It’s that time of year when the air gets crisp, the candy bowl runs low and music videos get delightfully unnerving. From elaborate zombie ballets to surreal nightmare sequences, here are 20 visuals that lean into the eerie, the grotesque and the gloriously strange — ideal for a Halloween watch party.

Michael Jackson set the template with the epochal, movie-length “Thriller.” Since then, artists as varied as Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Metallica, Doja Cat and Lady Gaga have embraced horror aesthetics, from playful camp to full-on nightmare logic. Below, find 20 clips — in no particular order — that will haunt, amuse and stick with you long after the credits roll.

• Michael Jackson — “Thriller”

  

  John Landis directed this 1983 landmark: a 13–15 minute short that elevated the music video to cinematic spectacle. With lavish choreography, practical effects and an affectionate nod to classic monster films, it remains the blueprint for pop-horror visuals.

  Key scene: Two minutes in, Jackson’s transformation into a werewolf—complete with glowing eyes and jagged teeth—announces the film’s grotesque turn.

  The ick: Vincent Price’s chilling narration and the graveyard dance of reanimated corpses.

• Billie Eilish — “All Good Girls Go to Hell”

  

  Opening with needle-laden imagery and angelic wings stained by oil, this clip is a stark environmental parable: a fallen angel trudging through a burning, polluted landscape. Its imagery equates climatic collapse with spiritual ruin.

  Key scene: The final shot of a resigned Eilish marching back toward flames captures the song’s fatalistic mood.

  The ick: The barrage of syringes used to birth the wings — a visceral, uneasy moment.

• Taylor Swift — “Look What You Made Me Do”

  

  Part satire, part Gothic tableau, Swift’s 2017 visual from Reputation assembles personas — and then stages their undoing. From a grave-marked epitaph to snake-laden thrones, the clip treats her public image like a haunted house to be explored and dismantled.

  Key scene: The triumphant, arms-raised Swift atop a heap of her past selves, signaling the death of previous eras.

  The ick: A cadaverous, green-tinged Taylor crawling from her own grave — a brazen bit of macabre makeup.

• Backstreet Boys — “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”

  

  Joseph Kahn’s homage to classic horror tropes turns the boy band’s pop choreography into a tongue-in-cheek monster revue. Stranded at a haunted mansion, each member transforms into a familiar cinematic creature, blending campy scares with polished dance sequences.

  Key scene: Howie D’s Dracula moment, opening his cape and summoning a flock of bats.

  The ick: Nick Carter’s mummy routine, including a cringe-inducing “am I sexual?” aside inside a claustrophobic iron-maiden set-piece.

• Lady Gaga — “The Dead Dance”

  

  Shot in monochrome and directed by Tim Burton for a hit tied to Wednesday, Gaga’s clip was filmed on Mexico City’s Island of the Dolls. It revels in doll-like eeriness, with Gaga oscillating between porcelain fragility and eerie, animated menace.

  Key scene: The staged reveal of the “Dead Dance” choreography, equal parts creepy and theatrical.

  The ick: Close-ups of lifeless doll heads and dead-eyed playthings that stare back at the viewer.

• Nine Inch Nails — “Closer”

  

  Mark Romanek’s stark, often disquieting visual for “Closer” is a collage of medical oddities, religious iconography and industrial decay. It’s abrasive cinema that matches the song’s obsessive intensity with images that lodge in the mind.

  Key scene: Reznor hovering on his back in slow, ominous rotations — a haunting suspended-moment.

  The ick: The rotating pig’s head on a mechanical arm: an image many viewers find impossible to forget.

• Aphex Twin — “Come to Daddy”

  

  Richard D. James’ 1997 shocker deploys grotesque CGI faces on children and a fractured suburban nightmare. The video’s surreal, aggressive energy — equal parts prank and panic — makes it a standout in electronic music’s darker canon.

  Key scene: A monstrous figure erupting from a television and screaming directly into an elderly woman’s face.

  The ick: The vision of little girls bearing the artist’s adult face — uncanny and profoundly unsettling.

• Ozzy Osbourne — “Bark at the Moon”

  

  Ozzy’s early solo-era clip leans into classic werewolf lore: potion-induced transformations, straitjackets and asylum sets. He commits to the part with theatrical relish, channeling the Prince of Darkness persona without apology.

  Key scene: The initial, shaky reveal of Ozzy in a full-body werewolf suit, snarling with wild abandon.

  The ick: A surreal chase in which multiple Ozzy-like figures pursue one another through damp tunnels — delightfully disorienting.

• Sabrina Carpenter — “Taste”

  

  Directed by Dave Meyers, this gore-tinged homage to dark comedies blends slapstick and shock. Carpenter’s campy, blood-splattered choreography and jaw-dropping stunts (including impalement and limb-loosening set-pieces) push the video into gleeful, R-rated territory.

  Key scene: A voodoo-doll sequence where Carpenter manipulates Jenna Ortega, a moment of stylized, theatrical violence.

  The ick: A Psycho-esque moment where an arm is severed with a scythe, sending a geyser of blood.

• Doja Cat — “Demons”

  

  Directed by Christian Breslauer, Doja’s visual cast her as a horned, shadowy presence slipping across ceilings and invading a household’s peace. It’s bluntly frightening: demonic imagery set to a pop-rap pulse.

  Key scene: Doja crawling above a sleeping Christina Ricci, an image that lingers uneasily.

  The ick: A tableau of a bald, naked Doja rapping in a bathtub while a black demonic hand seizes her head.

• Hozier — “Dinner & Diatribes”

  

  Samuel Bayer’s unsettling dinner-party tableau stars Anya Taylor-Joy and an uncanny Hozier. The feast is grotesque: animal remains, rotten delicacies and a theatrical cruelty that slowly escalates into ritualized violence.

  Key scene: Taylor-Joy igniting one last match and offering a final, chilling gesture toward Hozier’s charred form.

  The ick: The singer’s stained, mossy teeth — a small detail that makes the whole scene feel corrosive.

• Rihanna — “Disturbia”

  

  Co-directed by Rihanna, this video pushes fetish-inflected, surreal imagery: robotic choreography, tarantulas and scenes of ritualized suffering. It’s a polished, stylized plunge into the uncanny.

  Key scene: The jerky, synchronized zombie-style dance during the song’s breakdown — unnerving and energizing.

  The ick: Rihanna manipulating a dead-eyed mannequin in a tactile, unsettling way.

• Rob Zombie — “Dragula”

  

  Rob Zombie’s aesthetic is Halloween merch in motion: pulp-horror clips, vintage monster movie footage and frenetic, motor-driven visuals. “Dragula” channels mid-century monster-movie mania into a high-octane rock fantasy.

  Key scene: Zombie howling in front of retro sci-fi footage, an homage to pulp-era chills.

  The ick: A sinister clown sequence that recalls the most disturbing corners of carnival imagery.

• Florence + the Machine — “Everybody Scream”

  

  Directed by Autumn de Wilde, this clip places Florence Welch in a primal, ritualistic space. From a backward-riding cowboy to convulsing ballroom guests, the video builds tension through strange choreography and mythic imagery.

  Key scene: Welch writhing with an evening primrose in her mouth, a surreal, throat-clutching visual.

  The ick: A desperate moment where a red stiletto is shoved into a man’s mouth — visceral and unforgettable.

• Kid Cudi — “Grave”

  

  Samuel Bayer’s slow-burn treatment frames Cudi in a melancholic, uncanny loop: buried-alive imagery, reversed motion and a wandering through urban liminality. It’s both mournful and eerily poetic.

  Key scene: Cudi in a potter’s-field graveyard, singing about an end to running — a stark visual echo of the lyrics.

  The ick: The buried-alive motif, which can make viewers physically recoil.

• Ludacris — “How Low”

  

  Equal parts urban legend and tongue-in-cheek horror, this clip riffs on mirror-based summoning rituals. Ludacris’ ghostly, floating head offers encouragement while costumed interlopers turn a sleepover into a surreal party gone wrong.

  Key scene: Two Jason-mask-wearing dancers breakdancing down a staircase — silly and oddly eerie.

  The ick: Full-body black paint on dancers flanking Luda, creating an uncanny, inked silhouette effect.

• Metallica — “All Nightmare Long”

  

  Presented as archival propaganda, the Roboshobo-directed clip frames a fictional Soviet discovery of alien spores that later morph into a grotesque weaponized outbreak. It’s a clever, pulp-horror animated pastiche with cold-war paranoia at its center.

  Key scene: An imagined 1948 sequence where the spores are repurposed as a bioweapon — chilling alternate-history storytelling.

  The ick: The reanimation of a dead cat using spores — a small, revolting tableau.

• Panic! At the Disco — “Emperor’s New Clothes”

  

  Daniel Campos continues a visual narrative begun in “This Is Gospel,” following Brendon Urie’s descent into a hellish metamorphosis. The result is theatrical, feverish and laced with devilish grandeur.

  Key scene: A chorus of singing skeletons declaring the new, infernal order — theatrical and eerie.

  The ick: Urie’s final, horned form: blood-red lighting, bared fangs and a grin that won’t quit.

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs — “Y Control”

  

  Spike Jonze’s grainy, voyeuristic clip turns schoolyard innocence into horror: dead-eyed children, escalating violence and a texture that feels like footage pulled from a nightmare. It’s raw, unnerving and hard to shake.

  Key scene: A child vampire drawing blood from Karen O’s neck — small-scale, intimate dread.

  The ick: A graphic moment where one child rips another’s intestines free — a shocking, brutal image.

• Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”

  

  Tom Petty’s 1993 clip tells a macabre romantic comedy: a morgue attendant falls for a beautiful corpse (Kim Basinger), takes her out for a bittersweet night on the town, and then gives her a sea burial. It’s equal parts melancholy and darkly comic.

  Key scene: Petty propping Basinger’s limp body and dancing with her — tender in a disturbingly literal way.

  The ick: Handling a corpse with flirtatious familiarity — oddly intimate and unsettling.

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