Scary Music Videos Part 3

UPDATE: Use this playlist to view these videos plus twelve others! For this list, click the playlist button on the bottom of the video, then click the right arrow.


Two years ago, I posted five of my favorite creepy music videos and it has consistently been one of my most linked-to articles. So last year I did it again and this year, I've scoured YouTube to find four more for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Enjoy!

Basement Jaxx, "Where's Your Head At" (dir. Traktor)
Superimposing faces onto animals and other people is nothing new here. Chris Cunningham famously took the face of Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) and planted it on creepy little kids as well as supermodels, with equally horrifying results. But Traktor's video for "Where's Your Head At" takes it a step further, revealing a secret plot to kidnap musicians and transfer their brains into monkeys. What purpose this is supposed to serve is never revealed, but it does make for a frightening music video.

Squarepusher, "Come On My Selector" (dir. Chris Cunningham)
Despite his two freaky-ass videos for Aphex Twin (three if you count the experimental short film Rubber Johnny), Chris Cunningham's video for Squarepusher is my personal favorite. And while it certainly isn't his scariest, it is definitely his most fun. So many bizarre things are in this, including a hyperactive Japanese kung fu girl, a talking dog, and a bad case of brainswap. Another oddity about this video is the fact that Cunningham had all the actors speak English, then dubbed over their voices in Japanese and included English subtitles.

Mogwai, "Batcat" (dir. Dominic Hailstone)
The newest video on my list this year comes from instrumental rockers Mogwai, who delivered their uncharacteristically metal single "Batcat" not long ago, and with it, this terrifying video from Dominic Hailstone. Seemingly torn from the pages of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the video concerns a hooded girl fleeing from masked people only to wind up in a cave inhabited by the vicious title character.

Hugh Cornwell, "Another Kind of Love" (dir. Jan Švankmajer)
Who knows what '80s pop singer Hugh Cornwell was thinking when he hired freaky Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer to helm his 1988 music video for "Another Kind of Love." Like one of my earlier picks, the visuals and music don't match at all, which only heightens the disturbing nature of the video. Watch for the part where Cornwell's dismembered head collides with the female mannequin's head and creates a swirling mass of clay with four eyes and an alligator mouth and tell me that a Nine Inch Nails song would've probably suited Švankmajer's creepy vision better.

Feel free to leave links in the comments to some of your own favorite scary music videos, and have a Happy Halloween!