Need ideas for a wedding gift for horror fans

September 18, 2017 6:09 AM

Are there any great horror coffee table books or a source of truly creepy housewares?(My friends are HUGE horror movie buffs, so I want to get them something appropriately creepy for their wedding.)
posted by elizeh to Shopping (23 answers total)

A Treasury of Great Recipes, 50th Anniversary Edition: Famous Specialties of the World's Foremost Restaurants Adapted for the American Kitchen, by Vincent Price. This is a serious cookbook, not a joke, published in 1965 by the greatest horror actor of all time. Each recipe has a short introduction from Price about what inspired it.The recipes are a time capsule of 1950s and 60s cuisine -- some of them are good, but that's almost beside the point. The recipes themselves and the glimpse into Price's life are the real treat in this book.
posted by OrangeDisk at 6:15 AM on September 18, 2017 [10 favorites]

Well, I'm sure this is outside your budget but this might work!
posted by pretentious illiterate at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2017

This gorgeous Taschen book about Hieronymus Bosch wouldn't go amiss! I have it and it's awesome.
posted by cakelite at 6:41 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

How about an Aliens Xenomorph Stein With Sculpted "Chest Burster" Topper. Or find a potter to commission a few custom items.
posted by Sophont at 7:02 AM on September 18, 2017

The EC Archives collections are pretty great...Big hardcover collections of old EC horror and sci-fi comics.
posted by doctornecessiter at 7:11 AM on September 18, 2017 [3 favorites]

The EC Archives collections are pretty great...Big hardcover collections of old EC horror and sci-fi comics.

I can't believe I didn't think of this! I own the complete runs of Tales From the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear, and they're among my most prized possessions.

If you can, though, try to get the earlier black-and-white collections, instead of the new color ones. You can really admire the amazing inks of Jack Davis and Graham Ingels without the color getting in the way.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:27 AM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Or housewares, you say? I've always been a fan of this knife holder
posted by Mchelly at 7:40 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Calamityware!
posted by corvine at 7:43 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

Pottery Barn's halloween collection always has some pretty sweet skull decanters and skeleton goblets in between the watercolor pumpkin hand towels.
posted by sonmi at 7:46 AM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Our local museum has a collection of horror movie posters on display at the moment. You can order the exhibit book, along with some other goodies, from the online store here: IT'S ALIVE! CLASSIC HORROR AND SCI-FI MOVIE POSTERS FROM THE KIRK HAMMETT COLLECTION. There are posters, pins, and so on made just for the exhibit.

(Full disclosure: I'm partial not just because I'm local, but because I'll be doing a hands-on printmaking demo at the kickoff party this Friday)
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:49 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]

Halloween is coming up. I got some skull S&P shakers and a candle holder at Christmas Tree Shops. JoAnn Fabric had some hery cool candleholders - some were bones, some were spider webs. Lots of options for cool add-ons to a macabre book.
posted by theora55 at 9:11 AM on September 18, 2017

The Grandinroad catalog has a nice mix of decor, housewares, etc. with a spooky theme.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:55 AM on September 18, 2017

Depending on what kind of horror they're into, the Peabody-Essex Museum in MA is currently running an exhibit called It's Alive!! featuring classic horror movie posters, and there's an associated nice hardback coffeetable book.
posted by aimedwander at 10:13 AM on September 18, 2017

I have a few sets of these Skeleton Hands Salad Servers and I love them. I keep them in my kitchen year round. One time I took them to serve salad at a potluck with some church friends... in January. No one said a word... lol.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 10:38 AM on September 18, 2017

There's also these mugs (heat activated to show zombie murder)
posted by Mchelly at 10:52 AM on September 18, 2017

This book isn't as large or shiny as a typical coffee-table book, but it's nifty. If someone had given it to me as a wedding present, I would have been delighted.
posted by scratch at 11:15 AM on September 18, 2017

If they (or you) are on the cheekier side, you can get Horrified Movie Victims Action Figures and Glow In The Dark Flesh Eating Zombies. Without any planning, we received these at our wedding, and they went really well with our graveyard cake and active volcano grooms cake :)

We also got a severed arm that our boys play with on occasion. Who couldn't use an extra hand?

And you could probably put together a complete bathroom set of bloodied items: bloody bathmat, bloody shower curtain, bloody towel and bloody hand towel.

If you're really lucky, you can track down some always topical mood music and lights (we have them, and they are as good as you can imagine), and even The Ultimate Halloween Bubble Light. No idea if they're available online, because my searches failed.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:38 AM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ooh, how about this book or this one, both from Philadelphia's famous Mütter Museum?
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:47 AM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

You could go for some 'real-life horror' with a book by Paul Koudounaris. Heavenly Bodies, perhaps. Or The Empire of Death...
posted by HandfulOfDust at 12:06 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

Photographer Gregory Crewdson has some wonderfully creepy work, especially this book called Twilight (no relation)
posted by exceptinsects at 1:48 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]

You'll know your friends and the kind of gift they will appreciate (and I obviously don't..) but I tend to think gag gifts don't age that well.

But if you wanted to commemorate their love of horror while still getting them a semi-traditional gift, what about getting them some legitimate kitchen stuff off their gift registry but accompanying it with a cookbook which you have enclosed in a fake "To Serve Man" dust jacket?
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:56 PM on September 18, 2017

I’d take a look at The Mysterious Package Company. Not coffee table, but unique
posted by thewalledcity at 6:16 PM on September 20, 2017

Paul Koudounaris also makes prints of his photos of jewel-encrusted skeletons, if you'd like to buy them some art.
posted by Scram at 6:32 PM on September 20, 2017