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*BONUS EPISODE* Our Spooky Favourites (Patreon Re-release)
335 Plays1 day ago
Are you looking for your next cozy, autumnal read? Wondering what atmospheric TV show or movie to put on next? Look no further! In this extended edition of "What We're Loving This Week", originally released for our Patreon subscribers, we are sharing our favourite recommendations to enjoy, especially this time of year. So grab a cuppa and join us as we discuss some great options to check out for some seasonal leisure!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Patreon Appreciation
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello, Modern Lady Patreon supporters. We are so thankful that you are here. For those of you who have stuck around while we were taking a break, we are just so thankful for your unending support. It means so much to us.
00:00:16
Speaker
And for those who are joining and who are going to be coming new, welcome. Welcome to our little community here. And we are just really happy to have this chance to kind of talk a little bit more relaxed with you guys and really share what's on our hearts every month.
Spooky Content Focus for October
00:00:38
Speaker
This month, we are all about the spooky things. Right. Like what to read, what to watch, what to listen to. And this goes way beyond or what we're loving this week, because these are things that we haven't shared with everybody else.
00:00:52
Speaker
So it is the spooky month of October and let's share what we have been loving. Yes. And if you've listened to the podcast, you know that this is maybe our favorite season for like content consumption.
00:01:06
Speaker
Yeah. And so, um yeah, we have some good recommendations ah to create kind of like an interior ambiance, I'll say. Like things that you can look into TVs or movies or books or stories that will really kind of set the mood for fall if you're looking for something a little more on the edge.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yes. And I want to just say that despite the fact that we are both practicing Catholics, um I am a spooky girl through and through. Like I write, I have a history, as you guys know, in witchcraft. So I'm very careful and selective about which things I still watch and read. I i i want to preface that.
00:01:46
Speaker
um But I still my heart still loves spookiness, which I was so happy to find a home for within the Catholic Church. You know, our bone churches and our catacombs and our incorruptible saints. And there's a there's a whole spot for having an appreciation for memento mori and all of that. So but this is this is truly my favorite thing. um And we're going to be.
00:02:08
Speaker
very selective about what we share
Spooky Recommendations and Personal Preferences
00:02:10
Speaker
with you guys. um And I'll say like, I'm going to recommend two podcasts right now, but I want to make it clear that every, I don't listen to every single episode, right? I i look through the list. I'm like, no, I feel like this one could be a little too occultish.
00:02:23
Speaker
I don't really need to know more about demons or some hauntings. Like, so there's some I definitely, definitely skip over. But there are some that um are more like thriller type, um maybe a little conspiracy theory type.
00:02:38
Speaker
um Like those ones i i did I discern that are okay to listen to. So I want to put that out there. But there is a podcast I binged. I almost binged it in one day um last week. Yes.
00:02:50
Speaker
And it is called Heart Starts Pounding. And, you know, it opens and she has somebody doing like a deep breath and then the heart pounding sound. She's like, it's that feeling when your heart starts pounding.
00:03:01
Speaker
And it's just this the opening episodes, the first few, she intersperses stories with like her sister kind of commentary, commenting on them. And I don't love those ones as much as the later ones. What's more her storytelling with great music and ambient sounds in the background. It's just great storytelling.
00:03:18
Speaker
So that is Heart Starts Pounding. And I listen to it on Spotify. And she's got an Instagram account. And again, again, but there's an i don't listen to every single episode. um And I just want to say that that one filled a void for me because another favorite podcast of mine, a longtime favorite, isn't putting out as many episodes right now. And that one is called Macabre London.
00:03:39
Speaker
and that's hosted by nikki druce both are very similar macabre london she is a great storyteller as well and it just really kind of makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up a bit and you really if you love that kind of thing like i do um but it does sometimes it it it doesn't go too far so you know what i mean it takes you there but it's not too far yeah so ah heart starts pounding and macabre london okay Gets you there, but doesn't take you. What did you say?
Literary Spooky Classics Discussion
00:04:08
Speaker
it it gets you. It takes you there, but it doesn't take you too far. Maybe. Yeah. I can't sleep tonight. That's my favorite parameter when it comes to spooky things, because I can't I can't actually do all out horror or terrifying things. I can't.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah. No, and I don't think i don't think that's necessarily good for our hearts or our spirits or minds. But I do like a good like thriller. Like I love a little spooky. Yeah. I'm a little bit spooky. I'm a little bit rock and roll. what' that I'm a little bit country.
00:04:40
Speaker
I'm a little spooky. I'm a little thriller. I'm a lot of history, you know, all over the place. Watch for that new single from Lindsay Murray coming out but any day now.
00:04:53
Speaker
So what is something you that have been loving or that you want to recommend? Okay, so I have a short story. um It's by Edgar Allan Poe. And anything really by Edgar Allan Poe would fit into exactly what we're talking about.
00:05:07
Speaker
But last year, I read a short story of his called The Mask of the Red Death. Mm-hmm. the premise of this story is that there is a dangerous plague known as the red death and its devastating the country the prince of the country rather than help his countrymen deal with the horrific symptoms and the deaths that accompany the disease he instead runs off with his noblemen to a private estate to lock themselves in and protect themselves from the plague
00:05:37
Speaker
ah just wait it out until it passes Inside the estate, indulgence reigns and the prince throws these lavish parties for himself and his friends until a mysterious and terrifying guest shows up. A very much uninvited guest chases him through the different rooms of this estate.
00:06:00
Speaker
And um yeah, you'll just have to read to find out what happens. oh So you can find this read aloud because it's a short story. I think there are a few and pretty good versions um on YouTube that you can find for free of like creepy retellings with spooky voice.
00:06:20
Speaker
And one thing I do love about this story is like there's analysis that you can do afterwards. I love doing that after reading a book. Like, for example, these many rooms in the prince's estate, they're all completely painted and represented exclusively by different colors.
00:06:39
Speaker
So, like, what do those colors symbolize? How does the behavior in each room comment on what is going on in your life at all these various stages? and um And I also love it when there's morals at the end or some sort of a message or commentary.
00:06:58
Speaker
um Poe often does that in his stories. And this one in particular, it just kind of turns the mirror back to the reader and asks, like, what are you hiding from that maybe you should be facing head on instead? And what is going to happen when that decision to hide from it catches up with you?
00:07:17
Speaker
And it's just ah it's just ah another great Poe story. Well, you have convinced me. i have not read Poe aside from a couple of his poems. And so I've never actually read one of his short stories. And I thought I thought i had exhausted all of the creepy short stories from that period. And I haven't. Clearly, I completely skipped over the master. So...
00:07:39
Speaker
I am looking for, I will read that today probably, or or maybe I'll try listening to it. i I have some trouble being able to follow along with audio narratives or audio books, which still confounds me because I have no issue listening to podcasts.
00:07:53
Speaker
I don't know why my brain can't process, but maybe it does like a muscle, like we've talked about with reading classics. Maybe I'm just not used to it. My brain needs to learn it, but maybe I'll try it that way as I clean today. Yeah, you can try that. You can also, sorry, just as a side note,
00:08:07
Speaker
Because they're short stories and they're such classics, I do also find you can find the entire short stories for free. Yes. Like everywhere
Exploring Spooky Mystery Adaptations
00:08:15
Speaker
online. So you prefer to read it, it's not like you have to buy the book or anything.
00:08:20
Speaker
Well, it's so funny you talk about short stories because so many, I have a few to share that are all short stories. There does seem to be like a um a lot more spooky tales are written in short story format, which is great, right? Like you just kind of can curl up on one rainy Sunday afternoon noon and read them.
00:08:36
Speaker
um So my my recommendations for spooky short stories are Daphne du Maurier, who wrote Rebecca, which, yes right, if people have still somehow and not read Rebecca, you must read Rebecca.
00:08:49
Speaker
um But she has written a lot of very creepy and well-done short stories, including the famous Hitchcock film, The Birds. She wrote that. um oh It's different. Hers is, um actually, I'd say even is more gruesome than Hitchcock. yeah.
00:09:04
Speaker
um but i i have read several of her sorts short stories and they really stick with you um another one that's a i would say more of a short novel but i think i read it over two days is the haunting of hill house not the haunting on the hill or whatever there's like a different movie series and netflix series that they're two totally different stories This is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.
00:09:28
Speaker
um I might have shared that as a what I'm loving before, but it is a great story. It's more psychological. And another short story is called The Yellow Wallpaper. Have you ever heard of that?
00:09:40
Speaker
oh No. It's written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. And I just want to say that women writing these short gothic thrillers, it's perfection. There's something about women writing these novels in the late 1800s and stuff. I just, I don't know, maybe they have a different psychological understanding of terror.
00:09:57
Speaker
um But The Yellow Wallpaper really dives deep into postpartum psychosis. And this is like a Victorian short story. So I
Hitchcock Favorites for Halloween
00:10:06
Speaker
really recommend The Yellow Wallpaper.
00:10:09
Speaker
oh my goodness. You're right. Like something about that time period and the women who were writing then, they were... They were made cut from a different cloth. A good one, but like amazing.
00:10:23
Speaker
And if you're looking for a longer read, um the book I just finished is called Something Wicked This Way Comes, which is a Shakespeare quote. I just love that title. um And that's written by Ray Bradbury.
00:10:34
Speaker
i think it was 1962. ah He wrote Fahrenheit 451. He is a prolific kind of like science fiction-y thriller writer of the mid-1990s. 20th century an American.
00:10:46
Speaker
It's incredible. Something Wicked This Way Comes involves a circus that shows up in an American small town in the middle of the night. This has been repeated later by other books like The Night Circus, which I read years later. hit um But I think he pioneers this idea of a creepy circus showing up.
00:11:04
Speaker
And um it it starts out with two little 13 year old boys and the way that he sets the tone of this October night and in middle America and these like that childhood, that boyhood feeling.
00:11:19
Speaker
That Stephen King really captures later in his books. um And Stephen King was massively inspired by this book. um It just is so good. But what it turns into is a father-son relationship, too. And I just, the whole thing, start to finish, something wicked this way comes.
00:11:36
Speaker
It was made into a film in the early 80s by Disney. An offshoot of Disney, like ah an arm that they had that made these, like, weirder movies. Yeah. And ah Ray Bradbury himself appreciated their film adaptation of it. It's almost impossible to find. I've only seen clips of it on YouTube, but um it stars Jonathan Price, a young Jonathan Price.
00:11:56
Speaker
Michelle, who you'll recall, who looks like Pope Francis. Yes. Yes. was going to say, acting actor Pope Francis. Yes. Yes. Yes. So Something Wicked This Way Comes, highly recommend.
00:12:07
Speaker
Okay,
90s Thriller and Family-Friendly Picks
00:12:08
Speaker
amazing. Oh, I'm going to check out all of those books. My to-read list now exceeds probably the season and the time that I'm going to have I'm going to be reading these into Christmas.
00:12:21
Speaker
Okay, so the next thing on my list is also a book. We're just going to continue and just do all the books together. um but this one is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None.
00:12:32
Speaker
Oh, yes. Right? So yes Agatha Christie is known for her mystery novels, and I don't know if I'd call most of them spooky. Yeah. um But every time I read and then there were none, i get all creeped out.
00:12:45
Speaker
It is totally creepy. It is, right? Totally creepy. Okay. ah So the story is that there are 10 strangers who receive an unusual invitation to um a solitary mansion In England, it's a random guest list and they're all cut off from the outside world. So this group arrives at their destination only to find out that the host is not there.
00:13:10
Speaker
So they're waiting for their host to join them. And as they do, people start to mysteriously die. And the members of the group realize at a certain point that the killer is one of them.
00:13:21
Speaker
Mm hmm. So the mystery is they're trying to find the killer before it's too late and everyone's dead. So for me, as the number of guests gets slower and lower, my nervousness grows and I leave my rereadings for the book just long enough that I truly don't ever remember who did it.
00:13:40
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. i know like a little bit of the very end, but I can't quite answer it. So I need to reread it too. Yeah, so it's like a new book every time. And I'm always so scared those final several chapters.
00:13:55
Speaker
I'm easily fooled. Yeah. Fool me once, Agatha Christie. You fool me again. The next time. ah Oh, I just remember last time I read it, um I stayed up late in bed reading to the end of the book.
00:14:10
Speaker
And then when it was over, i was so riled up I couldn't sleep. Even like Phil was sleeping right beside me and I was just like out of my mind spooked. So maybe it's time for a reread. I can't remember who did it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, there is a movie, oh sorry, a short series adaptation um produced by the BBC from a few years ago. i think I recall one inappropriate scene.
00:14:39
Speaker
in it. um But it otherwise, apart from that, it was really beautiful. um And it was a very good ambient watch for the fall. I remember that too. It is good. And yeah, that's a great suggestion. oh my goodness.
00:14:53
Speaker
Okay, so now we're talking about watching things, right? Like film adaptations of things. um So I just want to put it out there that I was traumatized this week when I saw ah somebody else use the term Hitchcocktober when I firmly believe I invented the term Hitchcocktober because I've been saying it for like five years. And um so let's just get that out of the way. As of right now, at least it's on record.
00:15:19
Speaker
um But ah every year around this time, we like to rewatch a few of our favorite Hitchcock films. And ah the thing I love about Hitchcock is they aside maybe from Psycho, which I haven't watched in years, they're mostly like family friendly. Yeah, I get it. Scary, right?
00:15:33
Speaker
You know what I mean? And so a favorite in our house that I think our kids have been watching for five or six years almost yearly is Rear Window. Rear Window, I talk about, it's so good. It's so good. And in fact, when we went to New York City in the fall, my kids were like looking for that vibe, even though that's like on like a sound stage, right? Like they wanted that feeling of Rear Window when we were in New York City. So We love that one.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I always rewatch To Catch a Thief. That is in my top five movies of all time. I think it's Cary Grant at his best, right? and It's just, and Grace Kelly is in both of them. So it's incredible.
00:16:11
Speaker
um And then another Hitchcock one is his film version of Rebecca, which we, I think I mentioned when you shared that you loved Rebecca a while ago. Yeah, that one is still, I think, for free on YouTube. And it is cool.
00:16:25
Speaker
well acted. And in fact, the story is Hitchcock made the girl who plays um the new Mrs. DeWinter. We never learn her name, right? Because that's one of the twists is it's not about her. It's always about Rebecca.
00:16:39
Speaker
And apparently he made, i think it's Joan Fontaine. I'm just pulling this out of my head, but I think it's Joan Fontaine. And he made her so uncomfortable on set and told everybody to ignore her, not to be nice, like including like on her birthday and everything.
00:16:51
Speaker
That it really comes out in her acting that she's not welcome. Like that's what she feels like. You can see she feels like that through the whole movie. And it's it plays in very well to her character. oh my goodness.
00:17:03
Speaker
Knowing that bit of background context. i some I find like really enhances watching movies. Now I'm really interested. So this is the Hitchcock version. ah Yeah. It's late 40s. I think it might be like 46 or 47.
00:17:19
Speaker
It's really good. My kids have watched that one too. And I think I've watched half of the new one, newish one that was on Netflix. It was good. It was okay. I didn't, I don't think I watched the whole thing, but no one can beat Mrs. Danvers, the maid in the Hitchcock one, the actor. Oh, it's so good.
00:17:35
Speaker
Okay, so my next one kind of goes along with what you were saying, Lindsay, about the Hitchcock movies being actually kind of okay for family viewing, right? Family-friendly. Family-friendly scariness.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah. um And mine is The Twilight Zone. Oh, yes. The tv show. i love The Twilight Zone.
Analyzing 90s Psychological Thrillers
00:17:56
Speaker
um I remember watching episodes with my dad when I was a young teenager, and even back then, i thrilled at the twists and the plots. And...
00:18:05
Speaker
The kind of like creepy because it's sort of true social commentary, I feel like that's what gives it the spook factor for me is like the truth behind the moral behind a lot of the episodes.
00:18:17
Speaker
So The Twilight Zone, it was a TV show that aired in the early 1960s. It's hosted by Rod Serling. In each episode, he proposes a scenario or a circumstance that any regular person may find themselves in.
00:18:32
Speaker
But the story progressively becomes more bizarre as the unusual begins to come into play. Now, it's science fiction at its best, and I highly recommend it.
00:18:43
Speaker
ah Depending on the capacity for this kind of TV show and your comfort level as a parent, like I said, I don't think there's anything inappropriate in any of the episodes, which makes it a great whole family watch.
00:18:56
Speaker
ah You can still watch these episodes on Apple TV and Paramount+. plus And if you are looking to up the spooky factor, you could also try watching another series hosted by Rod Serling called The Night Gallery.
00:19:11
Speaker
um It's the sequel to The Twilight Zone, and it's meant to be more chilling than The Twilight Zone. So you can stream those also on Apple TV. I've never watched Night Gallery because my parents summarized an episode of Night Gallery for me when I was young, and it creeped me out so much, just them telling me about it, that I've never had the guts to actually watch Night Gallery. So there you go. Do with that what you will.
00:19:37
Speaker
but That totally makes sense because sometimes I read the plots of scary movies on Wikipedia and I'm like, nope. And I can't shake the plot of it yet just from reading it. So no, thank you. No, that totally. I don't blame you.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yep. And there's. i OK, so there is an episode of Twilight Zone that I absolutely love. And I and I will recommend the specific episode of somebody's looking to just purchase one on Apple TV because um we don't currently have an Apple TV subscription subscription. So we'd have to purchase individual episodes, which I do all the time with things.
00:20:08
Speaker
So if you're looking to purchase just one, my all time favorite episode is called The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. And this is a really, really good one for flipping the script back on who the monsters actually are. So it's so good.
00:20:25
Speaker
yeah It is so good. And even the one, i think it's called Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder. i think it's one of the classic ones. it's and So, yes, they're individual ones.
00:20:38
Speaker
You can probably read the synopsis for the episodes too, right? Yeah. On Apple TV? Yeah, before you purchase them. Yeah, I think so. And there's so many episode lists on like Google that you'll find it. um But yeah, there's a lot the first couple seasons are what we watched recently on um Paramount+. plus And then they pulled it off of Paramount+, plus a while ago, and I hope it's back because we don't currently have it. Oh, okay.
00:21:02
Speaker
But yeah, they they actually took it all off. So we only got through, I think, the first two seasons before they pulled it. Oh, no. It might be back. I'm not sure. Because they did the same thing with the Brady Bunch, which we also watched all of the Brady Bunch. And then apparently that's back on now. Yeah.
00:21:17
Speaker
Oh, okay. Maybe it's cyclical for them. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so i have more movies. um Okay, one of my all-time favorite movies, it's probably in my top five, um is the original Stepford Wives I have talked about this so many times on social media. It's from 1975. It is on YouTube. It's all over YouTube. I'm a big fan of paying for things. um And so I would normally pay for things.
00:21:43
Speaker
But this is all over YouTube. It's not even just like one channel pirating it. Like, it's just like it's hard to avoid. Okay. So I guess you can watch it and feel kind of guilt free. But um the Stepford Wives, I've never watched the newer one. i have no desire to watch the new one.
00:21:58
Speaker
The original one, which, okay, the thing I think is so fascinating as a traditional woman who actually like dreams of being a Stepford wife, especially if I was converted into a robot. And I'm not spelling it. I think everyone knows that's the premise. Is that, yeah, it would be great. So much easier with robot skills. I'm kidding.
00:22:15
Speaker
I think because that movie and the book was a commentary on the the feminist movement at that time, right? I look at it now, just like 1984, I see it flipped now in 2023. So I watch it and I just, there's so much I think that we can take from it today.
00:22:33
Speaker
it is so well acted. There is one part I just fast forwarded through with my teenager when um when I had it on. um So, but that's it Like for the most part is pretty good um and pretty clean.
00:22:46
Speaker
And the decor, the clothing, it's just so well filmed. Anyways, Stepford Wives. have you Have you seen it yet, Michelle? No, I haven't. i haven't. oh i need to have more time in a know i just want to, like, i want to lose myself in these things.
00:23:04
Speaker
I think that actually, so you do this. You will watch things in 20-minute segments. Yeah, that's all I can do. yeah Yes. And see, I haven't tried that yet. So I'm still, I think the reason why I'm so slow in catching up on things because I'm waiting for that huge chunk of time.
00:23:21
Speaker
Yeah. and Which is ideal, but it can't happen all the time. It's not always. Yeah. That's what was just going to say. Like, um especially with kids home or like in the evenings as your kids get older and stuff, ah sometimes that's just not doable. So I'm just going to have to start taking 20 minute breaks.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah. And especially if these things are okay to put on in the background, if kids are kind of walking around, um then I'm just going to start letting them come along with me.
00:23:51
Speaker
Absolutely. absolutely so another favorite genre and i think it's so distinct that it's its own genre is the nineteen ninety s thrillers and i'm talking like early ninety s early to mid ninety s but he just nailed it yeah I literally have that in my notes.
00:24:09
Speaker
Oh, yeah? Oh, my gosh. The thrillers, particularly from the 90s. Yes. I yeah i am here for this. You tell me about the thrillers from the 90s.
00:24:19
Speaker
but Now, I've given you a little list of my favorite ones before, and I don't know if you've watched any of them yet, but these might be familiar to you because I talk about these all the time. But my top four, in no particular order, are Sleeping with the Enemy, Deceived with Goldie Hawn,
00:24:36
Speaker
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and The Game with Michael Douglas. Yep. All outstanding. And my teenagers have watched all of them, I think. And we'll skip through a few parts, right? Or mute a few things. We always have captions on.
00:24:51
Speaker
and But for the most part, they've seen them. And I want point out to just while I'm saying that, that we always talk about how we watched everything in the 80s and 90s. And we did. But the fact is, we forget that what we watched was the edited TV versions.
00:25:03
Speaker
And so, I mean, obviously, we had a few from the store, like the rental store that we would see unedited. But for the most part, the content we were taking in of these older movies when we were children and teenagers was was edited.
00:25:15
Speaker
um So I just want to point that out, too. But so we kind of do the same thing with our teenagers um when we're watching them. But yeah, those are my favorites. Yes. And I do wish we could get like, you know how for music you can like look up the radio edit?
00:25:28
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. I wish we could do that with movies somewhere. Like I want the 80s TV version. i know. actually think that they would make a ton of money if Apple made that an option. I know. yeah TV edit.
00:25:40
Speaker
Made for TV. Yeah. Made for TV edit. I love that. But OK, so the last thing on my list was the game. with Michael Douglas. We finally watched it um this summer and oh my gosh, I loved it. it it's my It's my favorite genre, I think, yeah is the 90s psychological thriller.
00:26:01
Speaker
Yeah. um Oh, gosh. Yeah, I just, I love it because the creepiness for this movie comes purely from the mind. Yeah. Right. What's creepy about it is that you can't figure it out.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yep. Along with the main character. It's not gory. It's not like jump scare. Yeah. It's just like in your mind, you're like, I i don't know. i don't have answers.
00:26:29
Speaker
And that is the thing that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Love it. You're playing the game too, technically, like along with him. Yeah, it is an outstanding movie. And I first saw that when it came out. And so I was a teenager and for years, I couldn't remember what it was, but I remembered.
00:26:44
Speaker
Oh, I won't spoil it. You know, the scene with the spray paint, the graffiti. Yes. Okay. That stayed in my mind. that was like, what movie is that? and
00:26:55
Speaker
And then i was like boom, the game. And then when we rewatched it a couple of years ago with the kids, oh my gosh. Yeah, it is it is really a must see. and Yeah, but i the other ones on your list, though, I haven't seen yet.
00:27:08
Speaker
so What? Oh my gosh. Okay. I'm on my way. i was going to do math after we recorded with the kids, but now I'm thinking... Sleeping with the enemy. It's cultural studies, culture studies.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. I will say like the hand that rocks the cradle is probably the creepiest and most borderline in content, but it's still so good. It's so, so, so good. Sleeping with the enemy is just an outstanding film. Top to top, I guess, beginning to end. It's probably my favorite Julia Roberts movie. She's so young and great in this film.
00:27:43
Speaker
um And yeah, and Deceived. Deceived was never a big movie when it came out. Like, I don't remember in the theaters, but we watched it on VHS when it first came out. First of all, I also love all of Goldie Hawn's clothing in that movie and her hairstyle. I want to go have like ninety s Goldie Hawn hair.
00:27:59
Speaker
yeah And I love her apartment in New York. It's just the whole vibe of that film is excellent. Excellent. And you're going to see the dad from Home Alone, John Hurd, in a totally different light. So it's such a great movie.
00:28:14
Speaker
Oh, when actors do that, and throws me for a loop. Okay. And then finally, for me, I've got two pieces of classical music that if you really just want to set the tone and you and you don't want your kids watching anything, right? And
Setting the Scene with Spooky Music
00:28:28
Speaker
they're not going to read the scary stories with you, but you'd love to just have some music in your house playing.
00:28:33
Speaker
The obvious go-to is Mozart's Requiem. It is just the most incredible piece of piece of music. like Now, he wrote it in 1791, which is the year he died. He died before he finished this funeral piece, this funeral commission. he died.
00:28:48
Speaker
Untimely death while writing it. And then um two people kind of like the guy who commissioned it and another guy kind of finished it for him. Now, the one guy is a sneaky little man because he was about to claim it as his own piece altogether. Right.
00:29:02
Speaker
But Mozart's widow, she defended his honor and she like brought before everybody like the pieces of his work and his handwritten work and be like, this is my husband's work. um And had she not done that, it might have forever gone as being attributed to this other man who often stole other people's music.
00:29:19
Speaker
yeah Wow. Good for her. Yeah. And then Jason knows i all I do is talk about my funeral. so And I have for years. So I want, obviously, this at my funeral. I'm like, I want the most basic pine box.
00:29:33
Speaker
Spend all the money on like a philharmonic choir because I want Mozart's Requiem. But then, Michelle, as a total contrast, as the recessional song, I want Judy Garland's Get Happy playing. Do you know that song? Oh,
00:29:45
Speaker
No. Okay. Yeah, everybody needs to pause. Pause it right here and put on Get Happy by Judy Garland because I'm not even to tell you what it's about, but it is like the most perfect song for my funeral.
00:29:58
Speaker
Okay.
00:30:01
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. All right. And then finally, other piece. I love this. I've had this on CD since I was a teenager, and it's Hector Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique. He wrote it in 1830. It is super ahead of its time.
00:30:15
Speaker
ah In fact, and I took this from Wikipedia, quote, The American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia, both because of the hallucinatory and dreamlike nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium.
00:30:34
Speaker
According to Bernstein, quote, the quote within a quote, Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip and you wind up screaming at your own funeral, end quote, end quote.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, um it is. and Please don't request this at your funeral. I funeral. think that's just my max.
00:30:58
Speaker
I almost had Berlioz's organ symphony at our as our wedding song. But um yeah, so this now the the song that's the best. in hack oh this comes full circle. I didn't even realize my brain did this.
00:31:09
Speaker
Okay. The song that's my favorite out of that whole symphony is the last song and the last movement, which is actually the song from Sleeping with the Enemy. And there is a song in there that he plays that terrorizes her.
00:31:22
Speaker
That is this song. oh my gosh. And it's called Song de Nuit du Sabbat. It's the dream of the witch's Sabbath. And it is haunting it is incredible i just got shivers up my yeah yeah and then when you see sleeping with the enemy so please please piggyback those two things together that every time you hear the notes of that song you will think of sleeping with the enemy well Okay.
00:31:48
Speaker
Yeah, classical music, we forget that yeah they they convey a range of emotions depending on the piece. um And the one you told me about years ago, too, Saint-Sé-Anne.
00:32:01
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. Dance of the Macabre. Yeah. fun yeah yeah Yes. Like all of these ones. They're so good. And I know sometimes like I remember when I was a kid trick or treating on Halloween.
00:32:12
Speaker
um Sometimes they would have like a playlists like Halloween playlists and it would be like Monster Mash and like all those songs. But I think it would be way creepier. Yeah.
00:32:24
Speaker
To, ah spookier, we'll say, ambiant, to have a playlist of these classical songs. Once again, cultural studies for everyone in your home. That's amazing.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah. and And then you look at all the modern-day composers who are doing stuff for films, like The Exorcist music. That stuff is excellent. On a musical level, like it's really, really well done for horror movies. Music sets the tone like unlike anything else when you watch something scary. Mm-hmm. Jaws theme. Sorry. yeah When I was in band in high school, we were playing the Jaws theme.
00:32:59
Speaker
And so, you know, doo-doo, doo-doo. And then our guitar what he played the guitar, but he played other things in band. And so, okay, so picture this, right? There's like 30, 40 of us playing our instruments hearing doo-doo, then silence, doo-doo-doo.
00:33:13
Speaker
And then this guy, Bert, goes, John! John, get out the water! And he starts screaming.
00:33:22
Speaker
That's awesome. And what is your last thing you want to share? Okay, so my last things, I have two of them, but they're short because um I haven't finished
Gothic Literature Recommendations
00:33:34
Speaker
them yet.
00:33:34
Speaker
Right. So they are spooky reads that I have seen pop up maybe a couple of times in the last couple of weeks and have added them to my e-reader. um The one I'm currently reading is The Sicilian Romance by Anne Radcliffe.
00:33:50
Speaker
um I'm not sure how creepy this one will be. it it was touted as kind of creepy. It's a gothic romance. And so I feel like gothic romances, they um they usually feature the usual favorites from gothic novels like Rebecca, ah right?
00:34:06
Speaker
Big kind of creepy estates, moody weather, strong female protagonists who are thrust into um bizarre scenarios that they have to figure out.
00:34:19
Speaker
When was it written? Um, I don't know. I have to. ah Is it new? it No, no. It's older. um o It's older because I read somewhere that it was like what kind of set the stage for gothic romance.
00:34:34
Speaker
What? Okay. Let me... so Opening up my pen. I know. This is how the magic happens, people. Yep. Okay. Oh, okay. Not only is it old, it's like kind of super old. So first published anonymously in 1790? Yeah.
00:34:52
Speaker
No! 1790, Anne Rodcliffe, a Sicilian romance. Guess you can't spell Sicilian? Me neither. You are not alone. S-I-C. as I S-C-I-C-I.
00:35:06
Speaker
as i see ah c i c i I went for the S-C at the beginning, too. i think there's too many C's, though. It's S-I-C-I-L-I-A-N.
00:35:21
Speaker
Sicilian Romance. yeah It's basically about um a young woman named Julia. And this is from online because, again, I haven't read it. um A young woman named Julia who, upon being pressured into an arranged marriage by her tyrannical father, the Marquis de Mazzini, flees to a convent to escape.
00:35:42
Speaker
So that is the premise. That sounds fantastic. It sounds amazing, right? It ticks every box, yep. Yep. So I'm currently reading that one. And then the second one that is going to be after this is another Edgar Allan Poe.
00:35:56
Speaker
It's called The Fall of the House of Usher. That is all over the place right now. That's right. That's why. yeah Because I think it's either being made or being made into a miniseries this year. Yes.
00:36:07
Speaker
yeah So I wanted to read it before I watched it. um And just by way of synopsis, this story is about the unknown narrator, his visit to a strange mansion owned by his childhood friend who is behaving increasingly oddly as he and his twin sister dwell within the melancholy atmosphere of the house.
00:36:30
Speaker
Hmm. So I feel like, yeah, I feel like the no-fail plot device, if you want to make something spooky, is a creepy house. 100%. It's a character in and of itself. Yes. I'm going to screw it up again, the haunting of Hill House.
00:36:44
Speaker
It is the house as a character. This reminds me to, okay, we're going to keep going with the recommendations because this is like and Lucy Worsley, a very British murder documentary that completely outlines all of those perfect ingredients, right?
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. The locked door murderer of its somebody within the house, the manor house, the detective, um like, comes out to the country house. Like, she really outlines how that all works throughout um the history of these novels.
00:37:09
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. it's so good. Like, you're right. Like, the the fact that these inanimate objects become characters, like, that is a level of writing that is really excellent. Mm-hmm.
00:37:23
Speaker
sometimes For me personally, I don't like too much description in books, but I never mind it when it comes to these like more gothic um novels. And I think that's probably why. like The house is just as important. It wouldn't be the same story if it took place anywhere else.
00:37:41
Speaker
So yeah you you need that. And the perfect example of that is The Shining, which I tried to read. So I love the movie. And I haven't seen it in years. So I know there's some inappropriate stuff in it. I can't vouch for it ah right now but because i it's probably been 15 years since I've seen it.
00:37:56
Speaker
um But I started trying to read the book because I'm a huge Stephen King fan. And that was the only book in my life that scared me so bad in the first couple chapters. And this is after having seen the movie. Like, I know the story. I could not read that book. I put it down and never touched it again.
00:38:12
Speaker
Wow. yeah Oh, my gosh. And you know what? I think it also speaks to, ah like, it's one thing to be able to give reader or viewers that through a movie or a TV show.
00:38:24
Speaker
But to give someone the same visceral reaction yes through book is very good writing. Absolutely. Okay, have one more to add to your list. I'm sorry. And then we promise that we're done with this. But promise.
00:38:40
Speaker
um It was another short story, and I just read it as well this month, called Carmilla. um Do you know anything about Carmilla? No. It's written by Sheridan Le Fanu.
00:38:52
Speaker
That's half Irish, half French. He was like a French. What were the... um French Protestants that, like, were being attacked. Huguenots? Yes, the Huguenots. He was a Huguenot family that, so they're French, but they lived grew up in Ireland.
00:39:05
Speaker
um I guess not in the Catholic part. i did They didn't know that catholic but Ireland is also very Catholic. yeah um But no, they went to Northern Ireland. Anyway, so Sheridan Le Fanu, he wrote a book called Carmilla in...
00:39:18
Speaker
It's the early 1800s or mid. It's a short story. Again, this is a one day read, but it will creep you out. You do not want to read it at nighttime. It is the first vampire novel, essentially. It is what Bram Stoker based Dracula off of. Like he took the characteristics from Carmilla and he he created Dracula, which Dracula is incredible, too. But I haven't read that since I was in university, so I can't um fully recommend it.
00:39:40
Speaker
But yeah, Carmilla, a short story. Absolutely fantastic.
Tips for Reading Spooky Stories
00:39:45
Speaker
But only in the last like five years have I stopped sleeping with a blanket up around my neck after reading Dracula.
00:39:53
Speaker
Oh, wow. It's stuck with me. I need to be honest. I am a little...
00:40:03
Speaker
creeped out recording. This scared you?
00:40:09
Speaker
I am a little bit. Okay. Well, we'll leave it here. Don't you worry. We're done now.
00:40:17
Speaker
Oh, Like I said, i think um I think this list is going to take me well past October, probably well past November, possibly nearer to Christmas.
00:40:29
Speaker
But me maybe can pop on and do a... um An episode around Christmas time because you have told me. Yes. About the Christmas ghost story. Right. So I was just thinking that. Yeah. So I was like, you don't have to get rid of these anytime soon because Christmas ghost stories. That's a that's what I mean, with Christmas Carol, um that's the tradition that a Christmas Carol came out of. That's not the first Christmas ghost story.
00:40:51
Speaker
ah They always sat around after the Christmas dinner around a fire because. especially, i mean, here too, but think about Europe at that time. Like it is dark, right? Like you sat around a fire. It is creepy. Everything's dead.
00:41:04
Speaker
People like folklore and stuff really played into that, um that the feeling that the land gave you um around, especially during those long, dark times. So you can go right through the long, dark winter with all of these spooky reads and then go super joyful like next May.
00:41:21
Speaker
But you've got a lot of time. Yeah. Between now and May. Yep. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Well, I'll be sleeping. Phil will be like, why are the lights on?
00:41:32
Speaker
Yep. Like, two in the morning. I'm like, this is just how we sleep now, Phil. Listen, I'll admit that a few of these creepy ones I've recently read, I only read during the day. um because i so like i think carmilla and What other one? And I actually said to the kids, mommy has to go up and read her scary story right now because I can't do it tonight. So leave me alone for 20 minutes.
00:41:56
Speaker
Oh, that's perfect. That's really great advice. Yeah, no problem. But such a good list, though. I'm glad we got this. I'm glad we got this out. And if any of our listeners, too, if you have your own spooky recommendations, please let us know. You can comment um on this post. Under this post. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or you can send us a message on Instagram or any of the usual places you find us. We would love to add to this list.
00:42:22
Speaker
So let us know.