October 31st here at last! To help celebrate all things scary and fun, Lacey Walker gathered ten of her favourite scary jams, hand-plucked from a variety of genres and time periods. Read ahead (if you dare) for some songs about vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghosts and other creepy things, all in the spirit of All Hallows’ Eve.

Halloween – Misfits Horror punk veterans, Misfits, are no strangers to spooky music. Their entire discography could easily be considered Halloween-themed, but for this list, we've selected the band’s spookiest track. In this song, original vocalist Glen Danzig shares with us his memories of Halloween, from “pumpkin faces in the night” to “candy apples and razor blades”. Aptly, it was released on the 31st of October in 1981, and the band also has a follow-up song titled “Halloween II”, mostly sung in Latin. Play this sinisterly raw punk track to psych yourself up for a graveyard shindig, a mad dash past a haunted house or even a late-night trick or treat.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf – The Cramps love to sing about creepy things. This, coupled with their surf-rockabilly sound, makes for a perfect Halloween jive. “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” is a musical parody of the 1957 horror film of the same name, in which troubled teen Tony Rivers unearths his wolfy secret. The song’s subject is not your typical lycanthrope however; he is just a fledgling, with “braces on (his) fangs”. Brash guitar twangs reflect the trials and triumphs of living this werewolf life, and vocalist Lux Interior’s voice is rendered in a retro wobbly echo that is sure to send a chill or two down your spine. Should you find yourself looking a bit hairier than usual or inexplicably howling at the moon, give this song a listen.

She’s My Witch – The Radiacs Beginning with a bubbling cauldron and a yowling cat, “She’s My Witch” paints a portrait of an alluring spellcaster with “hair as black as night” and “a skirt that’s ooh so tight”. This is a cover, as the original was released in 1958 by Kip Taylor, but we reckon that The Radiacs’ version is a lot better. It seems to be a theme to compare attractive women to witches in songs, but this track stands above the rest with its speedy drums and – just like the previous spooky tune – that twanging electric guitar. Black cats and pointy hats aside, this shuddersome psychobilly masterpiece is sure to have all witchcraft practitioners and wand-wavers stoked for Halloween.

Vampire – Mai Lan French-Vietnamese artist Mai Lan is very creepy-chill in this song, threatening to drink our crimson life juice “like a soda”. To accompany it, there is a cinematically gorgeous music video but if you find the sight of blood confronting, steer clear. There are stacks of songs about vampires, (perhaps more than any other monster) but this is definitely our favourite one. The bouncy bubblegum-pop beat is so catchy we could listen on repeat for days, completely oblivious to any coffin-dwellers who may be lurking in the shadows nearby. We just love how she pronounces “coconut” in the second verse, and, we must admit, “pepper and lime” sounds like a delectable garnish to add when cooking victims.

Re: Your Brains – Johnathan Coulton Titled like an email, this is a hilarious tongue-in-cheek acoustic guitar ballad about a post-apocalypse office. How ironic that a productive businessman returns as a zombie to annoy his co-worker one last time – by snacking on his brains! Like vampires, there are heaps of songs out there about zombies, but we think this is one of the more unique ones. The track’s narrator is a zombie, literally a decaying murderous corpse, but he’s just so darn polite. The group-sung chorus is as infectious as the zombie virus itself, especially the line, “All we wanna do is eat your brains”. Just remember, if an undead horde ever approaches you belting out “Re: Your Brains”, do not sing along, run!

Horror Movie – Skyhooks These Aussie glam-rockers perfectly capture the essence of the scary movies a lot of us love. With this track, it’s not just the lyrics that are a bit eerie, the instruments and general composition are fairly haunting too – but in a funky way. Diehard horror film fan, might find something that shocks them “right out of [their] brain”, but if someone were to be watching one late in the evening of October 31st when all the beasts and fiends come out to celebrate, they might just be the slightest bit unnerved. Will you spend Halloween raving to this ‘70s anthem, or will you curl up on the couch with a bag of popcorn to watch a terrifying flick? 

Dead – The Poets Dracula, Vampira, the Wolfman, the Mummy, Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde, Frankenstein and even the Headless Horseman all gather in “Dead” for a cemetery party. The song’s narrator makes the mistake of venturing into the graveyard this fateful night, and the sight of all these startling characters sends him running home to bolt his door and cower. We just love all the sound effects throughout; the ghostly wails, the screeching evil cackle and the zombie groans. Scottish band The Poets, active primarily in the ‘60s, were categorised by genre as psychedelic pop. Far ahead of their time in both sound and lyricism, they’ve instilled in me the desire to throw a mid-spring monster ball amongst the tombstones.

Ghost Town – The Specials Instrumentally, this is the spookiest track in this list. A rhythmic blend of reggae and ska revival, “Ghost Town” is hands-down one of our favourite tunes by The Specials. It’s actually about the violence, riots and urban decay in British cities throughout the early ‘80s but has a double meaning, evoking a small-town spirit draped in a white sheet looming in the streets. Keyboardist Jerry Dammers, who wrote the song, said he wanted to convey a sense of impending doom, and we reckon that he achieved this magnificently. In the end, the howling police sirens are akin to the whistle of an eerie wind or even the wail of a banshee. Perfect to blast past when you see all the plastic skeletons and pumpkins in people’s courtyards.

Bad Voodoo – Kreeps Video game lovers may recognise this track from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, in which zombies overrun the Wild West. The jingling bells and thrashing drumbeat are very reminiscent of jiving eccentricity, and they fit perfectly when you ride your trusty steed through the Mexican desert in the game. Much of the Kreeps’ repertoire – like The Cramps and Misfits – explores dark and weird concepts like supernatural legends, all while oozing a ghoulish and kitsch swagger. “Bad Voodoo” mentions both Nosferatu and The Lord of the Flies, and also has a line about “rowing right down the styx”, which in Greek mythology is a river leading to the underworld; and we bet they love Halloween down there.

Norman Bates – The Burning of Rome Norman Bates (for those unaware) is the main character in the horror classic Psycho. While more specific in topic than the rest of this Halloween list, it just had to be included, since it is so categorically unlike anything else we've heard before. Californian group, The Burning of Rome, mixes indie death-pop with galactic funk-punk (say that five times fast) to create a mish-mash of otherworldly music. This track is so upbeat you’d never suspect the ominous hidden meaning, but also so wistfully ethereal it makes you want to prance with candy bucket in hand from house to cobweb-clad house. What an ideal tune for Halloween!