I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES-“Halloween” (1981).

For all of the Halloween songs that are not really about Halloween (even songs that are called Halloween), this one is about Halloween (and more).

Siouxsie and the Banshees created some really catchy songs that they swathed in layers of creepiness.  The chorus of this song is “trick or treat trick or treat the bitter and the sweet.”  It’s catchy, but not treacly.

The night is still

And the frost it bites my face
I wear my silence like a mask
And murmur like a ghost
“Trick or Treat”
“Trick or Treat”
The bitter and the sweet

Just listen to that jagged guitar that introduces the the verses.  Then during the verses, it’s pretty in a minor key way.  About midway through the song the bass takes a few fast runs up and down the fret board to create a tense moment that is followed by a tribal drum section.

And just so you know that this is more bitter than sweet, the next part:

I wander though your sadness
Gazing at you with scorpion eyes
Halloween……Halloween

Seals the deal that this is a goth/post-punk song after all.

[READ: October 26, 2018] “Witches”

Just in time for Halloween, from the people who brought me The Short Story Advent Calendar and The Ghost Box. comes Ghost Box II.

This is once again a nifty little box (with a magnetic opening and a ribbon) which contains 11 stories for Halloween.  It is lovingly described thusly:

The Ghost Box returns, like a mummy or a batman, to once again make your pupils dilate and the hair on your arms stand straight up—it’s another collection of individually bound scary stories, edited and introduced by comedian and spooky specialist Patton Oswalt.

There is no explicit “order” to these books; however, Patton Oswalt will be reviewing a book a day on his Facebook page.

Much respect to Oswalt, but I will not be following his order.  So there.

This is the story of a hitchhiker and the person who picks her up.

But we see the story from the point of view of the guy who picks her up.  He was recently divorced and is driving to get away.  He saw the hitchhiker, a young girl, who should know better.  He was a school teacher and is familiar with girls like this.  What was she thinking?

He knows that hitchhiking and picking up a hitchhiker are bad ideas, but he figures she’ll be safer with him than some other men.  He asked where she was going and she said she was just seeing the country.  After a few more questions, she reveals she was with someone, and he took off on her.

He said he was going as far as Medicine Oaks and after several miles they arrived there.  It was late and she was asleep.  He didn’t feel comfortable leaving her in the car so he go them a room. Two beds, she stayed on hers all night (although I thought it was un-judicious of him to take her pants off to make her comfortable while sleeping).

He slept and had bizarre dreams full of creatures and lightning. Three creepy figures were fighting over something and he was startled awake.  When he looked, she was sitting up in bed, weeping.  She immediately sought comfort from him.  He did what he could but as soon as it became too much he backed away.

In the morning he wondered aloud if he should bring her to the police and she matter-of-factly stated that after they spent the night in a hotel the police are the last thing he would need.

They drove on together the next day.  When he pulled over for a break, she took the opportunity to run to the waters of a nearby beach.  She stripped off all her clothes and jumped in.  When he checked on her she was floating face down in the water.  He dove in to save her.  When he started to do CPR breathing on her, she grabbed his head and stuck her tongue in his mouth.

It was as if something had possessed him and he couldn’t pull himself away.

When he realized what had happened he looked at her and she was talking–but not to him. She as saying “It’s mine now. To use as I will, To enjoy as I wish.”

The rest of the story continues in this wonderful state: half dream, half nightmare, half horror-story, half reality existence.  Sometimes things become very clear, but other times, he has no memory of what has happened.

It’s wonderfully creepy and unsettling.