Today’s video is a brilliantly simple mash-up: The Nightmare Before Christmas meets the song “Halloween”, by everyone’s favorite goth-punkers, The Misfits. The attempts to sync the lyrics with characters’ mouth movements are only so-so. But what makes the clip really work is how the tempo of the song highlights the kinetic energy of the film.
The Nightmare Before Christmas, while being a widely-loved family film, never betrays its spooky aesthetic. “Halloween” by The Misfits is decidedly less kid-friendly, with lines like, “This day anything goes / Burning bodies hanging from poles / I remember Halloween.” But there is an undeniable kick to the beat that makes it feel celebratory.
For more upbeat Misfits fun, check out the video for their cover of The Cryptkickers’ classic The Monster Mash. It’s cut together with stop-motion animation from the 1969 Halloween special Mad Monster Party.
News hit the web late Friday that Maila Nurmi, the actress, model and TV host best known as Vampira, died last week at the age of 86. As always, David Hudson at GreenCine has the most comprehensive round-up of obits; I thought I’d do my part by rounding up a few video clips that demonstrate the original Goth queen’s impact on pop culture. Above, you’ll find a short clip of Vampira’s memorable appearance in Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space. Click through the jump for Vampira minutia courtesy of Tim Burton, Glenn Danzig and more.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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