Join us for a two-part look into zombie music videos, starting with The Misfits and a collab with Romero that will make you “Scream!”
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Metal and The Macabre is back from the dead. This month, we take a grave two-part look into zombie music video themes. This party gets started with the legendary forefathers of Horror Punk Rock, The Misfits, and their dream collaboration with the master himself, George A. Romero.
Dead and ghoulish themes were prevalent in mainstream pop music in the 1980s, including Billy Idol’s 1981 post-apocalyptic “Dancing With Myself” and John Landis’s groundbreaking 1982 Michael Jackson “Thriller.” Twisted Sister’s “Be Chrool To Your Scuel” brought in the Tom Savini age of FX makeup advancement around Day of the Dead (1985). In the late 1990s and early 2000s, that macabre spirit would be revisited with Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl” (1999), GWAR’s “Zombies! March”, and our featured title: The Misfits’ “Scream!”
The Misfits may have started out in the 1970s New York City punk scene, but their love for the macabre and their fast-paced, energetic 1950s doo-wap-influenced style inspired many metal crossovers from bands like Metallica, Guns N Roses, Behemoth, and Austrian Death Machine. Their lengthy discography solidifies the band’s lifelong passion for horror movies and sometimes dark and controversial lyrics.
Regardless of the band’s tumultuous history, “Scream!” is a wonderful, vocalized Graves song that is not to be overlooked.
The Details
“Scream!” Music Video for The Misfits
Director: George A. Romero
Editing: Jason Winn ‘J.B. Destiny’ Bareford and Mitch Lackie
Producer: Daniel Rey
Label: Roadrunner Records
Album: Famous Monsters (1999)
“Scream!” was written for consideration in Wes Craven’s Scream 2 (1997), but it landed in the fortunate hands of another Horror Maestro, George A. Romero.
The video begins in gritty black and white. You can overhear a faint heartbeat. A surgeon works on a crossword puzzle in slow motion while walking past a busy hospital reception desk. Multiple concertgoers rush into Emergency, bitten and bleeding.
Cut to The Misfits playing on stage in color on and off throughout the video.
Back to the triage, I love the tilted shots to convey the chaos while the next victims, The Misfits themselves, are wheeled into the emergency unit.
The first corpse gets up; we recognize those iconic boots. Jerry Only walks slowly away from the gurney. Under the magnifying glass, Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein transforms while Michale Graves and Dr. Chud rise from their ER beds, biting medical staff. Red blood is the only color seen against the black and white montages.
I love those gnarly zombie makeup closeups to the “I can’t wait to hear you Scream!” chorus.
A blond nurse continues to run from the chaos until the band corners her. Startled by the hand on her shoulder, she turns around, and the hospital becomes the backstage of a concert in color. The nurse is now a fan with crimped hair. A crew member yells, “Five minutes, guys.” Jerry intensely looks at her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you; we’re going on; you better get out.”
Walking away, she spots the blood on her top, turns around, and Jerry, in dead makeup, laughs menacingly, “Welcome to the party, honey!” ending on the closeup of her screaming.
Making the Video
While filming Bruiser (2000) in Toronto, Romero needed a band to perform, and The Misfits were honored by the tradeoff of him directing their video. “Fiend Without a Face” and “Bruiser” were both written for the film but never saw an official soundtrack until later released on the Cuts from the Crypt (2001) album, along with the demo version of “Scream!”
The alternative version of this video in color lays out the sounds of emergency calls overheard in the beginning and a longer ending of Jerry in makeup walking towards the nurse. “Where do you think you are going? It’s showtime!” Graves reportedly was late to the filming of the video, and an understudy was used for his role, according to Misfits Retrospective by Scooped Mids on YouTube. I discovered his channel and appreciated his comprehensive videos on the band’s history.
If you want more great Misfits history, EXPLORING: The Movies That Shaped The Misfits, on bandsaboutmovies.com, is an exceptional article I highly recommend.
The Romero Connection
“Scream!” is a simple concept, with black and white carnage shots and cuts to the band playing in color. The contrasts are love notes for the original contour of the Zombie genre, Romero’s beloved 1968 Night of the Living Dead. In 1979, during the formative Glenn Danzig years, their first homage to the dead was the bitching song “Night of the Living Dead”. “Scream!” has that same similar eeriness to the beginning of the song as “Night” does.
The band’s previous zombie subgenre themed songs include: “Night of the Living Dead”, “Astro Zombies”, “Braineaters”, and later “Zombie Girl”. Only’s homage to the dead series resulted in three additional songs: “Day of the Dead”, “Land of the Dead” and “Twilight of the Dead” — anticipated for Romero’s final dead film while he was alive.
Twilight of the Dead is now in preproduction with Brad Anderson (Session 9) directing.
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