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Song of the Day #5,596: ‘Silent Night’ – King’s College Choir, Cambridge

I figured it was appropriate to save my next horror sub-genre for Halloween. After all, one of the best-loved Slasher Movies is named after the holiday. And this is the category that probably first leaps to mind when you think of big-screen horror.

Slasher films have given us some of the most enduring villains in film history: Norman Bates, Leatherface, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Ghostface. They usually prey on the young and the sexually active, before being bested (at least temporarily) by a virginal “final girl.” They might not win, but they never seem to die.

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Song of the Day #5,595: ”Cause I’m a Man’ – The Pretty Things

Though certainly appropriate for the Monster and Sci-Fi sub-genres, Zombie films deserve their own category. There’s something undeniable about hordes of the walking dead shambling around in the single-minded pursuit of human flesh.

The zombie genre will forever be associated with the name George Romero, the writer/director who helmed 1968’s Night of the Living Dead and a host of sequels. Those movies popularized the zombie as a metaphorical threat and worked as both scary horror flicks and effective social commentary.

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Song of the Day #5,594: ‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ – Gladys Knight & The Pips

The week of October 27, 1973, found Gladys Knight & The Pips at #1 with the classic ‘Midnight Train to Georgia.’ This song, the band’s first #1, spent two weeks at the top spot. It became Knight’s signature song.

‘Midnight Train to Georgia’ was written by country singer-songwriter Jim Weatherly as ‘Midnight Plane to Houston.’ His plaintive version is worth a listen, though the track definitely reached a higher level in the hands of Gladys Knight & The Pips.

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Song of the Day #5,593: ‘Sugar Shack’ – Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs

Throwing back to the week of October 26, 1963, we find Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs in the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100 with their song ‘Sugar Shack.’

‘Sugar Shack’ spent five weeks at #1 that fall, and ended up as Billboard’s Song of the Year for 1963. It dominated the charts while The Beatles’ ‘She Loves You’ was struggling to get played on American radio.

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Song of the Day #5,592: ‘The Thing Main Theme’ – Ennio Morricone

Like all sci-fi films, Sci-Fi Horror movies depict incredible circumstances that are tied to scientific advancements or alien technology. They depict things that could happen, in the future or an alternate version of the present.

Often, these films toe the line between horror and action, and the distinguishing question is how much they seek to scare as well as thrill the viewer.

One of the best-loved films in this sub-genre is Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien, a thrilling, claustrophobic monster movie that confines its action to a manned spaceship. Scott dials up the tension and dread until the titular Xenomorph makes a memorable entrance through the chest cavity of an unlucky crew member. Once the creature reaches full size, the film becomes a showdown between the alien and Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, one of cinema’s great heroes.

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