Last week we brought you Four Star Video Heaven's guide to selecting a perfect horror film. This week we check in with the folks at Strictly Discs on Monroe Street to see what they recommend as alternatives to overplayed Halloween songs like The Monster Mash.

Ryan Halloween Song Picks:

Geto Boys - "Mind Playing Tricks on Me"

A harrowing five minutes of paranoia wedded to a sinister, understated funk loop, "Mind Playing Tricks on Me" is a Hitchcockian take on horror. Scarface, Willie D and Bushwick Bill each share a harrowing vignette that takes as its locale the space between their ears rather than the notorious Fifth Ward of Houston they physically called home. Bushwick's account of robbing adolescent trick-or-treaters and knuckling up with an imaginary nemesis that leaves his hands bloodied in real time stands as the macabre moment. Chilling.

Wu-Tang Clan - "I Can't Go to Sleep"

More interior psychological drama, this time put over by Ghostface and RZA in a "crying style" unprecedented in hip-hop. Isaac Hayes handles the hook, while his baroque take on the Bachrach chestnut "Walk On By" heightens the trip. Ostensibly a chronicling of New York inner city blues, the true horror comes not from the urban obstacle course of drugs, cops and violence but its soul-crushing effect on the psyche. RZA posits a choice amongst "blunts, brews or .22s" and each seem equally hopeless.

Spense Halloween Album Pick:

Those who know me know Prince is where it's at for me. Those who grew up with Prince in the 80s can recall a speculative rivalry betwixt Prince and Michael Jackson. I expect a surprised reaction when I share that MJ's "Thriller" is, for me, THE Halloween record. I mean... Vincent Price? Zombies? Werewolves? Can't beat it. I'm kinda embarrassed to admit it, y'know.

Ron’s Halloween Picks:

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - Cow Fingers & Mosquito Pie

Howlin’ Wolf - Howlin' Wolf/Moanin' in the Moonlight

Various Arists - Halloween Hootenanny