Dav’s Ultimate Halloween Mix’s 19th Edition: Halloween 2020

Click Here for Halloween Mix #19

All songs by Professor D are by me. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. Feel free to share and pass on the link.  If you want more, check out the previous year’s mixes links at the bottom of this post.

I’ve also just uploaded a bunch of music I made on old mixes under The Best of Professor D.

It has been a busy year for everyone, I was only able to record one original song, but it is a good one.  I also have clips from horror movie trailers in front of each song.  Next year is the 20th Anniversary, so make sure to come back.  I’m planning some big things for that mix.

I’m going to post information about each track all month, so check back in and scroll down to see new entries.

Track List:

1. And Now The Screaming Starts/Blue Wrath – I, Monster
2. Seizure/It’s Almost Halloween – Panic at the Disco!
3. The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud/Slasher in a Mask – Professor D
4. Ghoulies/Every Day Is Halloween (Ministry Cover) – Tre Lux
5. Brotherhood of Satan/Docteur Jekyll & Mister Hyde – Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg
6. Tales from the Crypt/Aim For The Head – Creature Feature
7. The Night Child/Walking On Air – Kerli
8. Halloween Safety (1977)/Halloween – MC Chris
9. The Possession of Joel Delaney/Dear Jeepers – Bob Guy
10. Night of the Living Dead/They’re Coming To Get You Barbara – No More Kings
11. Hell Night/Halloween – The Young Werewolves
12. House/Dracula Cha Cha Cha – Bruno Martino
13. Asylum/Insanity – Oingo Boingo
14. Psycho From Texas/Skull – Drop Nineteens
15. Freddy Kruger Hotline/Elm Street Cemetery – A Nightmare On Elm Street
16. 13 Ghosts/Ghost Creepin’ Blues – St. Louis Bessie
17. Zombie Island/Crypt Zombie Hula – Deadcats
18. Dawn of the Dead/Dawn of the Dead – Schoolyard Heroes
19. Astro Zombies/Corpses (A Zombie Love Song) – God Module
20. Love Me Deadly/Nightmares – A Flock Of Seagulls
21. Chopping Mall/Murder Movies – Unwound
22. Frankenstein/Halloween Parade – Lou Reed
23. Halloween Safety (1977)/It’s Halloween – The Shaggs

Previous Years’ Mixes:

Halloween Mix 2019

Halloween Mix 2018

Halloween Mix 2017

Halloween Mix 2016

Halloween Mix 2015

Halloween Mix 2014

Track 1: And Now The Screaming Starts/Blue Wrath – I, Monster

Intro:  This movie came out in 1973, but takes place 200 years earlier.  A severed hand haunts a recently married couple honeymooning in the family castle.  It turns out the be the severed hand of a servant who was killed and the hand is now controlled by his murderer, the ghost of the husband’s grandfather.  After a number of murders, Peter Cushing’s character shoes up to investigate.

Song: I couldn’t believe it. As I started writing this entry, a strange sort of familiarity was experienced from the research process. I realized that for the first time in nineteen years I put a song on the mix that had been on a previous one. So, with only a few having downloaded the mix before the replacement, here is the new intro song. I, Monster are Dean Honer and Jarrod Gosling, from England; these electronic music artists have been creating together since 1997. The are from Sheffield, and are on their self-created label: Twins of Evil. Both their band and label name are Peter Cushing movies, so it seemed a good choice to be connected to And Now The Screaming Starts.

Track 2: Seizure/It’s Almost Halloween – Panic at the Disco!

Intro: This was Oliver Stone’s first movie. It stars Jonathan Frid, famous for playing Barnabas Collins the British horror soap opera Dark Shadows, as a horror novel writer. He moves his family to a country cottage, so he can finish his latest novel. He starts to have nightmares about the beings featured on the poster above: The Executioner, Queen of Evil, and the Dwarf (played by Fantasy Island’s Hervé Villechaize). He invites a number of friends to the cottage for a weekend and the nightmares become reality.

Song: Panic At The Disco! released this song in 2008 in their early days.  Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross trade singing duties. When I heard this tune, I had to include it as the first full song (not instrumental). It is very catchy. It is much more loose and lo-fi than the songs my daughter has played for me by the band. The vocals were apparently recorded in a bathroom while they were on tour. Check out the music video on Youtube, it is pretty fun.

Track 3: The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud/Slasher in a Mask – Professor D

Intro: The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud was first a novel by Max Ehrlich, who also wrote the screenplay for the movie. College History Professor Peter Proud keeps have the same nightmare about being murdered in the water by a woman in a small boat. After recognizing the woman in his dreams in a film that was shot in Massachusetts, he travels there to find her. Her name is Marcia (played by Margo Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the 1978 Superman), which is the dame name as the woman from his dream. Peter may be the reincarnation of her dead husband.

Song: I usually spend all of September recording songs, finding can cutting up horror movie clips, and picking music, but always feel rushed to get the mix out by October 1. I had originally planned to start a month ahead this year, in August, but I was so busy, I wasn’t really able to get going until the beginning of September. and then caught “the coop”. I am amazed that the mixed turned out so well. The only drawback is that I only had enough time to write and record one original song, but it is a good one. “Slasher in a Mask” was my attempt at creating a typical slasher story with the three verses representing currents state, backstory, and familial victim. I’m particually proud of the juxtaposition of the verses to the sped up chorus. I sing and play guitar on this track and was accompanied by my daughter on the drum pad.

Next year, I am going to aim to produce multiple tracks. Maybe I should start in July.

Track 4: Ghoulies/Every Day Is Halloween (Ministry Cover) – Tre Lux

Intro: This movie was a pretty shameless rip off of Gremlins. It is infamous for its marketing with the little ghoulie popping up out of the toilet in both the commercial and the poster. It never happens in the movie. Johnathan is the son a satanist who inherits the family mansion. When he and his friends preform a ritual for fun at a party, they unwittingly release the creatures, who go on a rampage. There is nothing close to the level of puppetry seen in Gremlins in this movie. The ghoulies look so stiff, yet covered in a shinny goo, it takes a tremendous amount of suspension of disbelief to take this seriously.

Song: Tre Lux is the stage name of Tina Root, the lead singer of Switchblade Symphony. This song comes from her solo album of covers: A Strange Gathering. “Every Day is Halloween” is a classic song from the early days of Ministry, when they were still more electronic than metal. The original was one of the songs on the very first Halloween mix, nineteen years ago.

Track 5: Brotherhood of Satan/Docteur Jekyll & Mister Hyde – Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg

Intro: This move was an unofficial sequel to The Witchmaker. Taking place in a small southwestern town of Hillsboro, there have been three days of horror: twenty six people have died; anyone who tried to enter or leave the town suffers a gruesome fate; eleven children are missing. Why is this happening? Satanists of course. One noted gimmick for the film was that theater goers would receive a pack of “Satan’s Soul Seeds” (an envelope with two seeds in it) to protect them from the Black Magic of the film.

Song: The title track from this album, Bonnie and Clyde, is probably its most well known. Serge Gainsbourg was a very prolific French artist with a multitude of endeavors outside of music. Brigitte Bardot was famous worldwide for her modeling, acting, singing, and animal rights activism.

Track 6: Tales from the Crypt/Aim For The Head – Creature Feature

Intro: This movie was based off of the EC comic series from the 50s. Horror comics were very popular in the 50s and very controversial. There were congressional hearings and they ended up being banned. The comics code was created, which severely limited creators. It was only recently that the code was abandoned. The film follows the same format as the comic: a host introduces each segment for multiple stories.

Song: Southern Californians, Curtis Rx and Erik X formed the band on a Halloween in the late 2000s. “Aim for the Head” comes from Greatest Show Unearthed, their first album. They list Danny Elfman during his Oingo Boingo (see later in the mix) years as a major influence.

Track 7: The Night Child/Walking On Air – Kerli

Intro: Also titled The Medallion, this movie is about a young girl, Emily, whose father has brought her along with him to Italy, where he is filming a documentary about satanists. She is possessed by a medallion that she wears, that used to belong to her mother, who recently died leaping from a window while on fire. There is a lot of mysterious killings and a painting that holds the mystery behind the inevitable end of most of the main characters.

Song: My daughter played this song for me, and I immediately wanted it for this year’s mix. She is from Elva, Estonia and has been singing and making music professionally since 2002. In 2008, she moved to the US and got signed to Def Jam Records. She is able to move to many different styles in this song; at one point I think she even sounds like Bjork.

Track 8: Halloween Safety (1977)/Halloween – MC Chris

Intro: This clip is the only one not from a movie. This safety video from 1977 is full of the type of overbearing fear based parental warnings that I always got trick or treating, and this was one of the years I was trick or treating. Not all of it is bad, but in particular is the subject of the clip and my manipulation of it. The “stranger danger” threat of poisoning candy and razor blades (ridiculous) was so prevalent that year; after every apple I got from a house, my step-father would chuck the apple down the street, and it would explode on the asphalt, because of the threat of a razor blade.

Song: I have the same shirt. MC Chris was very involved in the older days of Adult Swim, especially Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He is considered one of the best Nerdcore artist in existence. My son loves this song; every day that I pick him up from kindergarten, I have to play this for him.

Track 9: The Possession of Joel Delaney/Dear Jeepers – Bob Guy

Intro: Shirley Maclaine stars as a New York socialite who fears he little brother has been possessed by a serial killer. It pre-dates The Exorcist, which I incorrectly assumed it to be a copy cat, and is one of the first films to handle this type of possession.

Song: Bob Guy was a horror movie host (like Svengoolie or Elvira) on KCOP TV in Los Angeles. His Jeepers’ Creepers Theater ran from 1963 to 1966. Frank Zappa was a huge fan and in 1963, he and Guy recorded two songs, with Zappa playing all of the music. The other song besides this one is Jeepers’ letter back to Dracula.

Track 10: Night of the Living Dead/They’re Coming To Get You Barbara – No More Kings

Intro: It’s Night of the Living Dead. What else is there to say? I’ll never forget the first time I saw it and the scene came up with the little girl and her mother in the basement. It truly terrified me. I haven’t seen it in a long time, but I have a copy of the HD restoration and am excited to watch it again.

Song: I heard this song, which really does nothing more than recount Barbara’s story from the movie, last Halloween and knew it had to be on this years mix upon the first listen. It is so pleasant sounding at the same time describing the horror. Pete Mitchell and Neil Robins are the main members of the band, but add additional musicians as needed. They play a lots of songs centered on 80’s pop culture.