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Killer silhouettes of 80s VHS horror movie box art
04.01.2016
01:44 pm
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The excellent recent documentary The Nightmare examines the topic of sleep paralysis, a condition which causes terrifying waking hallucinations in its victims. Many of the sufferers of sleep paralysis describe similar visions. In fact, these descriptions are often so alike, it’s uncanny. One of the typical hallucinatory images described is that of a shadowy silhouetted figure. Sometimes there are three of these figures, the leader of which is usually wearing some sort of a hat. This hat-wearing dream-stalking shadow is said to have been the original basis for the Freddy Krueger character from A Nightmare on Elm Street.

There is something very primal about this shadow figure that haunts the dreams of sleep paralysis sufferers. This dark silhouette is something ingrained into our animal brains as an anthropomorphic personification of fear itself.

I was reminded of the demons of sleep paralysis when I ran across a post from Camera Viscera collecting scads of VHS horror covers all with the thematic connection of having a silhouette figuring prominently in the artwork. You can check their site or their Facebook page for even more of these “kill-houettes.”

Below is a gallery of the finest examples of shadow terror art.

Happy nightmares, folks:
 

 

 

 
More 80s VHS kill-ouettes after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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04.01.2016
01:44 pm
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Vintage horror film lobby cards through the decades
10.27.2015
09:23 am
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Freaks vintage lobby card, 1932
Freaks vintage lobby card, 1932
 
As Halloween is quickly approaching I’ve pulled together some pretty cool eye-candy to help feed your inner ghoul - vintage “lobby cards” used to advertise horror films from the last seven decades. The use of lobby cards can be traced back as far as 1910 (The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale houses a collection of cards from silent westerns from 1910-1930).
 
Dracula's Daughter vintage lobby card, 1936
Dracula’s Daughter vintage lobby card, 1936
 
Frakenstein vintage lobby card, 1931
Frankenstein vintage lobby card, 1931
 
Many lobby cards came in sets of up to twelve cards to help promote the film. In some cases, avid collectors have shelled out loads of cash for vintage lobby cards, such as the card pictured above for the 1931 film Frankenstein which sold at an auction this past summer for over $10K. But most of the cards in this post can be had for more reasonable sums via eBay or Etsy. I’m especially fond of the B-movie lobby cards from the 50s and the 60s that celebrated oddball films like 1956’s The Indestructible Man (starring Lon Chaney Jr.), or the impossibly strange sounding The Brain from Planet Arous (1957), and I think you will be too. Happy viewing, creeps!
 
Magic lobby card, 1978
Lobby card for the 1978 film, Magic
 
Many more macabre lobby cards after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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10.27.2015
09:23 am
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Glorious, gory & (sometimes) goofy foreign film posters for horror films of the 1960s and 1970s
08.13.2015
10:40 am
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The Giant Spider Invasion (Japan)
The Giant Spider Invasion (Japan). Based on the low-budget 1975 film produced by Transcentury Pictures, directed by Bill Rebane
 
As a huge fan of horror films, especially those of the vintage variety, I really enjoyed pulling together this post that features foreign-made film posters advertising various horror films from the 1960s and 1970s.
 
Suspiria movie poster (Italy)
Suspiria (1977) movie poster (Italy)
 
The best thing about movie posters made for consumption outside the U.S. is that they are so much more adventurous. Few of these posters would have ever seen the light of day in a U.S. theater lobby due to their their liberal use of unorthodox imagery and nudity. Some of what follows may be considered NSFW—which is precisely why you MUST see them!
 
The Exorcist movie poster (Turkey)
The Exorcist (1973) movie poster (Turkey)
 
Dracula AD movie poster (Italy)
Dracula A.D. (1972, Hammer Films) movie poster (Italy)
 
More of these marvelous posters after the jump…...
 

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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08.13.2015
10:40 am
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Iconic horror soundtracks played in a major key become soothing, triumphant, dorky
08.13.2015
10:15 am
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Transposing minor key songs into a major key (or vice versa) has become a thing on the internet in the past couple of years—a process that has been made rather easy with the advent of pitch-correction software. The results are often astounding. Some popular recent examples that have gone viral are REM’s “Losing My Religion” and Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters,” both reworked into a major key. These minor-to-major reworks often give the songs a “triumphant” quality. A good example of this is this reworking of Europe’s “The Final Countdown”—already pretty “triumphant” as it was—now it sounds like a goddamn national anthem.

Musician, writer, and amateur filmmaker Ian Gordon has recently reworked a handful of iconic horror themes into a major key. The results, for the most part, turn creepy dread into pleasant elevator music. YouTube user Muted Vocal has uploaded a selection of five of these reworked themes: The X-Files, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist, and Saw. The changes are fascinating:

The X-Files theme played in a major key sounds exactly like Weather Channel “Locals on the 8s” music.

John Carpenter’s iconic Halloween soundtrack now sounds like Vangelis mashing up his Chariot’s of Fire theme with “Baba O’Riley.”

The Saw theme is now the intro music to an imaginary Hugh Grant film.

Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”—the theme from The Exorcist—now sounds like the wimpy, tinkly breakdown part of a Styx track, right before the “rock part” kicks in.

A Nightmare on Elm Street‘s theme played in a major key is the only one that retains any creep factor whatsoever—and maybe that’s just me, because I think Christmas is creepy. It sounds like the theme to a Hallmark Channel Holiday special.

These are all really great, but the Halloween theme left me wondering… what would the Chariots of Fire theme sound like in a minor key? I bet it’d be scary as hell. Perhaps Mr. Gordon can get on that and let us know?

Enjoy, here, the pleasant sounds of transposed horror:
 

 
via Nightflight, Bloody-Disgusting

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Can ya dig it? Cabaret Voltaire’s insane version of Isaac Hayes’ ‘Theme from Shaft’
Soundtracks: Cinematic themes from Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, Tom Waits, John Cale and more
You know, this is—excuse me—a damn fine cover! The Joy Formidable revamps the ‘Twin Peaks’ theme

Posted by Christopher Bickel
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08.13.2015
10:15 am
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Wild prism stickers of 80s horror movies
06.08.2015
11:33 am
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Day of the Dead
 
These prismatic stickers, universally referred to as “prism stickers,” were all the rage in the late 1980s, which happily coincided with a classic period for horror movies, when the Halloween, Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Nightmare on Elm Street franchises were churning out product at an alarming clip.

Yesterday on his delightful Tumblr John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats posted a pic of one of these, the Day of the Dead image above, with this message:
 

you put a quarter into the vending machine and you get a sticker that reflects the light all rainbow-like and it says “the darkest day of horror the world has ever known” on it

there’s a lot wrong with this world but then again check out this completely rad sticker, is what I’m saying

 
Hear, hear! I can’t get enough of the colors on these—the Slaughter High one in particular strikes me as a minor masterpiece. Darnielle and I aren’t alone in our admiration, in trying to find images of these stickers (not the easiest thing in the world), it was noticeable that many of these went for prices upwards of $30 on eBay.
 

They Live
 

An American Werewolf in London
 

Slaughter High
 

Beetlejuice
 
More prism stickers after the jump…

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Posted by Martin Schneider
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06.08.2015
11:33 am
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Terry Gilliam’s title sequence for ‘Cry of the Banshee’ (with Vincent Price) 1970
02.10.2015
02:22 pm
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Less than a year after the premiere of Monty Python’s Flying Circus on BBC, Terry Gilliam’s credit sequence for Gordon Hessler’s Cry of the Banshee was also presented to the world. For those of us who are more likely to think of a fleshy foot or perhaps “Conrad Poohs and His Dancing Teeth” as typical of Gilliam’s well-known cutout technique might be surprised to see it used to such different effect.

Cry of the Banshee was the second of three movies Hessler would make with Vincent Price in a span of two years; the others were The Oblong Box and Scream and Scream Again.

Among other things this represents Gilliam’s first-ever credit on a feature film, at least I could find nothing earlier on IMDb.
 

 

Posted by Martin Schneider
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02.10.2015
02:22 pm
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Dracula on drugs: Bela Lugosi ‘fesses up to being a dope fiend, 1955
02.04.2015
10:39 am
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laebisogul.jpg
 
Bela Lugosi was perhaps the first Hollywood star to openly admit to his drug addiction. Lugosi had become dependent on drugs after being prescribed opiates for relief of painful sciatica in the late 1940s. As his habit grew, his career slid into shitsville Z-list movies and his dope fiend reputation kept producers from hiring the legendary actor. Lugosi was forced into making his money through repertory tours in the US and England and special guest appearances on late-nite TV and double bills at the local movie theater.

Living the junkie life in direst poverty, Lugosi was given the chance of a comeback by the infamous Ed Wood, who offered the actor work on Glen or Glenda and Bride of the Monster. Grateful for the chance to turn his life around, Lugosi checked himself into a rehab clinic, before moving onto the local hospital. Lugosi went “cold turkey” and spent three months (90 days was the state minimum) getting straight. When he left the hospital in 1955, he gave what is thought to be his last filmed interview, where he talked about his drug treatment, his plans for a new film with Ed Wood and how he felt like a million dollars. The feeling wasn’t to last, by August 1956, the legendary Bela Lugosi was dead.
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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02.04.2015
10:39 am
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Sweet dreams: Horror movie pillows
09.17.2014
10:47 am
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The good people at Horror Decor have a line of printed pillows that are absolutely fabulous. The square ones come in small and large and cost $14 and $20, respectively; not all pillows come in both sizes. The rectangular ones cost $16.

They have many other pillows not shown here, including Jaws, Dead Alive, The Amityville Horror, and many more.

I love that they went the extra mile and made a pillow for The Stuff, which is a movie I haven’t thought about in twenty years.

They have a lot of other great horror knickknacks, like candles, placemats, pot holders, and the like, so be sure to click around.
 

The Thing
 

Night of the Living Dead
 

They Live
 

The Exorcist
 

Beetlejuice
 

The Shining
 

Hostel
 

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
 

Nosferatu
 

The Stuff
 

Poltergeist
 
Below, the trailer for Larry Cohen’s monster frozen yoghurt indie horror comedy, The Stuff:

via Kraftfuttermischwerk

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.17.2014
10:47 am
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