While Halloween is usually reserved more for scaring than giving, Tampa Bay filmmaker and musician Thomas Crane is giving fans a dose of both with the debut of his new single, “Monsters Walk Among Us,” and its accompanying video, which he directed and stars in.
Both the single and the 7-plus-minute short film were released today.
Crane, through his company killDevil Films, has been on a tear of late, traveling the U.S. to direct music videos for Sativa, Once Human and Todd La Torre of Queensryche, just to name a few.
“Monsters Walk Among Us” marks his first new music since 2019’s “Spook House,” but many fans also will remember him from the band Marion Crane.
Crane is the true definition of a triple threat. He not only writes and performs but also directs. In 2019, he received acclaim from the horror community with the release of his award-winning first film, “Halloween Party,” which was reviewed here and also is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
The video for “Monsters Walk Among Us” is a blast of rapid-fire edits, bodacious femme fatales and Crane as The Gemini Killer wreaking havoc and racking up a significant body count, all with a devilish grin and a gleam in his eye.
Crane commands the screen, along with a trio of female accomplices—Alanna Dawn as Kitten, Melody Parker as Jayne and Tampa’s own burlesque icon Franki Markstone, who pulls double duty as the scantily clad Cookie and a TV reporter detailing Crane’s killing spree—as his character evolves from sociopath to social (and political) influencer.
“I thought it was an interesting concept to write a song through a character and to continue that with the video,” Crane said. “The lyrics are the Gemini Killer’s billet-doux, taunting authorities, embracing notoriety, and I wanted him to have style and panache. He’s a bit of a troll. There’s definitely some social commentary in the video, about how the media loves to embrace villains for clicks and views.”
We got an early peek at Crane’s creation, and it’s a pretty safe bet that people are going to truly dig both.
Visually, Crane is mining Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” while musically his new track reminds you what made 2001-era Rob Zombie so damn good. That’s not to say he’s mimicking either artist. Crane has his own distinct style and sound that shines through.
John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer, but he’s loved movies his entire life. Good movies, awful movies, movies that are so gloriously bad you can’t help but champion them. Since 2009, he has cultivated a review column and now a website dedicated to the genre films that often get overlooked and interviews with cult cinema favorites like George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell and Dee Wallace. Contact him at Blood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook @BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter @BVB_reviews.
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