Alraune is a 1928 silent science fiction horror film directed by Henrik Galeen and starring Brigitte Helm in which a prostitute is artificially inseminated with the semen of a hanged man. The story is based upon the legend of Alraune and the powers of the mandrake root to impregnate women. In this version the symbiosis caused by the sexual union between the human and the root causes the girl to kill all men who fall in love with her. -- Wikipedia summary

Now this is kind of unexpected. Someone uploaded the entire 1928 silent b/w film adaptation of Hanns Heinz Ewers' Alraune. I'm kind of surprised because while I am used to seeing several MTV channels worth of music videos, clips of animals doing weird things, or Family Guy on YouTube, actual classics of German cinema seemed to be beyond their scope (or a great deal of their audience). And yet...

Link above goes to first section of movie. It's very grainy, but still watchable.

A little fillip before bedtime. It's been linked everywhere, but hey, this way it'll remind me of its awesomeness when I archive my memories next year.

This is one of the most stylish depictions of the afterlife I've ever seen, and the opening is simply gorgeous. Between this and Aragami, I seriously adore Kitamura. Someday, I will find the manga and TV series of this as well, but for now, I content myself with looking for information about it on the internet and sighing every time I realize the 2005 Disney movie with the same name has made the task that much harder.

Every time I see this, I flash back to being 12 years old and falling in love with this song while watching Liquid Television in my grandparents' basement. It's a dark fairy tale of a video, full of true love, longing, and a crazy lady with too much makeup to freak you out.

How did I not know such a thing existed? Alexander Hacke and the Tiger Lillies adapting H.P. Lovecraft means you're in for a truly unique experience. The DVD's called "Mountains of Madness" (the clip's a teaser for it) and it seems to be some sort of dark cabaret version of his work. "The Rats in the Walls" is definitely a highlight.

An introduction to the wonderful world of Cromartie High. Less than two minutes long, it still manages to convey... well, you'll see. The vid's made by Sempaiko Studio; I'm not sure if s/he is the same person who posted this on YouTube - it looks unlikely.

PaintedxIllusions mixes American horror, Asian horror, and video games to Marilyn Manson's cover of "This is Halloween." Surprisingly effective and creepy.

Evidently, Daniel and Matthew Austin (whomever they are) made this little gem of a 1950s-style propaganda film about us... and the living impaired.

Another great video by BlackCerenity. It's a delightful romp through the Asian horror subgenre of "unhinged schoolgirls" set to the dulcet strains of Hilary Duff. So twisted, so beautiful.

The fact that someone has made a music video for MPD Psycho thrills me to no end. Someday, I'll actually write a comprehensive review of this series, but this will have to suffice for now. Thank you, Miike, for your lunatic brilliance.

Effective movie trailer for a movie that effectively isn't real, as this video's for a still unadapted Neil Gaiman short story. It's similar to the trailer for Mirrormask, but different, adopting an almost English feel, as if the BBC had decided to film opening credits for a costume drama with spiders, carnivals, and mysterious women.

"Three sisters they are, of one mysterious household; and their paths are wide apart; but of their dominion there is no end. Them I saw often conversing with Levana, and sometimes about myself. Do they talk, then? O, no! Mighty phantoms like these disdain the infirmities of language. They may utter voices through the organs of man when they dwell in human hearts, but amongst themselves is no voice nor sound; eternal silence reigns in their kingdoms. They spoke not, as they talked with Levana; they whispered not; they sang not; though oftentimes me thought they might have sung: for I upon earth had heard their mysteries oftentimes deciphered by harp and timbrel, by dulcimer and organ. Like God, whose servants they are, they utter their pleasure not by sounds that perish, or by words that go astray, but by signs in heaven, by changes on earth, by pulses in secret rivers, heraldries painted on darkness, and hieroglyphics written on the tablets of the brain. They wheeled in mazes; I spelled the steps. They telegraphed from afar; I read the signals. They conspired together; and on the mirrors of darkness my eye traced the plots. Theirs were the symbols; mine are the words." --Thomas De Quincey, "Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow," Suspiria de Profundis.

Rasputina's "The New Zero" meets Karloff and Lugosi in The Black Cat. An excellent match of song to video, and it gets points for using something not already vidded two hundred times. I think this demonstrates that the best vids work don't rely on just having special effects/cuts/fades, but on truly understanding and trying to convey the heart of what you're vidding.

Set to "Bodies like Sheep (Extended Version)", this is BlackCerenity's ode to this genre. It's effectively creepy and showcases some of the gorier moments in the films.

It's like a Japanese "Thriller" on Prozac. Miike strikes again...

What looks to be a storyline for a CoC game, or something similar to it. Pretty nifty usage of text and old photos. I've included a loose English translation of the French under the cut.

( The Masks of Nyarlathotep )

God, I still love this even months later. Does this make me a bad person? Probably.

I was going to post the trailer, but really, this is so much better. I first saw it at Olympia Film Festival's "All Freakin' Night" some years ago (one of the highlights of the festival), and later bought it on videotape in a .99 bin at the Wherehouse, shortly before the store went out of business for good. One of my finest purchases. ETA: Apparently, I have to post the trailer, because this scene won't embed. Suckage. Oh, well. The trailer kind of gives an idea of the movie, except for the fact that it's all in German with English subtitles in the original. The link for the awesome speech scene is here.

Wild Zero, in all its UFO, zombie, hard-rocking, pompadoured glory.

Oh, God - so brilliant. I just rented HPLHS's "Call of Cthulhu" last night, so I'm in a particularly Lovecraftian mood.