10/29/11

The Haunting























A dim memory from my earliest years of reading comic books, "The Haunting" is an amazingly bad, but still surprisingly effective, record from the early 70's, available only through comic book ads by mail order for $1. Brought back to my attention from the excellent but long-inactive Scar Stuff blog, which writes,

the record has a freakishly lame and astoundingly perfect charm all its own. It even manages to scrupulously follow the rules of the mighty Rip-Off Halloween Record genre (those being: a totally half-assed "story telling" side, and a banded "sound effects" side using most of the same audio library just without the narration), while still happily amplifying both their cheapest AND most exploitive qualities! Yeah! I honestly don't want to spoil it for you too much (Threadbare plot! Terrible narrator! One sound effect repeated ad nauseam! Children in peril!), but believe me, as far as I'm concerned it was more than worth the 30+ year wait. And hey, it even works just like the ad said it would!

Invite over some guests, turn out all the lights, and give it a listen:

1 comment:

bh said...

I think what really saves this for me i that the "bloodbeast" cry, is somehow completely listenable in repeats, much the same that I feel I could hear Godzilla's cry forever. I shifts ever so slightly (I like when his voice breaks into the falsetto register).