You know, far a band who’s bassist’s schtick was heavily influenced by old horror films and specifically by Lon Chaney Sr., KISS had very little horror-themed stuff in the catalog.  There’s a better example that we’ll get to eventually, but this 1998 effort off the first (only) album recorded during the brief return of original band members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss does manage to fit the bill. This one also gets points for originally being released on VHS in 3D (I think it came as a tie-in when you bought the CD, but I can’t swear to it at this late date, I just know I owned it at some point). Also I just want to note that the actual song is a lot better than I remembered it being. The video not so much.

There was even a Psycho Circus series from Image Comics that ran 3 years.  Unlike the earlier Marvel comics that had featured the band, they don’t appear as themselves, but as avatars that appear as part of a dark carnival where mortals face their deepest fears and are either healed or destroyed by the experience. Yes, I have hardcover collection of those somewhere around here too.  Gene Simmons is many things (including the world’s ugliest hermaphrodite), but most of all he’s a marketing genius.

Addendum: I did later think of a third vaguely horror-themed video from these guys, I Love It Loud does *just barely* qualify with its final shot homage to Children of the Damned, but it is only a technical win and it definitely doesn’t make it in the monster department.

Introduction to the Monster, Monster series here.