My 5 Favorite Scary Music Videos

UPDATE: Use this playlist to view all these videos, plus eleven more! Click the playlist button at the bottom of the video to choose the specific songs mentioned in this list. (The Jet video is no longer available on YouTube.)


In celebration of Halloween, I'd like to share with you five music videos that always give me a good dose of the jibblies. YouTube links will be provided. Please keep in mind that most of these videos are inappropriate for kids, and anyone who does not wish to have nightmares should not view these videos.

5. Jet, "Look What You've Done" (dir. Robert Hales)
Robert Hales' video for Jet's single "Look What You've Done" isn't scary 'cause of what it shows. It's scary 'cause of what it doesn't show. The video features the Australian rockers in the middle of an animated forest, complete with Disney-esque furry woodland creatures, awakened by the sound of Jet's sweet balladry. But the critters soon turn vicious as the song reaches its bridge and day turns to night. In addition to the animals sudden change of character, most of them end up getting killed by a creature that remains unseen, save for it's yellow eyes and sinister smile. Another thing that adds to the creepiness factor of this video is the fact that the song in no way supports the visuals. It's almost as if Hales already had this idea set in stone, and at the last minute decided to drop Jet into the middle of it with their sugary-sweet melodies. It's a brilliant non-sequitur that ultimately adds up to an undeniably disturbing vid.

4. Interpol, "Evil" (dir. Charlie White)
Photographer and creature designer Charlie White makes his music video debut with this surreal and ultimately unnerving video for New York quartet Interpol. He definitely picked the right song for the job; "Evil" is not only the best song off Antics, the obtuseness of the lyrics allows White to do whatever he wants as far as the visuals are concerned. So, he decided to create a humanoid puppet modeled after the physical features of the band, stuck him in the middle of a car crash, and then had him dance around on a gurney. The puppet, which fans have dubbed "Norman," is creepy enough just standing still, but when it starts singing and dancing around, it's all the more disturbing. Plus, the puppeteers didn't quite nail the lip-synch, creating this disembodied voice effect. Creepy!

3. Daft Punk, "Technologic" (dir. Daft Punk)
After a string of successful videos by Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, Daft Punk decided to take to the cameras themselves for their third album, Human After All. "Technologic" may have become a hit through a prominent iPod commercial, but the actual video tells quite a different story. More creepy puppets, only this time the featured creature sports a metallic, skeletal exterior, plus some mad-creepy eyeballs and a distorted mouth. Daft Punk (they're the two guys in robot costumes in the video) then props their demented robot up on a podium reminiscent of something out of 1984. Oh, and for some reason, someone on YouTube marked this video as "inappropriate." Go figure.

2. UNKLE, "Eye for an Eye" (dir. Shynola and Ruth Lingford)
The longest video in our countdown, and also the only computer animated one. UNKLE had touched upon the creepiness factor before, when MTV pulled their video for "Rabbit In Your Headlights" on the grounds that it was "too disturbing." A hard act to follow, for sure, but Shynola and Ruth Lingford's six-and-a-half minute video for the Never, Never Land single "Eye for an Eye" surpasses "Rabbit" in terms of scares, creepy imagery, and a definitely unnerving ending. Set in a fairytale world where happy little creatures eat fruit and frolic around. That is, until an unexpected surprise drops into their village. Soon, their greed and desire lead to terrifying consequences. Watch the video and tell me those creatures with the gnashing teeth aren't the scariest things you've ever seen. What could possibly top this video?

1. Aphex Twin, "Come to Daddy" (dir. Chris Cunningham)
Oh right. This one. Chris Cunningham is a director synonymous with fucked up, scary-ass images, and his first video for Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) is no exception. The video for "Come to Daddy" meshed with the song so well that one can't hear the song without envisioning all the creepy visuals that make up Cunningham's masterpiece. It's got everything: dank, dirty alleyways; sinister groups of children, each with the face of Richard James digitally applied onto their own; and a freakishly tall, humanoid mutant crawling out of a discarded TV, only to howl voraciously at the video's elderly protagonist. This video is definitely one for the ages, or rather, one for the Dark Ages.

Honorable Mention:
The Horrors, "Sheena is a Parasite" (dir. Chris Cunningham)
Chris Cunningham returned briefly from his music video sabbatical to deliver a two-minute vid for British punk group The Horrors, featuring actress Samantha Morton in the title role. Pretty damn creepy, but way too short to fully capture Cunningham's deranged visual style.

"Black" (dir. Saiman Chow for Adicolor)
Last summer, Adidas commissioned a bunch of experimental filmmakers to do videos based on various colors. While the aforementioned Charlie White, whose video "Pink" is pretty damn disturbing, it's Saiman Chow's video for "Black" that takes the cake. Starring a stop-motion panda and fish who play a game of Russian roulette, the video references everything from the Brothers Quay to Sesame Street, all while retaining its own unnerving visual style.

My Thoughts Exactly

"Saw III was not prescreened for critics. It doesn’t need to be. The midnight preview I attended last night was packed with folks who don’t mind seeing Hollywood beat a dead horse, which, come to think of it, is the one sadistic act that the Saw producers have yet to show us on film."

--John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press

Read the whole review.

The Indecent "Descent"

Are our expectations of horror films so low that whenever a filmmaker comes out with a horror film that's only slightly better, everybody drops a load and won't stop blabbering on about how brilliant it is?

Case in point: The Descent. I heard nothing but good things about it, I went to see it, and it sucked. People wouldn't stop saying how revolutionary it was, and how it redefines the horror genre. But all throughout my viewing, I couldn't help but count how many other horror films had already covered the same ground, and did a much better job at it.

Tom Long at The Detroit News said that the film "revives and electrifies a genre that veers too often toward self-parody." True, recent slasher flicks have started to feel too much like comedies (check: Jason, Freddy, and Chuckie franchises). So much so, that films which are actual parodies of the horror genre (Shaun of the Dead for one) contain genuine scares. But there's a difference between paying homage to the horror classics of the past and ripping off every single classic horror motif, then pasting it all together in an incomprehensible mess that makes no attempt at plausibility, character development, or even a good ending.

A lot of folks have been comparing this film to Alien and for good reason. Both films contain female leads who have to evolve from defenseless supporting characters to bad-ass killing machines. And hey, it's always nice to have a critic mention a classic horror movie on your posters, 'cause then people will think that your movie's good, too!

But there's a little problem: It took Sigourney Weaver's character TWO films to achieve complete bad-assery. In The Descent, the process takes no longer than thirty seconds. It's like "Alien Lite," all the scares, half the plot.

And there are scares, don't get me wrong. But they're not fun scares. Fun scares are when something jumps out at you, but it has a reason to. The scares in The Descent are all for effect, and nothing else. After the fifth or six orchestra sting, I was pretty much able to predict where this film was headed, even though our cave-dwelling heroines weren't.

I'd like to get back to the plausibility of The Descent. Most of the time, plausibility flies out the window of your average horror film, anyway. That's why the average horror film is never a good horror film. The best, however, provide a context and background for the scares. In Alien, they plan ahead by setting their film in the future (how groundbreaking!). That way, they can justify the existence of...hint-hint...ALIEN CREATURES! In The Descent, all events take place in the here and now and, oddly enough, in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina. So my question to the filmmakers is this: How can you justify flesh-eating, cave-dwelling, no-seeing mutants in present day North Carolina without first establishing that this film takes place either in a parallel universe (like the one in all the "Godzilla" films where everyone in Japan just takes Godzilla for granted and are never surprised when he shows up) or in the future. 'Cause lemme tell you, I live in North Carolina, and I don't run into these mutant things all that much.

Other recent horror films like the Saw franchise (yes, it's a franchise now) and Hostel aren't much better, but at least they're realistic, or at least as realistic as a horror film can be. A deranged serial killer who puts his victims into sinister "puzzles" makes a lot more sense than blind zombies who dwell in caverns underneath the Blue Ridge Parkway. Hopefully, writer/director Neil Marshall will be able to look past his own hype and make the necessary revisions on his next film. Maybe an Alien sequel?

More original films than you can shake a stick at...

For those that don't know, I'm currently in a class called "Variations on the One-Minute Film," and one of my assignments is to keep up a video blog where I will post quick little one-minute experimental videos that I have made. The blog can be viewed here, and it features a ton of new material I've been working on. Here's the most recent short film, entitled Late Night Tales pt.1:

Bravo, Bravia!

What could possibly revive DiMattiaFilms from its dormant slumber? Why, this kickass commercial from Sony Bravia, of course!

Directed by music video guru Jonathan Glazer, who is also responsible for the features Sexy Beast and Birth, the commercial depicts huge eruptions of very well-choreographed paint splotches wreaking havoc all over a British apartment complex. Watch and be amazed!

When you're done gawking, see how they did it.

Three Album Reviews in 75 Words or Less

The Decemberists, The Crane Wife

Everyone’s favorite nautical-themed, Alexandre Dumas-reading lit-pop indie rockers from Oregon are back. With The Crane Wife, they’ve delivered their major-label debut, which takes a page from both the Who and Pink Floyd songbooks, resulting in a prog-rock stunner with all the meandering experimentation of Dark Side of the Moon, but with the powerful immediacy of Who’s Next. Plus, their songs are about murderous butchers and magical women who transform into birds. What’s not to love?

Beck, The Information

Beck returns with the real “return to Odelay” record after the faux-nostalgia of 2005’s mediocre Guero. But there’s so much more to love than just blasts from the past. On The Information, Beck walks a tightrope between the shameless psychedelia of Midnite Vultures and the heart-on-my-sleeve frankness of Sea Change. It’s a gamble, but it pays off. Check the last track for bonus dialogue about spaceships, between filmmaker Spike Jonze and humorist Dave Eggers.

Jet, Shine On

Jet are musical chameleons. Their Oasis tracks sound just like Oasis, their Beatles tracks just like the Fab Four. Is there any band these guys can’t sound like? Yes, themselves. Still, it may be imitation, but damn it if it ain’t good-sounding imitation. Leadoff single “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” is their catchiest tune yet, and the title track achieves a climax second only to “Hey Jude.” Damn it, another imitation!

Threadless Rebounds

I love Threadless as much as the next person, but lately, I was beginning to think they had lost their edge and just decided to print a bunch of boring, unfunny and/or overtly Abercrombie & Fitch-esque T-shirts. So, imagine my surprise when this week, they come out with not one, but THREE shirts I want!


Featuring a certain someone's bright red bicycle underneath this famous Texan landmark, it's an easy reference to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. But I mean, c'mon, it's a reference to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure!


'Nother reference shirt, this time to the vast library of musical speed freaks They Might Be Giants. Or rather, just one song in their vast library (though, note the sun in the corner, referencing the Giants' hit "Why Does the Sun Shine?")


I never thought much of these new Type Tees, but this one is pretty darn funny. If you can't read the type, it says:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

A Quote from Garrison Keillor

"Pick up a newspaper and read about Congress and you will find yourself yelling at walls and terrifying the cat. Last week, Congress moved to suspend habeas corpus, one thing that distinguishes a civil society from a police state. Reaction was muted.

Then the Party of Family Values was revealed to have protected a sexual predator in its midst until finally a reporter asked some pointed questions and the honorable gentleman resigned and ran off to recovery camp: This level of hypocrisy takes a person's breath away. You thought that Abramoff, Norquist, Reed & DeLay had established new lows, but the elevator is still descending.

The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off. Ancient crones from FDR's time are still walking the halls, kept alive by anger at what has been done to our country. Old conservationists, feminists, grizzled veterans of the civil rights era fight off melanoma, emphysema, Montezuma, thanks to the miracle drug of anger. Slackers and cynics abound, not to mention nihilists in golf pants and utter idiots. Time to clean some clocks. As Frost might have written, 'The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick.'"

A Word About Misleading DVD Covers

This just might be one of the worst-assembled DVD covers I have ever seen. The Great New Wonderful, a brilliant and quite dark film about New Yorkers coping with the hassles of everyday life one year after 9/11, is in no way, shape or form the "brilliant comedy" the front of the box proclaims it to be. Also, I can't think of a single moment in the film where Maggie Gyllenhaal is smiling, nor can I think of any scenes where Tony Shalhoub is anywhere but in an employee breakroom (please note the background; I don't think they have bottles of fine wine in breakrooms). They also make it look like those two actors meet each other in the course of the film, but they don't.

I swear, the people that assembled this cover art most definitely did not see the film in question. It reminds me of the cover to Layer Cake, another brilliant thriller starring soon-to-be-James-Bond actor Daniel Craig as a middleman in London drug deals. Not only does the box give away important plot points in its description, it propels actress Sierra Miller to the forefront, making it look like she has a leading role (she's only in three scenes). Likewise, in The Great New Wonderful, Stephen Colbert, hilarious man that he is, only receives about six or seven minutes of screen time, but you'd never tell by his top billing on the DVD cover.

What are some other misleading DVD covers you've come across? I can't think of any more off the top of my head, but I know they're out there.