Top 10 Halloween Music Videos

Psychotic, axe-wielding children. Gore-streaked dancing zombies. A troubled teen with a razor, a death wish and a TV set filled with skeletons -- artists have long mined the depths of the dark side when putting pictures to their music.

And whether your youthful memories of Halloween are of tricks (packets of raisins polluting your candy bag) or treats (a randy game of bobbing for apples), most of us are always up for a good shiver.

So to get you ready for Halloween, or just to keep you creeped out all year long, we've unearthed the 10 most monstrous music videos.

Enjoy ... but don't forget to leave a light on! Mwa-ha-ha!

10. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Y Control'
Karen O gleefully cavorts in a figure-skating costume as an ultraviolent mob of children dismember one another with rusty implements of horror. Spike Jonze directed this schlocky and thoroughly disturbing clip, which Karen said was inspired by her love of Michael Jackson videos. Be warned, dog lovers: Man's best friend doesn't fare very well with these beastly wee ones.

9. Gnarls Barkley, ' Who Cares?'
Baadasssss Mario Van Peebles stars as a washed-up Blacula who just can't catch a break. Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse keep things slapstick as we watch this unfortunate bloodsucker fail in his attempts to pick up a lady-slash-meal. This video also includes one of the best bat-on-a-string sequences in recent history.

Gnarls Barkley - Who Cares

8. Bauhaus, 'Bela Lugosi's Dead'
Cue graveyard fog, ghostly pallor and minimalist dancing. It's the video that launched a thousand goths -- and the perfect opening track for your Halloween soundtrack. A young and ghoulish Peter Murphy is at his undead best, growling and glaring like he just hopped a train from the netherworld. Watch for scenes from 1983 cult movie classic 'The Hunger' starring the original androgynous vampire, David Bowie (eat your heart out, Edward Cullen).



7. The North American Halloween Prevention Initiative, 'Do They Know Its Hallowe'en?'
It's a dream hipster collective: Arcade Fire! Karen O! Rilo Kiley! Wolf Parade! Beck! Feist! David Cross! Nardwuar the Human Serviette! This 2005 parody of Band Aid-style benefit songs combines a jaunty tune with cute/scary animation. There are hand puppets with zippers for mouths, capering Pac-Man ghosts, a creepy baby and a Ouija board. Appropriately, all proceeds went to UNICEF.




6. Aphex Twin, 'Come to Daddy'
Once again, malevolent kids are on the prowl, sporting the evil grin of Richard D. James and bloodthirsty intentions. It was shot on the same grounds as Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange,' and by the time a very icky monster scares the bejeezus out of Granny, you'll have a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. Nobody does twisted like director Chris Cunningham (Björk, Madonna), and his work is especially potent in combination with Aphex Twin's acid-trip-gone-awry techno. For an even spookier trip to Weirdsville, check out the Aphex/Cunningham short film collabo 'Rubber Johnny.' (Shudder.)


5. The Horrors, 'Sheena Is a Parasite'
Once again, Chris Cunningham does a lot with a little, using alien-eyed Samantha Morton to great effect as a transmogrifying freak show who twitches around ominously and tosses something slimy from under her skirt. (Um, eww ... is that a tentacle?) The band's gothic cool and thumping beat are more stylish than sinister, but we still get the impression Sheena is someone you'd rather not encounter on the way home from trick-or-treating.

4. Daft Punk, ' Prime Time of Your Life'
This clip by the French techno duo may be low-budget, but that doesn't stop it from being highly unsettling. A wide-eyed teenage girl stares at a TV screen filled with images of skeletons exercising, reading the news and reporting the weather. It's soon clear that nothing good can come of this. Then you realize she's bent on joining her bony friends and wielding something razor-sharp. Yikes!

3. Dead Man's Bones, 'Dead Hearts'
Composed of Canadian-gone-Hollywood actor Ryan Gosling and his best friend, Zach Shields, Dead Man's Bones not only created the ethereal soundtrack, they also directed this video about a wishbone moseying into town. It's less a promo for the band than an eerie and enigmatic short film. The wishbone occupies a miniature world, complete with unearthly light, graveyard gatherings and the ghost of a horse. See also the cemetery-set performance piece 'Name in Stone' and 'In the Room Where You Sleep,' in which Gosling leads a chorus of kids in full Halloween regalia.



2. Metric, 'Monster Hospital'
What's a hapless rock chick to do? Emily Haines plays hunted heroine in this 'Nightmare on Elm Street' come to life. Hands are pulsing through the ceiling, scary people are grabbing at her through the floor, and her bandmates have turned into zombies. And then there's that bleeding bathroom sink to contend with. Yet Haines still manages to deliver an ass-kicking rock anthem amidst all this carnage.

1. Michael Jackson, ' Thriller'
Sure, it's an obvious choice, but you just can't top this classic pop-culture gem. It's MJ at the peak of his fame and is the scary clip that all Halloween videos must be measured against. There are shuffling zombies that can cut a rug and the rumbling wicked laugh of Vincent Price (who also raps about grisly ghouls come to "terrorize y'all's neighhborhood"). Not to mention a surgery-free Michael Jackson transformation that actually holds up pretty damn well. Still thrilling.