Stay young and ghoulish

In the video for Evil Eye, Franz Ferdinand pays homage to B-list horror films. Diane Martel — director of Robin Thicke’s notorious Blurred Lines and Miley Cyrus’ We Can’t Stop — gave the clip the feel of a dusty VHS tape, filling it with hacked limbs and loads of campy gore.

As frontman Alex Kapranos said on the Domino Records site, it’s “a gruesome blood orgy eye stab death romp wide-oh creep necro fest.” The video and track, taken from their fourth album “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action,” come just in time for Halloween. The remix from the French dance producer Alan Braxe turns the song into a haunted-house roller-disco jam.

It’s hard to believe that nearly a decade has passed since the Glasgow-based band released their eponymous debut and the infectious Take Me Out, the breakthrough single that filtered Gang of Four through a danceable post-punk lens. The self-produced “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action” is consistently clever and proves, especially to a fan like me, just why they have established themselves as staples of sharp indie rock. To echo the words of Rolling Stone: “Welcome back, lads.”

Monsters INC.

While it first appeared a few months ago, Christopher Kane’s Spring Summer 2013 collection somehow feels right for the trick-or-treat season. The ’60s-look show was rife with Frankenstein’s monster references, such Perspex nuts and bolts that were used as button and hardware substitutes on bag handles. The starting point, after all, was an MRI of a healthy human brain, throbbing with consciousness.

Fueled by French luxury conglomerate PPR’s recent investment, Kane was at his mad-scientist best, however, when he showed two t-shirts emblazoned with Victor Frankenstein’s grotesque experiment. It was such a simple idea but one that made complete thematic sense. The Scottish designer was able to turn Mary Shelley’s nameless monster — routinely referred to in the 19th century novel as “fiend,” “wretch” and “ogre” — into a cool creature. For Fall Winter 2013, he once again turns to vintage horror movies, tweaking the distinctive iconography for his Creature hoodie and sweatpants.

Dark side of the rainbow

According to Hollywood.com, the trendiest fantasy property right now might just be The Wizard of Oz. After the success of Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful, despite the fact that it starred James Franco, there appears to be few television projects in development based on the L. Frank Baum series. There’s CBS’s Dorothy, a medical drama from the people behind Elementary.

Then there’s NBC’s Emerald City, a dark, Game of Thrones-style reimagining of all 14 books in the series. Based on an upcoming young adult novel, The CW’s Dorothy Must Die, meanwhile, is a revisionist take set in the present, 80 years after Dorothy Gale supposedly came home. Syfy is busy working on a miniseries called Warriors of Oz.  

Why the sudden interest? Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the Judy Garland movie, which was originally released in August 1939. Despite the potential Hollywood spin-offs, nothing beats the Victor Fleming film version. Cherished by generations, it has managed to remain relevant, making for pleasurable viewing no matter the time of year — even during Halloween.  

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