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Forget about Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the kitschy Monster Mash number from the 1960s - add a bit of cool to your ghoul this Halloween with our playlist of indie rock’s creepiest numbers
Ghoroobaa Ghashangan
Sexwitch
When Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan, shoegaze rockers Toy and producer Dan Carey revealed they were teaming up, we knew the results would be suitably dark. With a name like Sexwitch, they had to deliver, and we weren’t disappointed with the voodoo rhythms, haunting melodies, and siren calls of their 2015 debut.

Honky Tonk Horror
The Black Belles
Clad all in black with witches’ hats and gothic makeup, The Black Belles would always run the risk of falling into the “style over substance” set. But the creepy quartet’s 2011 debut is a fun mix of shrieks, unpolished guitars, classic horror organs, and garage-goth incantations.

If I Had a Heart
Fever Ray
Well-suited to the opening credits of Vikings, this atmospheric and eerie track from Karin Dreijer Andersson – one half of Swedish electro duo The Knife – mixes a penetrating bass with tribal drums and mournful, pitch-shifted vocals.

Little Ghost
White Stripes
Pretty much everything Jack White does is tinged with weirdness, so it was tricky to pick one song for Halloween. Little Ghost is a cute, Southern Gothic departure from the White Stripes’ usual blues rock, and is about an absent lover.

Death at the Chapel
The Horrors
Faris Badwan’s tortured screams and motorcycle-revving guitars make for two-minutes of frantic garage punk. It was released at a time when the London rockers were all about big hair, skintight jeans and spooky nicknames such as “Coffin Joe”.

They Are Night Zombies!!! They Are Neighbors!!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!!! Ahhhh!!!
Sufjan Stevens
This one would make the list for its title alone. The string-led music isn’t too creepy…until Sufjan starts singing. “We are awakened with the axe/ Night of the Living Dead at last/ They have begun to shake the dirt/ Wiping their shoulders from the earth.”

The Jeweller’s Hands
Arctic Monkeys
Alex Turner’s monotonic drawl lends itself well to this macabre track, which evokes a creepy fairground carousel with Mediterranean-style guitars, toy room chimes, and the opening lines: “Fiendish wonder in the carnival’s wake/ Move over toward the danger that you seek.”

Satan Said Dance
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Delirious nasal singing, bone-rattling chiptunes and the repeated chanting of “Satan” open up a portal to the underworld. You might want to stay; it sounds like quite the party’s going on down there.

The House on the Hill
The Mummies
Bands such as The Mummies are notable their novelty factor alone, yet it’s hard to argue that their claw-clapping, paw-punching garage rock isn’t perfect for the obscure music fan’s spooky playlist. The song starts with maniacal evil laughter, before a funky organ waltz kicks in and the weirdness really begins.

It’s Halloween
The Shaggs
Timeless, catchy, and completely unsettling. It’s Halloween comes courtesy of 1970s outsider group The Shaggs, a trio of sisters whose father badgered into forming a band that would one day be declared “better than The Beatles” by Frank Zappa. There are no explanations.

Funnel of Love
SQÜRL (featuring Madeline Follin)
On the deeply seductive and atmospheric soundtrack to Only Lovers Left Alive, director Jim Jarmusch and his band SQURL team up with Cults singer Madeline Follin for this echoey, stoner-sludge ode to vampire Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddlestone’s undying on-screen love.



The 10 creepiest Halloween tracks from indie rock hell

Style: "fever ray 2"

The Horrors ... so innocent looking, aren’t they?

Film review: Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse – splatter gore and gross-out fun

Sarah Dumont, Tye Sheridan and Logan Miller in Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. The film (Category IIB and III) is directed by Christopher Landon

Tye Sheridan and Joey Morgan meet a zombie.

Hong Kong haunted houses: online map of who died where is boon for the curious, the ghoulish and bargain hunters alike

Tenants and buyers can negotiate big discounts on flats where an unnatural death has occurred.

Tenants and buyers can negotiate big discounts on flats where an unnatural death has occurred 

Spacious.HK's map uses ghost symbols to show buildings where an unnatural death has occurred. If you hover your mouse over a symbol, a pop-up window describes the death.

The Spacious.HK map shows how many "haunted houses" there are in Hong Kong.

The Spacious.HK map doesn't generally tell you in which unit of a building an unnatural death occurred - mainly for legal reasons.

You can zoom in and out on the map.

Police take away evidence from a building in Tai Kok Tsui where an elderly couple were decaptitated and their bodies chopped up. One of their sons and another man were later convicted in connection with the killings.

Asif Ghafoor. 

Halloween movie special: Hong Kong's top 10 horror films

Miriam Yeung in a scene from Fruit Chan's movie Dumplings - an indisputable Hong Kong horror classic.

Ghouled evening: five Hong Kong Halloween parties to die for

Photo: Jonathan Wong

Dead Not Alive

Turtle in the Hat

Zuma

Lan Kwai Fong. Photo: Felix Wong

The Haunted Room. Photo: The Mira Hotel

'Prime villains': Masks of Donald Trump and the world’s most notorious drug lord 'El Chapo' a huge Halloween hit

The unflattering mask captures Donald Trump with mouth agape and caricatures his signature blond hairdo.  Photo: AFP

Striped prison jumpers and detailed latex masks representing the mustachioed, twice-escaped drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman are selling like hotcakes. Photo: AFP

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Music

Sexwitch, The Horrors, The Mummies, The Black Belles - with band names like that you know what you’re in for


Sexwitch, The Horrors, The Mummies, The Black Belles - with band names like that you know what you’re in for.


The 10 creepiest Halloween tracks from indie rock hell

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Sexwitch, The Horrors, The Mummies, The Black Belles - with band names like that you know what you’re in for

Ghoroobaa Ghashangan

Honky Tonk Horror

If I Had a Heart

Sexwitch, The Horrors, The Mummies, The Black Belles - with band names like that you know what you’re in for