Modern Halloween Playlists

A lot of Halloween festivities contain oldies, but a lot of times it’s kinda jumbled when it comes to modern songs making Halloween playlists. Moves Like Jagger doesn’t really scream “scary” unless you’re talking about being two inches from Mick Jagger’s face. That could be terrifying.

I’ve compiled this list of classics (Thriller, Ghostbusters, The Time Warp, etc.) with a mix of more modern songs that have an eerie or dark feel to them. Most of them aren’t exact songs for Halloween, but they do contain themes of death, fear, and horror.

1. Mad House – Rihanna (Rated R)
2. This Is Halloween – Danny Elfman (The Nightmare Before Christmas OST)
3. Zombie – Natalia Kills (The Perfectionist)
4. A Nightmare on My Street – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper)
5. The Horror – Savant (Alchemist)
6. Paranoid – Kanye West (808’s & Heartbreaks)
7. Disturbia – Rihanna (Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded)
8. Thriller – Michael Jackson (Thriller)
9. Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) – Marilyn Manson (Smells Like Children)
10. Creepshow – Kerli (Love is Dead)
11. The Time Warp – Various Artists (The Rocky Horror Picture Show OST)
12. Kidnap the Sandy Claws – Korn (Nightmare Revisited)
13. Make Me Wanna Die – The Pretty Reckless (Light Me Up)
14. Mama – My Chemical Romance (The Black Parade)
15. Lacrymosa – Evanescence (The Open Door)
16. Ghostbusters – Ray Parker, Jr. (Ghostbusters OST)
17. Tigerlily – La Roux (La Roux)
18. Funhouse – P!nk (Funhouse)
19. Animal I Have Become – Three Days Grace (One-X)
20. Black Widow (Radio Edit) – Iggy Azalea & Rita Ora (The New Classic)

Although you don’t have to have your playlist in this order, this arrangement felt the most natural to me. Rihanna’s Mad House is a minute-and-a-half intro with a grumbling bassline and spooky grunts basically welcoming the playlist. From there it leads directly into the Tim Burton version of This Is Halloween to introduce the holiday. The classics are spread evenly throughout so that you don’t have everyone rushing to pull off Thriller moves and then not be up to doing The Time Warp immediately after. Everyone always anticipates the classics and it’s more fun to space them out.

What songs do you have on your Halloween playlist?

(Fun fact: My username is taken from a lyric in Disturbia) 😛

Halloweens Past

It’s the end of September, which means October is here, which means HALLOWEEN IS COMING. It seemed fitting as a first blog post because this holiday is one of the best days of the year and well, that’s a good enough reason.

Halloween was never part of my childhood. It was at a very young age until about 5 and then my family decided it was super evil and banned it from the household. So there are Halloween costumes of Fetus Calvin as Leo the Ninja Turtle and a giant bumblebee floating around somewhere. More on that later.

Halloween means a lot to me mostly because it’s an excuse for me to cosplay and become my favorite characters. Some people do bloody zombies and witches, but I find it as an excuse to unleash my inner geek.

Here’s a look back at some of my Halloween costumes from the past years. Note: You may or may not cringe and that’s okay.

Metro Gaga (2009): This was my first Halloween moved away from home. Wanting to be “creative” on a costume, I came up with this. A messy, cringe-worthy display of my obsession with Lady Gaga in 2009. I could be seen wearing a “Poker Face” t-shirt, a lightning bolt “Just Dance” across my eye, and a “LoveGame” disco stick which I fashioned myself. If I could go back in time to do one thing, it would be to prevent this costume from happening.

Link (2010): This costume of becoming Link from The Legend of Zelda series is actually my favorite I’ve ever done. I made the tunic from two green t-shirts, cutting the bottom one in half and stitching it to the top, covering the seam with Link’s belt. A friend made the cap and tights + boots adorned the lower half. I figured plenty of people wouldn’t recognize me or mistake me for Peter Pan, but I wasn’t expecting a drunk homeless man to call me Tinker Bell. That was a bonus.

Aladdin (2011): Another of my favorites. I didn’t think I could pull off dark hair, but I think it worked. My skin was lacking on the pigment side, but not much I could do about that. The wonderful part of this costume is that literally everyone recognized you. I even got to sing “A Whole New World” with a drunk stranger in a bar full of people chanting for us. It would’ve felt more natural with a Jasmine singing with me, but it felt more or less like a gay version of Disney’s classic.

Finn (2012): This year I was Finn from Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time. It was a lazy excuse for a costume. I bought a Finn hat online and wore a light blue t-shirt with dark blue shorts. I didn’t even have a green backpack or sword on me. Whatever, it was still mathematical!

Danny Phantom (2013): This costume was a throwback to a Nickelodeon series nearly a decade ago that everyone I’m sure forgot about. It seemed like a unique option, but I quickly regretted it. The suit was skin tight and I could barely breathe. I kept the “D” (haha, laugh it up) on my chest with safety pins. Bad decision. Ultimately no one knew who I was and I went all day without eating so I could fit in my costume. Oh, and white hair spray paint crap is awful to use.

(?????) 2014: I really want to be Jack Frost from DreamWork’s The Rise of the Guardians, but I’m on the fence. It’s easily done with the blue hoodie and skinny khakis, it’s just the hair I’d have to commit to. I can’t do white spray anymore… it’s too fake and makes your hair stiff as a… well, something stiff. I want to go platinum, but I’m scared it’ll look like shit and my hair will fall out or I’ll shave it all off in fear of what it looks like. Not sure if I should commit. Still looking for other options.

So yeah, Halloween by far trumps Christmas and any other holidays in my eyes. I change my hair color and go all out on altering clothing just to ensure a costume for one night turns out right. I’m sure others out there share my feelings on this wonderful holiday. Plus, there’s dozens of cheesy slashers and haunted house stories for your friends to laugh at and then pass out drunk, waking up the next morning as a Disney character that’s hungover and not in the mood for your shit.

Here’s Fetus Calvin as a giant bumblebee for your viewing pleasure. Pretty sure it tops Metro Gaga on the gay scale. But it looks fabulous and you can’t even argue that. I’m even holding the candy of the rainbow. *insert hair flip emoji here*

Calvin xx