HALLOWEEN TAPE REVIEW #18: Scary Sounds of Halloween

Title: Scary Sounds of Halloween
Manufacturer: K-Tel
Year: 1991
Total Runtime: 30 Min
Repeats on both sides: No
Stories: No
Music: Some dissonant music on side two
Narration: No
Distinct Audio: The grunting monster
Review: I'll make a pros and cons list for this one...

Pro: It's from K-Tel. Maybe I've been brainwashed from seeing at least one K-Tel record ad during every commercial break of my childhood, but I think K-Tel is a cool company. If they would have put out some AS SEEN ON TV Halloween records, I would have melted on the couch.

Con: Cat noises that sound ridiculously human. About as effective as just saying the word "meow."

Pro: Classic sound effects. It opens with the familiar wolf howl that we associate with all our favorite scary shows. Then the underused, yet universal "OooOOOooeeeEEEoooo!" ghost noise appears too. 

Con: The grunting monster won't shut up. This guy seems to be the star of the tape, but he quickly loses his appeal. He's pervasive,  high in the mix, and sounds way too much like Jabba the Hutt.

Pro: It includes a crying effect (at 17:54 in the video below) that was used in the video game "Left 4 Dead" to indicate the presence of a witch. This sound has conditioned players to go to on high alert and turn off their flashlights, lest they agitate the insanely powerful witch.

Con: It's very repetitive. That is, until the end of side two when it sounds like a completely different album.

Pro or Con: There's a Sci-Fi theremin type sound that brings to mind the noise that Greg Brady makes when he stages a phony UFO encounter.

The recording is a lot like the cover. There are some classic elements, there's one beast that dominates it, and overall it's a bit generic.

Rating: 3 of 5