LVCRFT’s Skeleton Sam’s Deadtime Stories, Curry Barker’s ANYTHING BUT GHOSTS, SILVERLAKE SCREAM SHOW

The intersection of mainstream pop music and the horror genre has long yielded fascinating cultural artifacts, yet few entities blur the line as seamlessly as LVCRFT. Operating by day as a collective of elite pop songwriters and producers responsible for global chart-toppers, the supergroup transforms by night into a dedicated coven of horror enthusiasts. This dual identity reaches a career-defining pinnacle with the announcement of their eighth studio album, Skeleton Sam’s Deadtime Stories, slated for release on October 1. Moving beyond background soundscapes for some of Southern California’s most prominent seasonal attractions, the group is stepping into the spotlight with a sprawling, star-studded audio-horror experience designed to redefine holiday-themed media.

A Legacy Written in Blood and Bass

Since its inception in 2019, LVCRFT has steadily woven itself into the fabric of modern Halloween culture. Founded by Evan Kidd Bogart—known for co-writing Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning "Halo" and Rihanna’s "SOS"—alongside artist Amanda “MNDR” Warner and Grammy-winning producer Peter Wade, the project was born out of frustration with the repetitive nature of traditional seasonal playlists. What began as a spontaneous week-long experiment quickly evolved into an eight-album enterprise.

The coven’s signature creation, the character Skeleton Sam, debuted in 2019 and quickly amassed over 8.5 million on-demand streams. Garnering critical acclaim from publications like GQ, which compared the track’s cultural trajectory to timeless staples like "The Monster Mash" and "Thriller," Sam’s journey culminated in a major placement as the lead track in Disney+’s Hocus Pocus 2 in 2022, where it became the eighth most Shazamed song in the United States. Over the subsequent years, Sam’s narrative expanded across concept albums and multimedia storytelling, transforming from a catchy holiday novelty into a fully realized icon of the genre.

Beyond digital streaming platforms, LVCRFT’s influence permeates the physical landscape of the autumn season. The collective’s musical witchcraft scores the terrifying mazes and live entertainment at Thirteenth Floor’s Queen Mary Dark Harbor, the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, and the family-friendly Magic of the Jack O’Lanterns. Their reach extends into nationwide retail through Spirit Halloween stores and across television and streaming platforms via sync placements in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Hubie Halloween, Chucky, and a three-year run as the musical architects behind Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween.

Anatomy of a Late-Night Horror Broadcast

Skeleton Sam’s Deadtime Stories breaks away from the conventional song-collection format, structured instead as a simulated late-night horror radio broadcast unearthed from a forgotten basement. Spanning twenty-seven tracks and interludes, the record interweaves fictional film trailers, comedic skits, and high-energy pop anthems.

At the structural center of the project is a dual-layered hosting framework. While Skeleton Sam nominally presides over the broader release and a forthcoming music-driven anthology series, the microphone for the album itself belongs to an unnamed host voiced by Roger L. Jackson. Having famously voiced Ghostface in the Scream franchise since 1996, Jackson’s presence frames the audio journey, bridging the gap between cinematic horror history and contemporary pop production.

The album serves as a retirement home and playground for horror royalty, featuring a cast of iconic performers whose contributions span decades of genre filmmaking. John Kassir reprises his iconic role as the Cryptkeeper on "Dead Heart Beat," while Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund and franchise pioneer Heather Langenkamp share the track "Scream For Halloween" alongside notable genre directors Mick Garris and Robert Rodriguez.

Further bridging generational divides, Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame lends his namesake to a track, pairing conceptually with Alyssa Sutherland of Evil Dead Rise on "The Other Side," uniting two distinct eras of the same beloved franchise forty years apart. The roster continues with Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters, who channels a Vincent Price-esque persona on "Possessed" alongside a comedic sketch appearance; David Dastmalchian of Late Night with the Devil; Jenna Davis, the voice of M3GAN; Jasmin Savoy Brown of Yellowjackets; Katharine Isabelle of Ginger Snaps; and composer Christopher Young, who closes the record with "Cabinet Of Horrors."

The Pop Industry Behind the Masks

The most distinctive element of LVCRFT remains its personnel, a coalition of top-tier pop architects operating under macabre alter egos. Evan Kidd Bogart performs as Lil’ Punkin, Amanda Warner as DeepKutz, and Peter Wade under the moniker Norman Crates. They are regularly joined by a revolving door of elite songwriters, including Bonnie McKee (co-writer of "Teenage Dream" and "Roar"), Sarah Hudson (co-writer of Dua Lipa’s "Levitating"), Uffie, and Sarah Barrios, who serves as LVCRFT’s co-lead singer and the definitive voice behind "Skeleton Sam" (Scary Ana Grande).

This convergence of mainstream pop craftsmanship and deep-seated horror fandom has earned the group praise from outlets like Bloody Disgusting, which characterized their output as "deliciously dark, often seductively playful, and always guaranteed to get your cold, dead heart beating again."

Expanding the Seasonal Calendar

LVCRFT operates under the guiding corporate mantra that "Spooky Never Sleeps." By treating Halloween not merely as a single calendar date but as a permanent state of mind, the supergroup has successfully injected horror-themed pop music into unconventional seasons, releasing specialized tracks for Valentine’s Day, Pride, Summerween, and Half-O-Ween. Their persistent presence at conventions such as Midsummer Scream—which draws upwards of 60,000 attendees annually—solidifies their status as year-round ambassadors of genre culture.

With Skeleton Sam’s Deadtime Stories arriving across all digital streaming platforms on October 1, followed closely by the rollout of its companion anthology series, LVCRFT is poised to transition from a seasonal novelty into a multi-platform media enterprise. By pairing decades of cinematic horror pedigree with the gloss of Billboard-charting pop production, the coven demonstrates that the boundary between high art and haunted house fun is porous indeed—and that the best stories are always told after dark.