Running from the Trickster

RUNNING FROM THE TRICKSTER An original Ghibli-style animated horror music video from Solo Hands Music, released for Halloween 2025. In a post-apocalyptic world, humans are hunted by a shape-shifting coyote spirit known as The Trickster — a supernatural predator who stalks the survivors through the ruins of a dying city. As the light fades, the chase intensifies. The Trickster moves among them — sometimes even becoming one of them. This cinematic, anime-inspired video blends haunting alt rock music, hand-drawn atmosphere, and mythic storytelling — a dark vision of survival, deception, and fear. Imagine a decaying world in chaos where you are being chased by one of the spirits Native Americans and First Nation Canadians call The Trickster – a supernatural coyote intent of tricking its prey. In this future world, people are running to escape its tricks and avoid becoming ensnared. The Trickster is clever, constantly morphing and flanking the running population who are trying to escape their crumbling city for the open country. But is that escape even possible? Run or die … that’s the choice. Just make sure The Trickster stays behind you, hopefully ever further behind you …. 😉 MUSIC INSIGHTS: As with my previously week’s release, this music and lyrics were originally structured for a film trailer. That is a very special kind of structure. Typically trailer music has three phases to it – something to hook you into watching right away, something to tell enough of the story to capture your interest and, of course, a final build that drives up the suspense and, if done correctly, leaves you hanging – wanting more. This particular style of alt rock music creates and instant drive to support the lyric’s immediate tension. The pace never slows, and the build burns up and up throughout the song. Th music uses chord progressions and beats common to rock with a verse/chorus/bridge structure. Like the story in the lyrics, the music never stops, never slows down … VIDEO INSIGHTS: The lyrics constantly repeat the title for emphasis on the threat – a supernatural hunter capable of trickery who must be avoided. The protagonists are young people running through a dystopian city simply trying to stay alive. This is a theme common to many horror stories/films and also a lot of science fiction. To show this in the video, I decided to create the animation by using a variety of AI tools. The style I chose was that used by the famous Ghibli animation studio in Japan. It made the scenes approachable while keeping the sense of tricky danger. Please do indicate if you like the music and/or music video – it would encourage me to release other new works. Also, please do subscribe to this channel so that you get announcements of all future releases. “Running from the Trickster” was arranged and recorded using Ableton Live, with instrument voices from various sample libraries. The post processing and master mix was done with iZotope Ozone 9. At some time in the future, it will be released for streaming. Be sure to subscribe here and follow-on social media or signup for the weekly newsletter through the Solo Hands website (if you sign up for our newsletter, you will also receive our free eBook, Musical Notes – Composing & Arranging): http://www.solohands.com Facebook: @SoloHandsMusic Instagram: @SoloHandsMusic