It's all about the music

I have been struggling with the notion of writing about something completely different for weeks now! We have been informing you about books, short stories, films, games, TV series and more, but we have never even mentioned music in this blog. I know you're thinking this is a blog about everything horrid; not about music. Bare with me though.

How many times have we seen a film or a series and couldn't take the tune out of our heads? How many times have we read a book and played tunes inside our head? How many times have we heard of a song or a melody and said "Wow, this would be a good fit for that movie or listening to this is like reading Edgar Allan Poe!"

Who doesn't remember the theme song of the "Exorcist", or "Freddy's song"? How they make us feel when we hear them unexpectadly..

Truth be told music plays a very important role in the success or not of a movie or a series or even a game. Melody can make something memorable.

Sometimes the notes convey feelings, sometimes there is a song, lyrics and melody preparing for what we are about to see. Either way can you even imagine the most important scenes of classic films without their musical garments? Imagine "Psycho" the most famous of scenes, the shower scene, with no music.. It's not the same is it?

It's a fact that whenever the music starts to change or gets more intense we know that something is going to happen, we feel the monsters lurking coming for the kill.

I thought about publishing a top ten of melodies coming from horror related things, but once I started I just couldn't narrow them down only to ten! I gave up and instead this came up: just a few lines dedicated to all those composers who have made us jump from our seats, gave us the chills, scared or even made us grin.

Closing I give you a tune that is so hard to forget and I'm asking all of you out there to check in and tell us which are the melodies that haunt your dreams?

A way to say we are sorry...

Holidays are finally over. So it’s time we all went back to our lives as before. I know that there was a big promise breaking from our part so this is me trying to make up for it.

We had promised a top ten list about scary Christmas stories that were never posted. Our sincere apologies for that, I just hope that the following piece can make up for it. Since the post was promised to satisfy readers and not watchers I thought that a classic gothic tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would do the trick. It can of course be no other than “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.

When one listens to the name Sir Arthur Conan Doyle one usually thinks about Sherlock Holmes and detective stories. That is actually true so what is a detective story doing in this kind of a blog?

Well, when the supernatural and old tales of curses and hellhounds are incorporated to the story how can we not be tempted to write about it?

The story takes place in the English country; at “Baskerville Hall”. A vast estate surrounded by moors swamps and the aura of mysterious ghostly presence. Found dead with a horrified look on his face somewhere in the haunted woods of his land Sir Charles Baskerville, terrifies his heirs reminding them of an old curse.

Sherlock Holmes is called upon to investigate the circumstances of his demise and is made aware of a tale long forgotten. One of Baskerville’s ancestors enslaved by lust and madness sells his soul to have what he cannot. His life ended hunting what he desired and one of his hounds was the collector of the price paid. And so the curse begins for all male heirs of the Baskerville estate.

Footprints found at the crime scene suggested that Sir Charles was desperately running away from something that could only be described as a ‘gigantic hound’, while Holmes receives threatening letters telling him to avoid the moors...

Has the Hellhound been unleashed once again claiming the souls of the Baskervilles?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s impeccable writing takes the reader to a place filled with fear and agony. Highly recommended “The Hound of the Baskervilles” can and will satisfy even the most demanding of readers. You can read it -for free- right here.

And for those who prefer watching to reading there are at least two dozen attempts to capture the feeling of the story in film, but if you ask me the ones that actually do are the black and white ones. There is something unearthly about the absence of color that makes those films even darker…

Bela Lugosi's Dead

I have seen, and then seen again, more than a few films promising to capture the lure and fascination of our beloved nocturnal creatures. Needless to say, I was mostly and unsurprisingly untouched by all those weak attempts to restore the awe once lost.

As a matter of fact the last vampire movie I enjoyed was Coppola's Dracula and that was a looong time ago.

There is some kind of innocence in those black and white movies or even the early colored ones that made the difference. The commanding presence of the tall and lean and ever so intriguing figure of a vampire, with only blood and survival in his mind. The cape, the make-up, the costumes, the music, the era itself, which made those films dark, romantic and me reminiscent.

I miss the incomparable cemetery scenes, caskets opening, creaking, damsels screaming for their lives.

The idea of a monster hiding under my bed or even in my closet waiting, lurking.

And as the song goes....

White on white translucent black capes
Back on the rack
Bela Lugosi's dead
The bats have left the bell tower
The victims have been bled
Red velvet lines the black box
Bela Lugosi's dead
Undead undead undead
The virginal brides file past his tomb
Strewn with time's dead flowers
Bereft in deathly bloom
Alone in a darkened room
The count
Bela Lugosi’s dead
Undead undead undead

To Nick...

Vincent by Tim Burton

Tim Burton's 1982 darkly sardonical Vincent, the beautiful short animated film you can see above, is both visually stunning and a rather unique stop-motion film that also is a poem. What's more, and apart from the excellent Vincent Price narration, you can even spot an early Jack Skellington in there. Well, can you?

A good Starting Point

I was getting ready for a short trip to some mysterious destination for a little R n' R. I was almost done packing when I realized I hadn't packed any books. Big mistake! So, I went to my bookshelf running my fingers through the titles when my hand stopped at a book I didn't remember I had.

A great gift by great friends (isn't it wonderful when friends know exactly what to get you?).

A beautiful collage of Gothic tales with an excellent introduction covering questions such as “what is gothic?”, The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales makes for an excellent holiday companion. Authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Jorge Luis Borges, Angela Carter and others cover almost every era of the genre.

Since we all have personal favorites I'm sure that you will not all agree with the stories chosen representing every one of these authors. Nevertheless, this collection of horror – ghost stories is a smart way to initiate beginners to the beautiful dark and romantic world of goth.

Eerie settings, cursed souls, brave and honorable heroes who come to their untimely demise or prevail against all odds. Scary and passionate, dark and profoundly disturbing, each story speaks of the ill minds of their writers and the agony of their existence.

If you are seeking for something nice and relaxing to read during your vacation, this is not recommended, but if you, by any chance, are as addicted to decay as some of us, then rest assured that this book will get you there...

P.S: Have a gloomy and frightful summer children!