More movie posters:

100 Illustrated Horror Film Posters: Part 1
100 Illustrated Horror Film Posters: Part 2
16 horror movie posters so gruesome they make our eyeballs bleed

One thing I love about this time of year is that TV shows tend to do Halloween episodes. Of course the first show that comes to mind is The Simpsons. Who can ever top their Halloween shows? And don’t forget to watch Treehouse of Horror XX tonight!

©Matt Groening. All rights reserved. Used without permission.

One of my fav Halloween episodes is from The Adventures of Pete and Pete. In Halloweenie, Little Pete decides to break the record for the most houses visited while Big Pete must decide to either help his brother or join the gang of Pumpkin Eaters. Here’s the episode in four parts – co-starring a young Dawn Summers and Nona’s Pop.

but not for ice cream

More screams on film
Sound files of screams

This weekend hundreds of Brooklyn artists open their studios to general public. Be sure to visit our friend LJ’s studio this weekend at A.G.A.S.T. I love her work and wish I had lots of money and wall space because I would buy her entire Lock Series.

It will come as no surprise that I love Edward Gorey, you know, the guy that did the PBS Mystery! opening animation. One of his most famous works is The Gashlycrumb Tinies:

Two panels from the book:

One Halloween I dressed up as Zillah, maybe I should do another Tiny for this Halloween.

And for those in the Yarmouth Port, MA area, you can attend the 8th Annual Goreyfest this weekend. Sounds like fun!

This time of year I get a bunch of emails about what music folks should play at their Halloween parties. While I enjoy the typical songs of Halloween (Monster Mash, Dead Man’s Party, Everyday is Halloween to name a few), I think the music for Halloween parties should create a scary atmosphere. (Okay, I guess this depends on what kind of party you are hosting, but I like my Halloween parties to be somewhat scary so I’m going with that type of music.)

Some of my favourite cds for Halloween background music are the Twin Peaks soundtrack (and other Angelo Badalamenti works), Ambient Vol. 4 Isolationism (both are sadly out of print) and David Sylvian/Holger Czukay’s Plight and Premonition (which is still available).

Anyone have any good suggestions of Halloween atmospheric music?

I’ll leave you with two great opening credit scores:

Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells – You should listen to the entire Tubular Bells recording cranked up loud on your stereo – highly recommended.

John Carpenter, Halloween Main Theme – Very simple but so highly effective at creating a terrifying mood.

That is how I’d describe some of the work of Mark Ryden.

© Mark Rydon. All rights reserved. Used without permission.

© Mark Rydon. All rights reserved. Used without permission.

October is a special time of the year for the folks at OrangeYouGlad. We decided years ago that instead of sending Christmas cards or gifts to our clients, we would focus on Halloween (it being the bestest day of the year of course). We’re furiously working on our 2009 promotion but thought you might like to revisit some of our past promos:

Read Scary Mary’s Little Bleak Book

Create your own Paper Plate Masks

Cook up something from our Eerie Eats Recipe Cards

Have a drink in our VooDoo Lounge

When living in a big city, one can find some amazing items tossed out on the curb the night before trash day. My best find happens to be this painting I call Buster.

Why would anyone throw this painting away, you ask. In fact, I asked myself the same thing as I clutched it in my hands. My dog Ren agreed so we carted the painting home.

Did the artist decide he just didn’t like it anymore and tossed it out? Or maybe someone’s significant other would only move in with them if they removed “that hideous little man” from their wall? The mystery still remains a mystery and Buster still hangs on my wall.

Today would have been my dad’s birthday so I thought I’d feature some of my favourite fathers on film.

Henry from Eraserhead – View a clip

Jack from The Shining – View a clip

Frederick from Young Frankenstein – View a clip

October 11 is World Zombie Day – your chance to smear on some blood and gnaw on human body parts. If you live in the Pittsburgh area (I’m looking at you Dave) you can do your zombie-thang at the actual Monroeville Mall, featured in George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.

Some of my fav zombies flicks:

This is on my list of movies to see – I think World Zombie Day would be a good day to do so:

And just for fun, here’s a great track from The Zombies

Most of us in the studio are either reading the Sookie Stackhouse books or watching True Blood (some of us are doing both) so I thought I’d highlight my (and scores of others) favourite character with this clip of Eric bringing the scare to True Blood.

And just because I like hearing Alexander SkarsgÃ¥rd speak in his native language, here’s a clip of Eric and his maker Godric:

Okay, this isn’t really my nightmare but I’m sure it was for lots of folks in the 1400s.

Hieronymus Bosch

I’m a huge fan of stop-motion animation. I even took a class at SVU to learn how to do it myself – the model I made to animate was Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

The four artists below create some fantastic nightmare worlds. Enjoy.

The Brothers Quay

David Anderson

Jan Å vankmajer

Folks who know me, know that I hate musicals. This one is the exception (okay, I’ll admit I also enjoyed Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog). When I saw this movie for the first time all I could think was “I want to live in Halloween Town.” I watch it every year and still think it would be a great place to live.

Henry Selick/Tim Burton

© 2009 Kristian Hammerstad. All rights reserved. Used without permission.

Check out the rest of the fun monsters from Kristian Hammerstad.