Awesome Horror Theme Songs--For Your Enjoyment

Today is going to be a day for Halloween related theme music. There are truly some creepy themes from some of the horror movies over the last forty years, and in the interest of keeping with the spirit of the Halloween season, I would like to include some of them for your listening pleasure. I am hesitant to place a ranking to any of these themes, because each is unique in their own special way. In my opinion, the creepiest theme song I have heard from any of the horror movies would have to be “Ave Satani” from The Omen, but that is just one man’s opinion. I will let you be the judge this time.

The Omen




This is an interesting theme. In fact, it is entirely in Latin (and actually covered by Gregorian), and I will include the translation of the lyrics. Musically it is a masterpiece, though certainly a disturbing one.

Sanguis Bibimus ("We drink the blood.")
Corpus Edimus ("We eat the body.")
Tolle Corpus Satani! ("Elevate the body of Satan!")
Ave! ("Hail!"),
Ave! Versus Christus! ("Hail, Hail Anti-Christ!")
Ave Satani! ("Hail Satan!")


Nightmare on Elm Street



This is still one the great horror theme songs of all time. Regardless of how you may feel about the franchise, it must be admitted that Wes Craven had good taste when he brought in Charles Bernstein to do the musical score for this film.


Halloween



John Carpenter at his finest. It is interesting to note that Carpenter both directed this film and came up with the musical score, so the man does have many talents. We all know the theme, so no further elaboration is needed.


Psycho



We are reaching back to 1960 here, but this theme is still a timeless masterpiece from Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann.


Friday the 13th



Not the most memorable, but certainly we all know the “Ki ki ki” “ma ma ma” that is in every movie of the franchise, and it deserves to at least be on the list because of that.


Phantasm



Often overlooked, I must concede. In fact, if I had not gone out there searching for themes beyond the typical, I might have missed this one.


Rosemary’s Baby



Yeah, this is a creeper. I have not seen Rosemary’s Baby in a long time


The Exorcist



This is known as "Tubular Bells", but still a worthy inclusion.


IT



Yeah, if you are not creeped out by this theme, then you probably have not had the pleasure of watching IT by Stephen King. I’m actually too scared to pick up the book, because I have heard it is far more traumatizing than anything in the movie.


Children of the Corn



OUTLANDER! To be completely honest, I only sat down and watched this movie in its entirety a few weeks ago, even though it came out years ago. I'm not really sure why I never got around to seeing this, outside of a few parts here and there on TV. I think this is a decent theme.

Now, I know I did not get to every horror theme song. Yes, I know I missed Jaws, The Shining, Poltergeist, Amityville Horror, and countless others. But I had to make a judgment on some of the better ones and I believe this is a decent collection.

Enjoy!

Alex Mangie

The Mang

Candidate for Canfield Township Trustee and Conservative Capo of Youngstown

Most Underrated Horror Flick: Halloween 3-Season of the Witch

I am writing this while watching the movie Halloween, arguably the best Halloween related film of all time. Unfortunately, we will not know for sure which movie is the best horror film until later this week, but I did want to take a little time now to cover what in my opinion is the most severely underrated horror film that came out of the 80s—Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.

Believe it or not, this is probably my second favorite movie in the Halloween series. The original Halloween is definitely my favorite of the bunch for obvious reasons, but Season of the Witch received such a bad rap from fans because of the lack of Michael Myers that it was doomed to ever be shown on TV with the rare, exceptional appearance. Similarly as has been with previous Halloween’s, it is not going to be on TV this year either.

Musically, Season of the Witch is as good (if not slightly better) than the original score for Halloween. In fact, I would say it is quite exceptional for a horror film, as typically horror films are not known for musical scores. Do not get me wrong, the right use of music and sound can make or break any horror film, but as with the theme for Halloween, tracks like “Chariots of Pumpkins” from Season of the Witch are also quite memorable. I will include a link so you can hear it if you haven’t already. John Carpenter was responsible for the musical score of this film, though he was not the director for this installment.

Regarding the plot—some critics have argued that the film was based on a flimsy plot. To an extent, they are right. However, let’s be honest for a minute: every sequel subsequent to Halloween was itself flimsy. You have a killer who has been stabbed with a knife, poked in the face with the rough edge of a clothes hanger, and shot with a gun out of the second floor of a house. He then conveniently gets up and walks away, only to be in the middle of an explosion at the end of the sequel, and then proceeds to do ten more sequels suffering other damage that would be fatal to everyone else but him. Furthermore, he goes on to do two more remakes.

Do you still want to talk about flimsy?

As you might have guessed, this third installment does not have Michael Myers. The plot of this installment involves a man by the name of Conal Cochran, who has a plan to kill children through the use of three Halloween masks made by his company Silver Shamrock. The masks are created by a fairly large piece of Stonehenge (enter the flimsy plotline). The protagonist is Dr. Dan Challis, and he is involved in trying to figure out what is happening in the town as well as later attempting to stop Cochran from following through on his plan. I do not want to give away any more of the details in case you have not yet seen it, because the story is interesting and has quite the unique ending.

Is the plot farfetched? Absolutely. It would be a tremendous feat to move a Stonehenge stone across the Atlantic and across the country. A tourist attraction, you would think at some point someone would have noticed the stone was missing, or at least saw someone trying to move it. It was also mentioned there was a problem with the ending, at least in terms of how practical or realistic it would be by today’s standards. However, there are a ton of far-fetched movies out there that are praised even though there is absolutely no chance of them being realistic. It could be that this was just a good movie and did not need to be 100% realistic.

The Halloween series, according to John Carpenter, was intended to be an anthology of stories related to the season of Halloween rather than a marathon of sequels involving a crazed (but methodical) killer who simply would not die. Carpenter took the job with Season of the Witch under the condition that it would not involve Michael Myers, and that promise was kept.

Looking back on the series as a whole, it turned out to be quite the horror franchise. However, it does leave the mind to wonder as to what other stories Carpenter might have concocted as they related to the Halloween season. Season of the Witch is certainly different from the two preceding films, but I think that is precisely what Carpenter intended to happen. Sure, it does not continue the first two plots, but the film was still very enjoyable and watchable. Granted some of the effects and props are a little cheesy (it was the 80s after all), but I still enjoy this film immensely.

If you get the chance, try and check it out.

As for the next article, I am looking to do something Halloween related before getting to some of the best horror films of all time. Keeping in the spirit of the season, we move forward with this theme for at least one more week.

-

Enjoy a Halloween 3 trailer and "Chariots of Pumpkins".







Alex Mangie
The Mang
Candidate for Canfield Trustee and Conservative Capo of Mahoning County

Origins of the Jack O'Lantern, an Old Irish Fable

Welcome back everyone. Briefly I want to just say that I have been unable to update the site mainly because of the focus on the campaign. Tonight, I actually have a little time to do some writing, as the rest of my time has been spent working, campaigning, working, paying taxes, and more campaigning the last few weeks. The good news is the Mangie Team has been doing a hell of a job getting our message and name out there, and we are hearing a lot of good things. The bad news of course is I have been unable to write as much. Such is political work I guess.

I can’t believe it is already mid-October, and as it happens Halloween is around the corner. Where the time has gone, I have no idea, but I am really excited for the Halloween season. Every year at Halloween the Mang prides himself on carving pumpkins. I used to do a couple, but last year it turned into three, and this year I am looking to do five or six carved pumpkins as well as decorating the front porch. I’ll probably end up doing a couple of patterns because some of the patterns out there are intricate and look outstanding. But for the others I will most likely create my own designs because, well, that is how I roll.

It is quite interesting the story behind carved pumpkins. Commonly these are referred to as Jack O’Lanterns. There is a folktale that goes with the origination of the Jack O’Lanterns as we know them today, and the story comes out of Ireland. There are different variations to this story, and this is only one of them.

As the tale went, there was a drunk who went by the name Stingy Jack who lived in an Irish village. Jack had a reputation around Ireland for being a prankster of sorts, causing problems for the decent villagers by tricking them, deceiving them, and generally being a public nuisance. There was not a person he did not attempt to trick, and he even played the Devil for a fool. Jack managed to trick the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and upon reaching the top, Jack placed crucifixes all around the tree to prevent the Devil from climbing down. The Devil bargained with Jack, and in exchange for the removal of the crosses, the Devil promised to not take his soul when Jack died.

Eventually Jack did die. Upon reaching St. Peter at the pearly gates, it was determined that Jack led a lousy life and caused problems for everyone he came in contact with. As a result, Jack was banished from heaven. Jack went to Hell and was greeted by the Devil at the gates. The Devil, who was somewhat bitter with Jack, decided he would uphold his promise not to take Jack either, leaving Jack to wander in darkness for eternity.

The Devil granted Jack a favor to find his way through the darkness between Heaven and Hell. He provided an ember to light the way, which Jack kept in a carved out turnip. For the rest of eternity, Jack would be doomed to walk in the darkness only to be guided by the light of his Jack O’Lantern.

It is interesting to note that the Jack O’Lantern was not a pumpkin originally, but rather a turnip. In Ireland, turnips, potatoes, and gourds would be carved out every year around October 31st to ward of Stingy Jack. As it happens, this day was an old Celtic holiday known as Samhain. This day typically would be to honor the deceased, and was considered to be the time when the veil between the world of the living and the dead was the thinnest. This is quite similar to the modern day Halloween we have come to know and love. Eventually when the Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were significantly easier to carve than a turnip. Hence now we have pumpkin carving.

So that is the story of Jack O’Lantern and carved pumpkins.

As I mentioned before, Halloween is one of my favorite times of year, so in the coming few weeks I’ll probably do some more interesting writing on the subject. You can look forward to Mang’s Top 10 Halloween Movie List, as well as some more different articles on other aspects of Halloween. Maybe we’ll do something on witches, there is a lot of interesting history on the matter. Dracula also has a storied history so I might cover him in the interest of keeping the Halloween spirit.

Now, I could go on and on about political stuff, but I think for purposes of this month, we are going to do some fun stuff. I’ll keep giving some updates on my campaign, but mostly I want to try and keep the spirit of the season active on this site until November, which of course means it is already the Christmas season according to every major retailer out there. Now THAT is something to be scared about.

Enjoy the following video!

Your friend, political candidate, conservative capo, and spookster,



The Mang

And the Award Goes To.......Barack Obama! On the Nobel Prize Debate

To my readership, I must apologize for the lack of entries as of recent, as I have been trying to conduct a campaign while going to work. It is either I will write crap when I sit down to write late in the evening, or I will write less, but decent stuff. I am opting for the latter temporarily. In the meantime, onto today’s topic.

Recently President Obama was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, along with a whopping $1.4 million. In fact, he was bestowed the honor just today, and it was the first thing I saw on the news. I thought to myself, “Hmm, that is very interesting”. Today on my lunch break I perused around the Internet trying to learn more about this award and trying to get my mind around how on earth Barack Obama could possibly be awarded this honor after such a short duration. Before you leave and say I am just being a jerk for saying these things on this man’s day of honor, let us try and objectively look at what is happening here.

The Nobel Peace Prize is based upon the work of an individual for the years PRECEDING the date of nomination, which happened to be early last February 2009. While there has been some room for movement on this, by and large this is usually the case with the prizes.

The problem is Barack Obama was barely president for two weeks when the nomination process closed for the Peace Prize. Prior to becoming president for two weeks, Obama was a half term Senator from Illinois with a background in state government which has very little to do with what Alfred Nobel claimed this peace prize was for: “to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Let’s talk about this statement briefly. President Obama, being so early in his presidency, has done neither the most or the best work for fraternity between nations. If an example could be provided where in the last 8 ½ months either of these items have been fulfilled, I would gladly like to hear anyone out.

Let’s talk about the abolition or reduction of standing armies. This is very interesting to me, because Obama has done neither. A standing army is defined as “a permanent army maintained in time of peace and war”. Currently, this is not going to change. The U.S. government is not going to downsize its military anytime soon, no less abolish it. Democrat or Republican, that is not going to happen.

As far as holding and promoting peace congresses, this is just too early to tell. Folks, President Obama has been in office for 8 and ½ months. That is not a whole lot of time we are dealing with, and even if he has begun trying to talk with different nations, the reality is we are in the very beginnings of such processes. Is it possible Obama may do something great in the future? Sure, I do not doubt that. However, is he worthy of this award based on the last few months? Not a chance in hell.

Logically by Alfred Nobel’s own words, this just does not seem to fit the description of what Obama has done.

Taking this in a different direction, is Obama truly worthy of this award compared to others? I have a question for the Nobel Prize Committee. How can you justify awarding Obama with this honor after a few months while failing to award John Paul II for his tireless work and efforts for peace in the world over a number of years? How can you justify not awarding this honor to Ghandi? These are two individuals of tremendous stature and respect and honor that have been overlooked by this committee in favor of a president who has served for not even a year based on “the hope” as they claimed.

Republican or Democrat, you cannot honestly believe Barack Obama deserves this award. Yes, he may do tremendous things in the future, but the reality is this was just too early.

This is no disrespect to President Obama, but you know what, there are a host of people who have fought for peace who have put their lives on the line trying to achieve it. Some have even taken a bullet and forgave their assassin after the fact. I just think this was very bad timing on the part of the Nobel Committee, and it comes off more political than anything else.

Alex Mangie
The Mang
Candidate for Canfield Trustee and Conservative Capo of the Mahoning Valley

Anyone Else Know How Libertarian Rush (band) Is?

Has anyone ever truly listened to the words in the song “Tom Sawyer” by Rush? It is an interesting piece both lyrically and musically, and I happened across this song on Y103 earlier today at work. Sure, I have heard it before plenty of times, and even have seen Chester Cheeto get high to this song on Family Guy (see the clip towards the bottom because it is just one of those things worth seeing over again). I am not exactly sure Neil Peart is the best drummer ever by the way, but the lyrics to the song just seem interesting to me.

I did not realize how libertarian Rush was until I actually sat down and looked at some of their lyrics. The statements being made in songs like “Tom Sawyer” are very powerful stances.
“Tom Sawyer” is about a very independent person, defined as the “modern day warrior”. Lyrics like “His mind is not for rent, to any god or government, always hopeful yet discontent, he knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is” are very interesting to me, because these kinds of stances are not something typical in the music scene.

A lot of rock bands are anti-establishment, and a lot of the music scene in the 60s was from a very liberal perspective, but Rush falls into a unique category. Rush is not necessarily what you would call anti-establishment, but certainly it is playing up to a libertarian philosophy. “Tom Sawyer”, “Freewill”, “The Trees”, and so forth are only a few examples that illustrate this.

Some will say Green Day, Blink-182, and Metallica to an extent are close to libertarian in their lyrics, and to a certain extent they are. Just some of these bands walk a fine line between being simply anti-establishment for the hell of being anti-establishment and libertarian, and a lot of these anti-establishment bands are from the punk rock genre. Rush is not punk rock by any stretch, and though lyrically their music deals with interesting themes and ideas, it is not something that is as in your face as some of the earlier mentioned bands.

I will say Rush is an acquired taste, and this kind of statement is not uncommon. Rush even has said they are either loved or hated depending on who you ask. I just find some of their music quite fascinating, which of course is why I took a little time to discuss them here tonight.

Of course for the Family Guy fans, enjoy Chester Cheeto and Rush.




Alex Mangie
The Mang
Candidate for Canfield Trustee and Conservative Capo of Youngstown