the major crossover series. 

A Horror History of Werewolves

As far as horror icons are concerned, werewolves are among the oldest of all monsters. References to man-to-wolf transformations show up as early as the Epic of Gilgamesh, making them pretty much as old as storytelling itself. And, unlike many other movie monsters, werewolves trace their folkloric roots to a time when people truly believed in and feared these creatures. 

But for a creature with such a storied past, the modern werewolf has quite the crisis of identity. Thanks to an absolute deluge of romance novels featuring sometimes-furry love interests, the contemporary idea of “werewolf” is decidedly de-fanged. So how did we get here? Where did they come from, where are they going, and can werewolves ever be terrifying again? 

Werewolves in Folklore and Legend 

Ancient Greece was full of werewolf stories. Herodotus wrote of a nomadic tribe from Scythia (part of modern-day Russia) who changed into wolves for a portion of the year. This was most likely a response to the Proto-Indo-European societies living in that region at the time -- a group whose warrior class would sometimes don animal pelts and were said to call on the spirit of animals to aid them in battle (the concept of the berserker has the same roots -- just bears rather than wolves).

In Arcadia, there was a local legend about King Lycaon, who was turned to a wolf as punishment for serving human meat to Zeus (exact details of the event vary between accounts, but cannibalism and crimes-against-the-gods are a common theme). Pliny the Elder wrote of werewolves as well, explaining that those who make a sacrifice to Zeus Lycaeus would be turned to wolves but could resume human form years later if they abstained from eating human meat in that time.

By the time we reach the Medieval period in Europe, werewolf stories were widespread and frequently associated with witchcraft. Lycanthropy could be either a curse laid upon someone or a transformation undergone by someone practicing witchcraft, but either way was bad news in the eyes of the church. For several centuries, witch-hunts would aggressively seek out anyone suspected of transforming into a wolf.

One particularly well-known werewolf trial was for Peter Stumpp in 1589. Stumpp, known as "The Werewolf of Bedburg," confessed to killing and eating fourteen children and two pregnant women while in the form of a wolf after donning a belt given to him by the Devil. Granted, this confession came on the tail-end of extensive public torture, so it may not be precisely reliable. His daughter and mistress were also executed in a public and brutal way during the same trial.

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? 

The thing you have to understand when studying folklore is that, for many centuries, wolves were the apex predator of Europe. While wolf attacks on humans have been exceedingly rare in North America, wolves in Europe have historically been much bolder -- or, at least, there are more numerous reports of man-eating wolves in those regions. Between 1362 and 1918, roughly 7,600 people were reportedly killed by wolves in France alone, which may have some bearing on the local werewolf tradition of the loup-garou.

For people living in rural areas, subsisting as farmers or hunters, wolves posed a genuine existential threat. Large, intelligent, utilizing teamwork and more than capable of outwitting the average human, wolves are a compelling villain. Which is probably why they show up so frequently in fairytales, from Little Red Riding Hood to Peter and the Wolf to The Three Little Pigs.

Early Werewolf Fiction 

Vampires have Dracula and zombies have I Am Legend, but there really is no clear singular book to point to as the "First Great Werewolf Novel." Perhaps by the time the novel was really taking off as an artform, werewolves had lost some of their appeal. After all, widespread literacy and reading-for-pleasure went hand-in-hand with advancements in civilization. For city-dwellers in Victorian England, for example, the threat of a wolf eating you alive probably seemed quite remote.

Don't get me wrong -- there were some Gothic novels featuring werewolves, like Sutherland Menzies' Hugues, The Wer-Wolf, or G.W.M. Reynolds' Wagner the Wehr-Wolf, or even The Wolf Leader by Alexandre Dumas. But these are not books that have entered the popular conscience by any means. I doubt most people have ever heard of them, much less read them.

No -- I would argue that the closest thing we have, thematically, to a Great Werewolf Novel is in fact The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Written in 1886, the Gothic novella tells the story of a scientist who, wanting to engage in certain unnamed vices without detection, created a serum that would allow him to transform into another person. That alter-ego, Mr. Hyde, was selfish, violent, and ultimately uncontrollable -- and after taking over the body on its own terms and committing a murder or two, the only way to stop Hyde’s re-emergence was suicide. 

Although not about werewolves, per se, Jekyll & Hyde touches on many themes that we'll see come up time and again in werewolf media up through the present day: toxic masculinity, the dual nature of man, leading a double life, and the ultimate tragedy of allowing one's base instincts/animal nature to run wild. Against a backdrop of Victorian sexual repression and a rapidly shifting concept of humanity's relationship to nature, it makes sense that these themes would resonate deeply (and find a new home in werewolf media).

It is also worth mentioning Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris, published in 1933. Set against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian war and subsequent military battles, the book utilizes a werewolf as a plot device for exploring political turmoil. A #1 bestseller in its day, the book was a big influence on the sci-fi and mystery pulp scene of the 1940s and 50s, and is still considered one of the best werewolf novels of its ilk.

From Silver Bullets to Silver Screens 

What werewolf representation lacks in novels, it makes up for in film. Werewolves have been a surprisingly enduring feature of film from its early days, due perhaps to just how much fun transformation sequences are to film. From camera tricks to makeup crews and animatronics design, werewolf movies create a lot of unique opportunities for special effects -- and for early film audiences especially (who were not yet jaded to movie magic), these on-screen metamorphoses must have elicited true awe. 

The Wolf Man (1941) really kicked off the trend. Featuring Lon Chaney Jr. as the titular wolf-man, the film was cutting-edge for its time in the special effects department. The creature design is the most memorable thing about the film, which has an otherwise forgettable plot -- but it captured viewer attention enough to bring Chaney back many times over for sequels and Universal Monster mash-ups. 

The Wolf Man and 1944's Cry of the Werewolf draw on that problematic Hollywood staple, "The Gypsy Curse(tm)" for their world-building. Fortunately, werewolf media would drift away from that trope pretty quickly; curses lost their appeal, but “bite as mode of transmission” would remain an essential part of werewolf mythos. 

In 1957, I Was a Teenage Werewolf was released as a classic double-header drive-in flick that's nevertheless worth a watch for its parallels between werewolfism and male aggression (a theme we'll see come up again and again). Guy Endore's novel got the Hammer Film treatment for 1961's The Curse of the Werewolf, but it wasn't until the 1970s when werewolf media really exploded: The Beast Must Die, The Legend of the Wolf Woman, The Fury of the Wolfman, Scream of the Wolf, Werewolves on Wheels and many more besides.

Hmmm, werewolves exploding in popularity around the same time as women's liberation was dramatically redefining gender roles and threatening the cultural concept of masculinity? Nah, must be a coincidence.

The 1980s brought with it even more werewolf movies, including some of the best-known in the genre: The Howling (1981), Teen Wolf (1985), An American Werewolf in London (1981), and The Company of Wolves (1984). Differing widely in their tone and treatment of werewolf canon, the films would establish more of a spiderweb than a linear taxonomy.

That spilled over into the 1990s as well. The Howling franchise went deep, with at least seven films that I can think of. Wolf, a 1994 release starring Jack Nicholson is especially worth a watch for its themes of dark romantic horror. 

By the 2000s, we get a proper grab-bag of werewolf options. There is of course the Underworld series, with its overwrought "vampires vs lycans" world-building. There's also Skin Walkers, which tries very hard to be Underworld (and fails miserably at even that low bar). But there's also Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps, arguably two of the finest werewolf movies of all time -- albeit in extremely different ways and for very different reasons.

Dog Soldiers is a straightforward monster movie pitting soldiers against ravenous werewolves. The wolves could just as easily have been subbed out with vampires or zombies -- there is nothing uniquely wolfish about them on a thematic level -- but the creature design is unique and the film itself is mastefully made and entertaining.

Ginger Snaps is the first werewolf movie I can think of that tackles lycanthropy from a female point of view. Although The Company of Wolves has a strong feminist angle, it is still very much a film about male sexuality and aggression. Ginger Snaps, on the other hand, likens werewolfism to female puberty -- a comparison that frankly makes a lot of sense.

The Werewolf as Sex Object 

There are quite literally thousands of werewolf romance novels on the market, with more coming in each day. But the origins of this trend are a bit fuzzier to make out (no pun intended). 

Everyone can mostly agree that Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire was the turning-point for sympathetic vampires -- and paranormal romance as a whole. But where do werewolves enter the mix? Possibly with Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books, which feature the titular character in a relationship with a werewolf (and some vampires, and were-leopards, and...many other things). With the first book released in 1993, the Anita Blake series seems to pre-date similar books in its ilk. 

Blood and Chocolate (1997) by Annette Curtis Klause delivers a YA-focused version of the classic “I’m a werewolf in high school crushing on a mortal boy”; that same year, Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit the small screen, and although the primary focus was vampires, there is a main werewolf character (and romancing him around the challenges of his wolfishness is a big plot point for the characters involved). And Buffy, of course, paved the way for Twilight in 2005. From there, werewolves were poised to become a staple of the ever-more-popular urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre. 

“Sexy werewolf” as a trope may have its roots in other traditions like the beastly bridegroom (eg, Beauty and the Beast) and the demon lover (eg, Labyrinth), which we can talk about another time. But there’s one other ingredient in this recipe that needs to be discussed. And, oh yes, we’re going there. 

Alpha/Beta/Omegaverse 

By now you might be familiar with the concept of the Omegaverse thanks to the illuminating Lindsay Ellis video on the topic (and the current ongoing lawsuit). If not, well, just watch the video. It’ll be easier than trying to explain it all. (Warning for NSFW topics). 

But the tl;dr is that A/B/O or Omegaverse is a genre of (generally erotic) romance utilizing the classical understanding of wolf pack hierarchy. Never mind that science has long since disproven the stratification of authority in wolf packs; the popular conscious is still intrigued by the concept of a society where some people are powerful alphas and some people are timid omegas and that’s just The Way Things Are. 

What’s interesting about the Omegaverse in regards to werewolf fiction is that, as near as I’ve been able to discover, it’s actually a case of convergent evolution. A/B/O as a genre seems to trace its roots to Star Trek fanfiction in the 1960s, where Kirk/Spock couplings popularized ideas like heat cycles. From there, the trope seems to weave its way through various fandoms, exploding in popularity in the Supernatural fandom. 

What seems to have happened is that the confluence of A/B/O kink dynamics merging with urban fantasy werewolf social structure set off a popular niche for werewolf romance to truly thrive. 

It’s important to remember that, throughout folklore, werewolves were not viewed as being part of werewolf societies. Werewolves were humans who achieved wolf form through a curse or witchcraft, causing them to transform into murderous monsters -- but there was no “werewolf pack,” and certainly no social hierarchy involving werewolf alphas exerting their dominance over weaker pack members. That element is a purely modern one rooted as much in our misunderstanding of wolf pack dynamics as in our very human desire for power hierarchies. 

So Where Do We Go From Here? 

I don’t think sexy werewolf stories are going anywhere anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no room left in horror for werewolves to resume their monstrous roots. 

Thematically, werewolves have done a lot of heavy lifting over the centuries. They hold up a mirror to humanity to represent our own animal nature. They embody themes of toxic masculinity, aggression, primal sexuality, and the struggle of the id and ego. Werewolf attack as sexual violence is an obvious but powerful metaphor for trauma, leaving the victim transformed. Werewolves as predators hiding in plain sight among civilization have never been more relevant than in our #MeToo moment of history. 

Can werewolves still be frightening? Absolutely. 

As long as human nature remains conflicted, there will always be room at the table for man-beasts and horrifying transfigurations. 

--

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DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF (1972)

Halloween playlist

Halloween playlist By Cardest October is my favorite time of the year! Here is 300 songs or so I put together I think will make your Halloween rock! 001 The Misfits - Scream! 002 Alice Cooper - The Nightmare Returns 003 Acid Witch - I'm Back (Sorcery cover) 004 John Carpenter\Alan Howarth -  Halloween Theme 005 King Diamond -  Halloween 006 Ghost - Mummy Dust 007 Jerry Goldsmith The Omen OST - Ave Satani 008 Fantomas - Der Golem 009 Doyle -  Cemeterysexxx 010 Mastodon -  Halloween  (Instrumental) 011 Cramps -  Human Fly 012 Fright Night Soundtrack - Armies Of The Night 013 Shooting Guns - [Wolfcop Soundtrack - Wulver 014 Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party 015 Type O Negative -  Halloween In Heaven 016 Phantasm  OST - Funeral organ-dwarf in hearse 017 Grave Robber -  Skeletons 018 John Carpenter -  Theme from "The Fog" 019 45 Grave -  Night Of The Demons 020 The Birthday Massacre -  Horror Show 021 Bernard Herrmann - Psycho (theme) 022 The Misfits - Friday the 13th 023 Blood Ceremony -  Coven Tree 024 Goblin - Profondo Rosso 025 October 31 - The House Where Evil Dwells 026 Michael Jackson -  Thriller 027 Bobby 'Boris' Pickett & The Crypt Kickers - Monster Mash 028 Ministry -  Every Day Is Halloween 029 Sleepy Hollow movie Theme 030 The Damned - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 031 October 31 - The house where evil dwells 032 Rigor Mortis - poltergeist 033 Necrophagia -  Reborn through Black Mass 034 Fantomas - Rosemary's Baby 035 Pseudo Echo - His Eyes (from the Friday the 13th V OST) 036 Misfits -  Dig Up Her Bones 037 Sigh -  Graveward 038 Christian Death - Church of no return 039 The Rocky Horror Picture Show -  Over At The Frankenstein Place 040 With The Dead -  Nephthys 041 David Bowie- Scary Monsters (And super creeps) 042 Early Man - Creature From The Black Lagoon 043 Hellbound Hellraiser 2 Theme 044 Rob Zombie - Dragula 045 Misfits - Night of the Living dead 046 Ramones - Pet Semetary 047 Roky Erickson - I walked with a zombie 048 Blue Oyster Cult -  Don't (fear the reaper) 049 The Munsters TV show theme 050 Slayer -  Necrophobic 051 Type O Negative - Wolf Moon (Including Zoanthropic Paranoia) 052 The 69 Eyes -  Lost Boys 053 The Vision Bleak -  The Night Of The Living Dead 054 The Devil's Blood -  I'll Be Your Ghost 055 Ghost B.C. -  Ghuleh / Zombie Queen 056 Voltaire -  Brains! 057 The Shrine -  Tripping Corpse 058 Zig Zags -  The Fog 059 Doyle -  Land of the Dead 060 Danzig - On A Wicked Night 061 Fantomas - One Step Beyond 062 Siouxsie And The Banshees - Dear Prudence 063 The Misfits -  Nightmare on Elm Street 064 Warren Zevon -  Werewolves Of London 065 The Cramps - Creature From The Black Leather Lagoon 066 King Diamond -  Trick Or Treat 067 Arcturus -  To Thou Who Dwellest in the Night 068 Deicide - Dead But Dreaming 069 Zombie Ghost Train - R.I.P 070 American Horror Story - Theme Song 071 Antonius Rex - Necromancer 072 THE WOLFGANGS - Cannibal Family 073 THE TWILIGHT ZONE THEME 074 Queens Of The Stone Age -  Burn The Witch 075 The Hellfreaks - Boogieman 076 Ghoultown - Drink With The Living Dead 077 Fantomas - Experiment In Terror 078 Coil - Main Title (Unreleased Hellraiser Theme) 079 Autopsy -  Skull Grinder 080 Beastmaker - Eyes Are Watching 081 S.O.D. - Freddy Krueger 082 Christopher Lennertz - And So It Begins Supernatural OST 083 Xandria -Vampire 084 Slayer -  Ghosts Of War085 085 With The Dead -  Living With The Dead 086 Devil Master -  Listen, Sweet Demons... 087 G Tom Mac - Cry LIttle Sister 088 Celtic Frost - The Usurper 089 The Moving Sidewalks - Crimson Witch 090 Electric Wizard - Black Mass 091 Return Of The Living Dead Theme 092 Carcass - The Master Butcher's Apron 093 Cedell Davis - She's Got the Devil in Her 094 Zombi OST  - Zombie Vs Shark 095 Rob Zombie -  House of 1000 Corpses 096 Calabrese - Vampires Don't Exist 097 Dario Argento's LA TERZA MADRE - Main Theme by Claudio Simonetti 098 The Damned - Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 099 Danzig -  Bodies 100 Slayer - Postmortem 101 Fantomas -  The Omen (Ave Satani) 102 Cannibal Corpse - The Cryptic Stench 103 The Vampires of Dartmoore - Hallo, mister Hitchcock 104 45 Grave -  Party Time 105 Coffins -  Decapitated Crawl 106 The Misfits -  Them 107 Talking Heads - Psycho Killer 108 Denial Of God - The Curse Of The Witch 109 Lucio Fulci's Zombie Theme 110 Anthrax - Bordello Of Blood (Tales From The Crypt) 111 Iron Maiden - Phantom Of The Opera 112 The Exorcist Theme 113 Demented Are Go -  Hotrod Vampires 114 The Creepshow - Zombies Ate Her Brain 115 Tenebre (Main Title) by Goblin 116 Voltaire - Zombie Prostitute 117 HorrorPops - [Bring It On! #09] Walk Like A Zombie 118 Death  - Open Casket 119 Friday The 13th Original Theme Song 120 Wesley Willis - Vampire Bat 121 The Cult - The Witch 122 Dracula (1931) Theme Bela Lugosi 123 Slayer - Live Undead 124 Re-Animator Theme 125 Ray Parker Jnr - Ghostbusters 126 Megadeth - The Conjuring 127 Santana - Black Magic Woman 128 The Who - Boris The Spider 129 Entombed -  Evilyn 130 Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -  Red Right Hand 131 Twisted Sister -  Burn In Hell 132 The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein 133 Electric Wizard -  Dunwich 134 Danzig - Skin Carver 135 King Diamond - Them 136 Salems Lot Theme 137 Dio -  Dream Evil 138 Tenacious D -  Beelzeboss 139 Dokken -  dream warrior 140 The Doors -  The Ghost Song 141 Saint Vitus - White Magic/Black Magic 142 The Vampires of Dartmoore -  Crime and Horror 143 Fantomas -  Spider Baby 144 Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me 145 Samhain -  Halloween II 146 Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla 147 The Five Blobs - The Blob 148 Rob Zombie - Superbeast 149 The Cramps - Big Black Witchcraft Rock 150 Phantasm Theme Song 151 The Addams Family TV theme song 152 Slayer - Black Magic 153 Necrophagia -  Rue Morgue Disciple 154 Bastard Priest -  Ghouls Of The Endless Night 155 Ennio Morricone - The Thing (theme) 156 The Vision Bleak - The Wood Hag 157 Soulfly -  Cannibal Holocaust 158 Creepshow 2  - Original Theme Music 159 Dracula theme - Bram Stoker's Dracula theme 160 Monster Magnet -  19 Witches 161 Blood Ceremony -  My Demon Brother 162 Janet Jackson - Black Cat 163 Cramps -  I Was A Teenage Werewolf 164 Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror 165 The Evil Dead - Pencil It In 166 White Zombie - Cosmic Monsters Inc. 167 Fred Schneider - Monster 168 Men At Work - Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive 169 Cathedral -  Hopkins (The Witchfinder General) 170 Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science 171 A Nightmare on Elm Street - Theme Song 172 The Misfits -  Halloween II 173 The Guess Who - Clap for the Wolfman 174 Inter Arma -  Scarecrow 175 Royal Thunder -  Sleeping Witch 176 Slayer - Spirit in Black 177 Yoga -  Flying Witch 178 Down - Witchtripper 179 Witchcraft -  Ghosts House 180 Serge Gainsbourg -  Docteur Jekyll et monsieur Hyde 181 Danny Elfman - [Sleepy Hollow OST] Into The Woods (The Witch) 182 Deicide - Dead by Dawn 183 Elm Street - Elm St's Children 184 Acid Witch -  Trick or Treat 185 Satyricon -  Black Crow On A Tombstone 186 Possessed - The excorcist 187 Electric Wizard - Satanic Rites Of Dracula 188 Concrete Blonde - Bloodletting (The Vampire Song) 189 Predator Soundtrack - Main Title 190 Kryst The Conqueror - Doctor Phibes Rises Again 191 Ministry -  Every Day is Halloween (remix) 192 Megadeth - Devils Island 193 The Misfits - From Hell They Came 194 Devil Master - Black Flame Candle 195 Soiuxee and the Banshees - Fear (Of The Unknown) 196 Cradle of Filth -  Her Ghost in the Fog 197 Goblin - Witch (Suspiria Soundtrack) 198 Cliff Richard - Devil Woman 199 NIN - Dead Souls (From The Crow Soundtrack) 200 Alice Cooper - Teenage Frankenstein 201 Misfits -  Cold in Hell 202 John Carpenter - Halloween 2019 Theme (Main Title) 203 The Damned - Grimly feindish 204 Slayer -  At Dawn They Sleep 205 Atrium - Doctor Jekyll 206 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll et monsieur Hyde 207 Darkthrone -  Graveyard Slut 208 Faith No More -  Zombie Eaters 209 Candlemass - Demons Gate 210 Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead 211 Rigor Mortis -  Vampire 212 Rob Zombie -  In The Age Of The Consegrated Vampire We All Get High 213 BLOODY HAMMERS -  Witch Of Endor 214 Ghost -  Spirit 215 Autopsy -  Tourniquets, Hacksaws And Graves 216 Alice Cooper - Keepin' Halloween Alive 217 Old Man's Child - Return Of The Night Creatures 218 Black Sabbath -  Black Moon 219 The Misfits - Walk Among Us 220 Early Man -  Frankenstein: I'm Dead Alive 221 Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards 222 Slayer -  Spill The Blood 223 Carcass -  Corporal Jigsore Quandary 224 Over Kill - playing with spiders/ skullcrusher 225 Frankie Stein And His Ghouls - Elbow Twist 226 Mercyful Fate -  Black Masses 227 The Elm Street Group - Do The Freddy 228 Instant Funk - Witch Doctor 229 Cathedral -  Tombs Of The Blind Dead 230 Celtic Frost - Necromantical Screams 231 Grave Digger -  Witch Hunter 232 Basil Kirchin - Dr Phibes' Theme 233 Necrophagia -  Coffins 234 The Misfits -  Monster Mash 235 The Vision Bleak - Witching Hour 236 The Vision Bleak -  A Witch Is Born 237 Megadeth - Last rites/loved to death 238 Overkill -  Frankenstein 239 Dave Edmunds - The Creature from the Black Lagoon 240 Death - Zombie Ritual 241 John Fogerty - Eye Of The Zombie 242 Nunslaughter - Ouija 243 Main Title (Stephen King's IT) 244 Goblin -  Zombi 245 White Zombie -  I, zombie 246 XTC - Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead 247 Misfits -  Green Hell 248 Autopsy - Embalmed 249 Slayer - Haunting The Chapel 250 The Devin Townsend Band -  Vampira 251 The Frantics - Werewolf 252 Black Sabbath OST by Les Baxter - Main theme 253 Slasher Dave - Moldy coffins 254 Morricone Youth's Night of the Living Dead - Driveway to the cemetary 255 Bob McFadden - The Mummy 256 Screaming Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you 257 Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams 258 Buddy Haydock & The Boppers - The Raven 259 Helloween - Halloween 260 The Ghastly Ones -  Draculon (with intro) 261 Echo & the Bunnymen - People are strange 262 Exhumed - Slaughter maniac 263 Nightmare Before Christmas OST - This is Halloween 264 Cerrone - Supernature 265 The Specials - Ghost town 266 The Cramps - Surfin' dead 267 David Bowie's Labyrinth OST - Magic dance 268 Lalo Schifrin Abominable OST - maine title 269 The Castle Kings - You can get him Frankenstein 270 Ozzy Osbourne - Bark at the moon 271 The Grave Mistakes -  Dig your own grave 272 Demons 2 OST -  Videomix 273 Wolfmen of Mars -  Mouth like Piranha 274 Entrails - The cemetary horrors 275 Obituary - Blood soaked 276 Cannibis Corpse - Mummified in bong water 277 Dawn of the Dead OST -  theme song 278 Exodus - Piranha 279 Danny Elfmann's Nightbreed OST - end credits 280 Rigor Mortis - Wizard of gore 281 Ancient Order of the Droids -  Torus 282 The Damned - Black is the night 283 Angry Birds Seasons Halloween - Haunted Hogs Theme 284 Dunwich Horror OST by Les Baxter - Black mass 285 Chopping Mall OST -  movie theme 286 The Simpsons Tree House of Horror - Halloween Special theme 287 The B-52's  - Devil in my car 288 Cannibal Corpse - Beyond the cemetary 289 Sturgil Simpson - The Dead Don't Die 290 Chained to the Dead - Beheaded by Berrymen 291 Sisters of Mercy - This corrosion 292 Exhumed - Defenders of the grave 293 The Cure - The forest 294 Book of Love - Witchcraft 295 Alice Cooper - Welcome to my Nightmare 296 TSOL - Wash away 297 Death  - Born Dead 298 Scooby Dooby Do  TV Show - theme song 299 Dead Vampires - The Day after Halloween 300 Danny Elfmann's Beetlejuice - main title 666 ACID WITCH -  I Hate Halloween 999 Misfits - Halloween