Creepy Co. has released a series of enamel Beistle pins for Halloween this year, and they are awesome!
Bonus pin: cemetery winged skull!
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Thank you, Colleen, for sharing this quintessential horror soundtrack instrument with me!
The Waterphone, invented by Richard Waters, has been used in countless horror movie soundtracks.
Waterphones are stainless steel and bronze monolithic, one-of-a-kind, acoustic, tonal-friction instruments that utilize water in the interior of their resonators to bend tones and create water echos. In the world family of musical instruments, the Waterphone is between a Tibetian Water Drum, an African Kalimba (thumb piano) and a 16th century Peg or Nail Violin. Each Waterphone is custom made using a hot metal process developed over the past 40 years. The tonal rods are tuned to a combination of micro-tonal and diatonic relationships presented in two distinct but intergrated scales having both even and uneven increments.
Take a listen!
Apparently, there are many imitation Waterphones being produced and sold all over the world, but the creator states that they are a rather “sad” rendition, and lack the depth and nuance of the real thing.
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Vincent Price’s voice can make absolutely anything sound ominous with a twist of undeniable sophistication, as evidenced by this 1974 commercial for children’s vitamins.
Some might say he “sold out” with product endorsements like these. But I think he knew how (comically) amazing various products would be with his iconic presence behind them. I like to believe he enjoyed the irony.
If you’re feeling particularly masochistic today, you can listen to one side of the “Monster Vitamins Record.” But…you’ve been warned.
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Grandin Road has this excellent (animated!) Haunted Typewriter in their selection of decorations this year.
From the site:
Don’t just decorate, put on a spine-tingling show to write home about with our Animated Haunted Typewriter. The hit of your Halloween spectacle, they’ll still be talking about next year. As the unsuspecting approach, it simply appears as a forgotten writer’s relic.
Once the motion sensor is activated, the ghost at the keyboard repeatedly depresses the keys that spell, “H-E-L-P.” Paper carriage moves side-to-side, as typewriter sound effects play, adding to the spellbinding illusion.
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In the history of this blog, I don’t think I’ve ever had more to say about the topic of a post than I do about about the movie House (Hausu).
The film company approached director Nobuhiko Obayashi about making a film similar to Jaws. And he did…if Jaws were about the horror laden psychedelic journey of 7 giggling Japanese schoolgirls visiting a cannibal recluse and her demonic witch-cat. Did I mention the girls are named Gorgeous, Fantasy, Kung Fu, Melody, Mac, Prof and Sweet?
They proceed to get devoured one by one in the most absurdist fashion imaginable (well, nothing about this movie is actually “imaginable.” It clearly sprang forth from the deepest wellspring of the director’s haunted unconscious). It’s not just as if the movie were made by someone on acid, but as if the movie itself then came alive…and took acid.
I’ll be going back and creating a GIANT album of incredible screen shots from the film (the ones online don’t do any justice), but I needed to share this with you guys immediately.
Believe it or not, I’m put off by a lot of “weird for the sake of weird” films. But this is some next level awesomeness. I hesitate to discuss my favorite scenes because I’m holding each and every one of you accountable for seeing this film, and I don’t want to spoil the fun surprises, which come roughly every 6 seconds.
Yes, that image above is indeed a flying Kung Fu kick from a dismembered lower half of a human body.
Are you running to find this movie yet?
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Chad Wehrle sites the “masters of spook” Stephen Gammell, Edward Gorey and Donn Kenn among his influences.
I see Gammell’s spirit most of all in this work (which is great because he’s one of my all time favorite illustrators).
I just love the effect of broad, skillful smudging/erasing combined with very fine line work.
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It’s pretty easy to find a variety of plush zombie creatures these days, but Undead Teds are a cut above (pun intended).
Watch one in action first:
Each UndeadTed is painstakingly made with individually custom-sculpted parts and hand-painted for a unique, grisly finish.
My favorite part of the descriptive text on the site is the following disclaimer:
Please note this is NOT intended as a toy and as such is NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN.
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My Etsy shop now has plenty of goodies that would be perfect accessories for Halloween season attire. They range from silly and spooky to sophisticated yet haunting.
Silent horror, spookshows, vintage illustration!
Skull cameos, Beistle classics, kitsch!
Lover’s Eyes (of man and beast)!
…and much more.
There is also a giveaway running this week, so be sure to check that out.
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Many a scary movie or story has featured the infamous talking board. What would Halloween be without a little seance here and there?
Mysterious Planchette is a lovely online “museum” of planchettes (the small wooden pieces that rest under fingers and glide across the board) through the ages, from the rise of the talking board in the 19th Century, to some that are fairly recent.
You’ll find a a nice history page with plenty of information (I’m purposely making this post as an “appetizer” for a much more extensive online collection).
Side note: did you know “Ouija” is just a Hasbro trademark and not the name of the item itself? Still, the term has become synonymous with any kind of board used to spell out messages from the departed.
Did you have one of the iconic Hasbro boards growing up? Or perhaps a fancier artifact? Did you use it?
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I’m celebrating the inaugural Halloween season for my brand new SheWalksSoftly Etsy store with a giveaway! Win ANY jewelry item of your choice (or a custom request).
This was originally an Instagram contest but I’m opening it up to blog readers! You can either follow on Instagram or Facebook and use the directions there, or participate via email by forwarding this post to at least 3 friends (please include shewalkssoftlyblog@gmail.com as well, so I know you’ve participated).
Contest ends 10/12, 11pm EST. All entries will be assigned a number, and the winner drawn at random.
HAPPY HAUNTING!
SheWalksSoftly 