Halloween is a holiday that won’t sit still. At once a day for parties, the occult, childhood whimsy, and horror, Halloween is a bubbling cauldron of all things macabre. Though Halloween day crackles with a giddy malevolent energy, it doesn’t truly begin until sundown. Halloween night is the product of everything that goes bump in the night coalescing at once. Sinister, playful and mysterious, it’s impossible to classify what exactly Halloween night entails. Each hour brings a new metamorphosis to the night as it continuously changes shape with the tolling of the bell. Here is the story of 8 hours of an ever-changing Halloween night told through song.

8:00 pm

The sun dips behind the horizon and a cool air blankets the suburbs; Halloween night has finally started. Unlike most other nights, as darkness settles, the world bustles to life. Television’s Marquee Moon captures this electric twilight with a gothic tale told in a groovy post-punk setting. The night is dark, but something is stirring beneath the inky black. Whether that mystery is good or bad waits to be revealed, but it buzzes with excitement. Television’s cryptic lyrics unfold like a prophecy for the night, foretelling macabre tales to come. The song’s fuzzy guitars duel like warring radio signals as the song crackles to an end. Its images are foretold with darkness and lightning, but until then, we stand beneath the imposing moon, “just waiting.”

9:00 pm

In the thick of the night, the suburban streets are lined with strangers. Ghosts and zombies go door to door alongside cowboys and storm troopers. Trick-or-treating has but one rule: be whoever you want to be, just don’t be yourself. People Are Strange by The Doors is a happy but sinister tune that takes a warped look at the world around us. The world of the song is all but normal, transforming friends and family into mysterious strangers with vague intentions. Trick-or-treating may be populated with enigmatic figures, but just like the song, there’s a crooked allure to all of it that feels fun. You may be wearing a mask, but you’re not hiding behind it.

10:00 pm

The kids have gone to sleep. The windows have been shuttered; the doors locked. But the night is far from over. In fact, the night has just begun. The late night opens a new realm of possibilities, one where the corny phoniness of Halloween melts away to a pitch black and morally ambiguous interior. Halloween is a call for action, a night for cryptic, malevolent debauchery. Gimme Danger by The Stooges is an invitation to the night. It’s a sinister rock song dripping with blood and sweat. The jaunty fun of the early evening is gone, replaced with skulking immorality. Iggy Pop wails a bloodcurdling crave for danger, sung with a crooked grin that may not be inviting, but it sure is enticing. Gimme Danger is villainy bubbling just under the surface, ready to break at any given moment.

11:00 pm

The adults hit the street. There are no Halloween parades or parents out with their kids. Costumes don’t look like who you want to be; they reflect who you really are inside. The repressed tendencies you hide all year finally come to surface, shunned in the day but welcomed after dark. If I Had a Tail by Queens of the Stone Age is the song of the night. It’s the sound of bad tendencies liberated and running amok. Josh Homme’s sludgy growl makes his promise to “own the night” feel less like a possibility and more like a reality. The “tail” in question may be just a costume, but amid the filth and sin of the dimly lit streets on Halloween night, it may as well be real.

12:00 am

The clock strikes 12, and evil comes to life. Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield; zombies descend upon an abandoned shopping mall; Dr. Frankenstein brings his creation to life. Across the city, silver screens light up for the classic midnight screening. Hate the Living, Love the Dead is pure genre reverence by the defining horror-punk band, Misfits, and it’s the ultimate anthem for the midnight screening. No Halloween would be complete without a celebration of all things horror and that’s exactly what Misfits do. A send up of B-Movies, slashers, cult films, and monster movies, Hate the Living, Love the Dead is the sound of every rambunctious midnight crowd on Halloween night.

1:00 am

Late at night the streets have become unrecognizable. It’s hard to believe this was the same place partiers and trick or treaters were hanging out just a few hours ago. The streetlights are starting to flicker and it’s hard to tell who’s human and who’s not. Reptile by The Church is a paranoid warning to look closely at those around you. The vivid description of someone more reptilian than human mirrors the anxious atmosphere during the wee hours of Halloween. The new wave instrumentation feels hollow, each sound emerging from right behind you. You can’t see what’s behind the mask this late at night, but man or monster, you’re not too keen to find out.

2:00 am

By this time, you’re ready to pack it in, but that doesn’t mean the night is over. The walk home is long and scary, and you can’t let your guard down until you’re safely tucked in bed. Sour Times by Portishead is an eerie and dreadful song to score the way home. It’s a song that creeps through shadows and shrinks away from the light, rattling echoes sounding off in all the places you can’t see. Sour Times is the sound of dragging feet and droopy eyelids imbued with a frenetic spark for survival. It’s hard to tell what’s hiding in the dark this late at night, but it’s best to keep your head up and eyes forward.

3:00 am

The stragglers have all gone home, the jack-o-lanterns are all blown out, and the monsters have slithered back into the night. Halloween night is over. This Lullaby by Queens of the Stone Age is the sound of Halloween laying to rest. The dynamic atmosphere has stopped its shapeshifting, and it now lays down for a quiet, ominous folk song. Mark Lanegan’s haunting vocals aren’t a victory lap. You didn’t survive the night; the night only let you make it to the end so you can come back next year. The lonesome guitar may fade into silence, but only until the next October 31^st, when – rest assured – that silence will be broken once again.