One of the most intense and memorable cartoons of all time, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”. UPA studios produced this gem in 1953, utilizing an extremely abstract and completely unique style. There’s very little actual movement in the film, which centers on a man who kills his landlord mostly for the heck of it and then believes he hears the dead man’s heart beating. Instead, a sense of urgency and madness is conveyed almost solely through editing, chaotic stills, and James Mason’s frantic voiceover.

From the very old yesterday to the pretty new today – but stop-motion film The Old Man and the Goblins has a very vintage look to it while remaining fresh and innovative. The title is basically the story: A weird old man is kidnapped by goblins and taken down into their lair. The cool thing is the visuals, many of which are absolutely stunning. From Screen Novelties, who also did a really entertaining stop-motion/puppet animation called Graveyard Jamboree with Mysterious Mose. And probably other stuff I don’t know about yet.

Let’s go back to the early days of Disney for our next Halloween cartoon – the Ub Iwerks-directed The Skeleton Dance is actually the first ever entry in Disney’s “Silly Symphonies” series. It’s a basically plotless music/dance cartoon (as most of the early Silly Symphonies were), but with enough interesting visuals to keep it worthwhile. I particularly like the shots at the beginning of the owl, and the wolf howling at the moon. Footage from the cartoon has been reused quite a lot by Disney and others. Another, slightly more plot-driven skeleton-themed cartoon by Ub Iwerks is Spooks (1932), starring Flip the Frog and produced by Iwerks’ own shop after he left Disney.

I’ve been devoting October to horror again this year, but my favorite experience of the month so far has been the Cartoon Spooktacular that Jerry Beck programmed for the Cinefamily. Obviously, most cartoons are not really scary, but these ghost-and-monster themed shorts were a delight to see on the big screen. I can’t reproduce that here, but I thought I’d spend the rest of this week sharing some of my favorites. (I wrote up the whole program on Row Three.)

This Looney Tunes short has Porky in the lead role (as he usually was in the 1930s, before Bugs and Daffy took over), as a skittish policeman investigating a report of strange noises – which turn out to be from a gleefully prankish ghost. This version has been colorized, and the controversial racist ending eliminated, but Beck showed the whole thing in original B&W.

I’ve probably got more listens on this Raveonettes song than anything else in the past couple of days (that is, since the album was released yesterday). I’m not quite as enamored of the video as I am of the song itself, but at least I found a version that’s not censored. The first version I saw last week had faded out “overdose” and “addiction” which kind of negates the entire purpose of the song. In and Out of Control is almost certainly going to be among my top five albums of the year. Can’t recommend it highly enough – the combination of evocative, sad lyrics with full and upbeat music somehow strikes exactly the right chord.

New stuff from Los Campesinos! is dropping quickly now – they better slow down, or they’re going to release everything off the album long before January! Here’s the video for the first actual single, “There Are Listed Buildings.” I’m still not sure I like it as much as the first non-single, “The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future,” but it’s growing on me. I really like the lomo photography style on this, especially after watching it through a couple of times.

New Silversun Pickups video! And there was much rejoicing. “Substitution” is probably my second-favorite song off Swoon, after “Panic Switch” (so they’re releasing singles in order of my preference, yay!). And this video is far less seizure-inducing than the “Panic Switch” one. I just love to see them play. Also, those are some angry models. Someone order in some Subway before they start cutting everyone. (hat tip Stereogum)

The third full-length Los Campesinos! album is due in January, and this is the first video from it, for the song “The Sea Is a Good Place to Think of the Future.” The song is about anorexia, basically, a lament for a girl who goes too far in her quest to be thin – a nice, uplifting topic like most of LC!’s songs. But while their lyrics have always dealt with depressing and bitter topics, that dark side is usually countered by sunny, upbeat, and very poppy music. This time, though, the music is also darker and moodier – something I’ve noticed with the other new songs they’ve been performing live as well. I’m really getting curious to hear the rest of the album when it comes out. Hold On Now Youngster and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed came out within ten months of each other and sound almost like two discs of the same album; the new one is going to sound very different, I think. The video above was shot by bassist Ellen and her friend Owain – she does most of the behind-the-scenes videography for the band, and this casual, raw and almost candid camera type footage fits the mood of the song very well.