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As our showcase of early horror classics continues, we move out of the silent era and into the early 1930s for this German/French production from legendary filmmaker Carl Theodor Dryer. A Danish director best known for his 1928 classic The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dreyer caught major critical backlash for his follow-up Vampyr (also his first sound film), due to its unconventional story structure and abstract, dreamlike visuals. Thankfully, Vampyr went on to become a cult classic, which is still being screened today; one of the coolest of these revivals took place last October at San Francisco's Silent Movie Theatre, with a new live score composed by Steven Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees and featuring FEARnet fave artist Jill Tracy (read more about it in this interview). Loosely based on two short stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu – whose writings have inspired many iconic horror films – Vampyr follows...

Musician, writer and multimedia artist Jill Tracy has been a long-time FEARnet favorite thanks to her affinity for macabre and mysterious subject matter (check out our interview with Jill for lots of fascinating insights into her work). One of Jill's most popular projects is the “Musical Séance” series – which she debuted with musical collaborator Paul Mercer on Halloween 2007 – wherein audience members are invited to participate by bringing objects of personal significance and sharing their own stories. The result is an improvised interactive experience she describes as “spontaneous musical combustion.” The duo's performances have taken place in many fascinating locations, including abandoned asylums, caves, haunted castles, and even Anne Rice's Halloween Ball in New Orleans. The next séance will be held at 9pm Febuary 24th at the Los Angeles mansion of Horace P. Dibble, who made the papers of his day when he stabbed an apparently maniacal co-worker to death in self defense.

It's Christmas eve, and you are waiting up for Santa. Distract yourself from those shiny presents that await you with some of FEARnet's holiday-themed horrors from Christmases past...

Even horror's greatest villains take the time to celebrate Christmas.

Santa is an anagram of Satan. Doesn't this worry anyone else? It worried us, and garnered a list of evil Santas, plus a history of the legend of Krampus.

Holliston Christmas Special - Extended Cut

Our interview with Jill Tracy on her "accidental" Christmas album

Tim Sullivan dreams of a black Christmas with John Saxon

Eric Stanze ponders overlooked and underrated holiday horrors.

Enjoy a gallery of nightmarish Christmas trees

Halloween Before Christmas

Christmas is a special time... which calls for special implements of murder.

We have interviews from the new Silent Night sorta-remake: Malcolm McDowell on keeping the Christmas traditions alive, and director Steven C. Miller on why the holiday horror is so important to him.

Call it "Night Fragrance for Night Music." Multi-talented artist Jill Tracy is not only a celebrated singer-songwriter and composer of dark, sensual and otherworldly musicc, she has also entered the world of exotic fragrances. Together with master perfumer Emerson Hart of San Francisco's Nocturne Alchemy, Jill has designed a set of perfumes that share the same name name and theme as her recently-released album Silver Smoke, Star of Night, which she describes as “Christmas music for those who prefer the October chill.”

“Just like we create visuals to go with music, like album art and videos, I thought why not create a scent as a “conjuring companion” to music?” Jill told FEARnet. “That was the whole idea behind these perfumes—she describes on her blog as “My musical netherworld set to scent.”

Silver Smoke is a blend of Boswellia Carteri Frankincense Resin tears discovered in Egypt and Somalia and steam...

Last week we reviewed the classy new release A Dark Cabaret 2 from Projekt Records, which compiled a variety of spooky, witty and sexy songs inspired by the melodies of 1920s & '30s German dance-hall music and old-time Vaudeville performers. One of the standout tracks on that collection was "In Between Shades" by Jill Tracy... who, as it turns out, is no stranger to the world of horror cinema. The multi-talented performer/composer is returning this week to the annual Sacramento Horror Film Festival to present "The Elegant Dark" – a collection of her film work and a full-length concert performance. Hit the jump for more info, including a couple of intriguing clips... Music critics and high-profile...

So a religious nut-bag is claiming that the world will end tomorrow in cataclysmic earthquakes that will pretty much swallow all of civilization. Of course it’s a bunch of nonsense, but we like being prepared anyway. In case the world really does come to an end tomorrow I thought I’d celebrate with you guys with an awesome song. It’s called Doomsday Serenade by Jill Tracy off of her album Diabolical Streak. In celebration of a potential apocalypse she’s giving the song away for free over at her website. Or if you like what you hear you can pick up the whole shebang over at Amazon at the link below.

Happy Apocalypse, Scifi Mafiosi.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

See larger image Diabolical Streak (MP3 Download) New From: $8.99 In Stock Release date August 19, 2008.