Category Archives: Music Review

Music Video of the Day: Are You Ready For Freddy? by the Fat Boys (1988, directed by Harvey Keith)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I always assumed that this song was specifically written for one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies but actually, the Fat Boys were just fans of the movies and they decided to put a song about them on one of their albums.  The song was included in The Freddy Krueger Special, which aired on CBS in 1988.

This video, which features several of Freddy’s victims and Robert Englund himself, was written by Wes Craven and directed by Harvey Keith.  Keith directed a few films, including 1988’s Mondo New York and 1990’s Jezebel’s Kiss.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Can I Play with Madness by Iron Maiden (1988, directed by Julian Doyle)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Director Julian Doyle also directed videos for Kate Bush but he may be best known for working as an editor on several Monty Python and Terry Gilliam films, including Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Meaning of Life, Brazil, and Terry Jones’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

Enjoy!

Horror Song of the Day: Main Title Theme From Alien By Jerry Goldsmith

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy birthday to the one and only Sigourney Weaver.  Seen here with Jonesy the Cat, Weaver will always be best-remembered for bringing to life Ellen Ripley and totally revolutionizing both horror and science fiction!

Today’s song of the day comes from Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic score for Alien.

Music Video of the Day: The Wild Boys by Duran Duran (1984, directed by Russell Mulcahy)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Directed by Russell Mulcahy, the video for Wild Boys cost over a million pounds, which was considered to be an astronomical sum in 1984.  Both the video and the song is based on the William S. Burroughs novel, The Wild Boys.  Mulcahy had long-wanted to adapt the book into a film and the song was written to serve as a part of the soundtrack of the proposed film.  (The film itself was never made.)

The costumes in the video were left over from The Road Warrior.  The video, featuring all of the members of Duran Duran being tortured in different ways, was controversial but ultimately very popular.

Enjoy!

Horror Song of the Day: Demon by Claudio Simonetti

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Demons (1985, dir by Lamberto Bava)

For today’s horror song of the day, we have Demon, a track from the soundtrack for the 1985 film, Demons.  This song was composed and performed by Claudio Simonetti, who is best known as the keyboardist of Goblin.

The music video, incidentally, was directed by Michele Soavi, who also appeared in Demons as the mysterious masked man handing out free movie tickets.

Horror Song of The Day: Cat People (Putting Out Fire) by Giorgio Moroder and David Bowie

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s horror song comes the hypnotic soundtrack of Paul Schrader’s Cat People.  This song was so good that it later showed up and was used to equally strong effect in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Music Video of the Day: Poison by Alice Cooper (1989, directed by Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There are actually two versions of this video.  Both of them feature model Rana Kennedy as the mysterious woman looking over Alice Cooper.  One version features shots where the woman is meant to be topless.  (A body double was used in those shots).  The MTV-friendly version excises the toplessness and is less focused on torture than the first version.

Director Nigel Dick was one of the big music video directors of the MTV era.  He worked with everyone who was anybody.  Alice Cooper definitely was and still is somebody.  It’s funny how he went from being the rocker that parents feared to being a beloved cultural institution and he did it while, for the most part, still remaining true to his original act and persona.  All the kids who used to get yelled at for listening to Cooper grew up and kept listening to him and Alice turned out to be a pretty smart guy.

Enjoy!