"For life is short but death is long"

Quick before bed countdown to Halloween post. Picture takenr ecently from the window of a costumes shop here. It is the mask of a grey werewolf that I find quite terrifying. This post is about a werewolf, well, sort of, but I would have rather have found a more obvious Memento mori. That said, this year Samhain has been early on werewolf oriented, so I will use this picture. Remember when I uploaded this song from Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man? Well, the original video does not exist anymore, I will need to buy the film if I want to listen to it when I am in the mood. But I found on YouTube this nice cover from Zip Caplan (no idea who he is) and his Casts of Thousands. I thought it was a good little rock version of the song. For me, this is an essential part of Halloween music. Read my original post to know why I find it so important.

A cheerful song for Halloween

"For life is short but death is long"

It might not be the most famous or the best song, it is from a minor Universal horror movie with its share of plot holes and problems, but I love it nevertheless. Okay, so Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man is a pretty mediocre movie, a shadow of what was The Wolf Man (my favourite Universal horror flicks from that time with the two Frankenstein of James Whale) but it is still enjoyable on an October evening. There are a lot of solid, atmospheric scenes, some genuinely scary ones and Lon Chaney Jr, in spite of the weak material, manages to shine through the movie. I always liked him as an actor, because he always plays convincingly the everyman caught in the supernatural. Anyway, as I said, with all its flaws it is still old back and white horror fun. And it even has a musical number, which I am putting here. You might think of Halloween music as something gloomy and sinister, and it often is, but you could legitimately put this song in your Halloween party. First, because it is in a horror movie (and, in the context of the film, it has tragic if not sinister tones to Chaney's character). Secondly, because Halloween was at its origins and is still a feast. When death is staring at us, ready to strike at every minute, as the holiday reminds us, one's only sensible option is to enjoy life, be gluttonous, drink wine (or, in my case, beer). Memento Mori, and so on. "For life is short but death is long" repeats Adia Kuznetzoff, enough to push Larry Talbot in a fit of rage and despair, as immortality for one who does not enjoy life is the stuff of nightmare. You can read a bit more about this particular theme explored in the movie here. I find it pretty profound, coming from such a minor movie.