In the dark, your fantasies get so far out of hand...

Tonight's Movie:

Carnival Of Souls

This one is a cult classic thanks to airings on late night television over the years. Filmed on a shoestring budget, it's both odd and haunting. Very much an "art" piece. The film centers upon a young woman, played by Candace Hilligoss, who survives a drag race mishap. She takes a job as a church organist and moves to Salt Lake City. There, she becomes obsessed with a long abandoned amusement pavillion there, all the while seeing sinister apparitions.

The pacing may drag a bit here and there, and the acting not the absolute greatest, but give this one a chance. It's premise follows along the lines of "The Sixth Sense". The spooky, atmospheric, swirling organ music throughout lends it it's creepy, disoriented feel. Could have been a Twilight Zone episode, actually! But this is more for atmosphere than plot and true scares... it's more eerie and otherworldly than scary.

We own the Criterion Collection of this and the print is so crisp! And the extras are great... all about Saltair and the other locations, even a "then and now" piece with the cast.

To catch you up on our Halloween Month Movie-A-Night, what we've screened since I last updated:

Oct 9: The Mummy (original)
Oct 10: Double Feature: Son of Frankenstein / Young Frankenstein (for comic relief)
Oct 11: The Birds
Oct 12: Scream - We started early and screened the whole trilogy.
Oct 13: The Omen
Oct 14: The Shining
Oct 15: Psycho
Oct 16: Double Feature: Nosferatu (original, silent) / Phantom Of The Opera (original, silent)
Oct 17: White Zombie
Oct 18: A Nightmare On Elm Street - Still the scariest movie in the franchise!
Oct 19: Interview With The Vampire - Sexy vampires! Antonio! Brad! And yes, Tom,too!
Oct 20: Hunchback of Notre Dame - Oh how I LOVE Lon Chaney's stuff!
Oct 21: Bram Stoker's Dracula - GARY! OLDMAN! Enough said.
Oct 22: Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? - Oh SUCH a classic!!

Wait and see pattern for tomorrow night since we don't know what things hold storm wise... hopefully we won't be out of power since we got lucky and it held out last time. If we are able, I'll probably screen The Bad Seed or something along those lines. Haven't decided.

Halloween Mix 2004 - 2005

My Halloween Mix. I put this one together last year. I've also temporarily uploaded the music to my iPod so all of it is for right now on my hard drive. If you want anything as always, even the entire mix, just holler. If you request the entire mix, I can put them in a zip file and send it to your email. I was thinking it was about time I made a mix that wasn't all about "Monster Mash" on repeat seventeen times in a row, you know? LOL! Rock on, guys and ghouls!

** Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon
** Spooky - Classics IV
** Moondance - Van Morrison
** I Put A Spell On You - Marilyn Manson - His cover is REALLY creepy and good!
** Pet Sematary - The Ramones
** Thriller - Michael Jackson - Of course! Because it's the quintessential Halloween Mix song!
** Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
** Boris The Spider - The Who
** Bela Lugosi's Dead - Bauhaus
** Please Mr. Gravedigger - David Bowie
** Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Öyster Cult
** Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
** Witchy Woman - The Eagles
** There's A Light (Over At The Frankenstein Place) - From the Rocky Horror soundtrack
** Sympathy For The Devil - The Rolling Stones
** Welcome To My Nightmare - Alice Cooper
** Season of the Witch - Donovan
** People Are Strange - The Doors
** Theme from "Halloween"

I transisioned some of these (on the CD anyway, not the iPod) with short snippets of sound effects like thunderclaps, screams, chains jangling, etc. and it really came out nicely! I'm taking this with me on our adventure next weekend to Tampa and Howl-O-Scream to set the mood. There are so many more songs I can think of just right off that aren't on here, too, I may make another for next year.