The Cult Labs Ultimate Halloween Playlist

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Chordettes - Mr. Sandman

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Stuart Maconie's Fright Night Playlist


Stuart’s chosen tracks:


1. Suspiria by Goblin

Listen on BBC Playlister

2. Rosemary's Baby by Krystof Komea

3. Monstrance Clock by Ghost

4. Alucard by Gentle Giant

5. Psycho by Jack Kittell

6. Halloween by John Carpenter

7. Come Wonder with me by Bonnie Beacher - The Twilight Zone

8. The Equestrian Vortex by Broadcast

9. Willow's Song Magnet from The Wicker Man OST

10. Bleaklow by The Stranger

11. Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath

12. The Dreams: Falling by Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange
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Helloween - Halloween

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Type O Negative - Halloween In Heaven

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Peter Strickland's Horror Picks
The director of The Stone Tape treats us to his horror recommendations.

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Soundtracks:

Flesh for Frankenstein by Claudio Gizzi
If the excitement of having both Udo Kier and Joe Dallesandro in starring roles wasn’t enough, there’s the added bonus of Claudio Gizzi’s mournfully romantic score. I played it on set for my film ‘The Duke of Burgundy’ to convey the mood I wanted when Sidse Babett Knudsen had to react to a sales pitch for a bondage toilet.



Carnival of Souls by Gene Moore
A perfect film and a perfect soundtrack. One of the spookiest and loneliest soundtracks I’ve ever heard from a film that literally came out of nowhere and disappeared again.

The Fearless Vampire Killers by Krzysztof Komeda
Harpsichords, choirs and Komeda. That’s enough to lure me.

Le Orme by Nicola Piovani
A sad and fragile soundtrack with wonderfully sorrowful woodwind countered with austere organ passages.

The Fog by John Carpenter
I love almost all of Carpenter’s soundtracks, but this one is remarkably uncanny.

Suspiria by Goblin
I had to put one obvious choice. Heads it was to be The Wicker Man; tails it was to be Suspiria. Tails won.

Valerie and her Week of Wonders by Luboš Fišer
Another obvious choice, but its overexposure is posthumously deserved.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave by Bruno Nicolai
Nicolai conducted several Ennio Morricone soundtracks, which explains how similar the two composers sound. It’s hard to pick one favourite by Nicolai, but for this week it has to be ‘The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave’.

The Devil Is A Woman by Ennio Morricone
His most mind-boggling soundtrack and most obscure too. I’ve never seen the film and don’t even know if it’s horror or not, but regardless, Morricone envelops the listener in a psychedelic swarm of choral overload. It’s disorientating, melancholic and bracingly intense. The only other Morricone soundtrack I know of that adopts a vaguely similar sound is for the horror film, ‘Who Saw Her Die?’

Daughters of Darkness by François de Roubaix
François de Roubaix soundtracks are usually wondrous affairs, whether it’s for educational science films, art house or genre fare. He’s my favourite French soundtrack composer along with Georges Delerue. Gloriously morose and gothic, the Daughters of Darkness soundtrack is a work of mysterious Euro decadence unlike any other mysterious Euro decadent soundtrack.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne by Bernard Parmegiani
The anachronistic device of using electronics to soundtrack a period film is put to devastating effect here. The idea is genius and the execution is thoroughly in tune with the visuals. The electronic drones that accompany the transformation scenes are a perfect example of the transformative effect of avant-garde experimentation when combined with fantastical imagery.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Tobe Hooper and Wayne Bell
One of the most vivid examples of a soundtrack blurring the lines between ‘music’ and sound design. Utterly feral and ferocious; Hooper and Bell’s clamorous soundtrack is musique concrète with scabies. It clangs and howls and cauterizes your cranium, but it’d still work just as effectively as a stand-alone concert piece.


Maniac by Jay Chattaway
Putting its more serene passages aside, Chattaway’s synth score is minimal and abrasive, at times recalling the turbulent electronics on tracks such as Whitehouses’s ‘Total Sex’ and Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Slug Bait (Live at Brighton)’. In fact, if only Whitehouse or Throbbing Gristle had scored a late ‘70s scuzzy New York slasher film or early Cronenberg during his ‘Rabid’ and ‘Shivers’ period.

Cannibal Holocaust by Riz Ortolani
From the film that every vegetarian regrets seeing. Ortolani’s score is deviously deceptive and is the most brutal example of what Italian shock cinema was so good at: counterpoint. The unremitting savagery on screen is not so much abated, rather intensified by the use of a lush, romantic score. The ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ theme is so ridiculously saccharine on its own that you could almost imagine Renée and Renato doing a duet over it.

Bollywood Bloodbath by Various Artists
From the ever-reliable Finders Keepers label, this eccentric and evocative Bollywood horror compilation spanning from 1949 to 1985 opens up a whole world of discovery. As always with Finders Keepers, the sleeve notes are highly informative and lead the listener on a treasure hunt for more. I’ve been as guilty as many people in focusing my horror viewing only on Italy, the UK or USA, which means this list is full of omissions. I know very little of the terrifying and extravagant treasures made in countries such as Brazil (with the exception of Coffin Joe), Mexico, Japan, Pakistan and India. This compilation album is a taster of how much I’m yet to discover.

BBC Radio 4 - Drama, Fright Night: The Stone Tape - Peter Strickland's Horror Picks

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Black Sabbath - Trashed