Halloween!!! It's absolutely my second favorite holiday of the year. I'm kind of a horror movie junkie and this holiday is just so much fun! I was
thinking about writing something other that the standard top scary movie thing,
and I decided on my favorite horror themes.
Let’s face it, like many genres, the music can make or break
a movie. The music, or lack thereof, sets the mood and can be the scariest part
of the entire experience. Music in movies should the invisible hand guiding the
suspense or tension for what’s happening on screen. It shouldn’t be overbearing
otherwise it can make the film seem cheesy. So here are my favorite horror film
scores and themes of all time.
Halloween
The Michael Myers theme is as much a staple of the season as
the Halloween movie is a staple of the season. Halloween the movie isn’t only
the quintessential slasher film, it’s theme music stands as a standard. I love light notes that seem to be cursed
with the foreboding heavy notes on the piano. It always reminded me of how much
of an unstoppable force Michael Myers can be.
 |
| The slasher who gave birth to all other shashers |
You may be faster, you may out
run him but he always catches up. His slower more oppressive force overpowers
you. It’s such an influential theme that I’ve heard people claim that all other
horror themes are variations of this tune. Now Holloween is not the first slasher film. It's predated by both Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas. But this was the film that introduced most people to the modern day slasher. In more ways that one, John
Carpenter’s Halloween is a staple and the pinnacle of the horror Genre.
Anyone can tell you that I’m a huge fan of the Chucky
character. The Chucky movies do as many slashers do, getting sillier and more
for laughs as the sequels begin to stack up. However, while the original had
it’s moments of dark humor, it had a very creepy tone to it.
The theme reflects
that perfectly. It’s sad chorus of children singing is just eerie and somewhat
depressing. The only time the theme played in the movie was during the credits.
It’s was such a dark ending to what was creepy yet really fun movie.
Child’s Play 2 however took it’s campy elements and put them
over the top. The theme is very clown or circus like. Yet there is something
there that makes it seem off. The reason is, this is a very unhappy song, played by
comical instruments. Just imagine this same tune played with a violin or piano.
The music is sad, but because it’s played with light and happy instruments with
the toots of horns, it sounds like your at some depraved carnival. That was
really perfect for this movie. Chucky is a cute little children’s doll, yet he
curses, murders, and commits all kinds of acts of wanton violence.
While the
first movie wanted the whole thing to be creepy, Child’s Play 2 wants it all to
be fun.
Poltergeist
Wanna hear something unsettling. Skip to 3:05.
Why is it that a chorus of children singing can be so scary?
If
you’re a child of 90’s or 80’s like me, this movie was probably the first scary
movie you ever saw as a child. The movie is a masterpiece directed by Tobe Hooper....
but as most
people know it was really directed by Steven Spielberg,.
Before the jump scares of modern horror movies, (not that I mind
jump scares, I think the things that first few Blume House pictures did are amazing)
horror flicks had characters and story.
What’s different about this theme is
that it doesn’t really have much darkness to it other than it being a bunch of
kids singing. It’s innocent and unassuming, much like little Carol Ann whose
trusting nature and naiveté leads her to becoming friends with an evil spirit,
thinking that it’s her friend.
Most haunting of all is the way it ends. The
laughing is so incredibly unnerving; it feels like you’ve been listening to a
chorus of ghosts this whole time.
The Grudge
When the Grudge first came out it was the first film to really
freak me out in a long time. I remember watching it at home alone....
That was a mistake.
I love the presence that’s present in the theme for this
film. The light notes almost dancing around the darker evil. Similar to the way
Kayako torments her victims before killing them.
The theme is exactly what it
should be, haunting and eerie. These ghosts could just take you out right away, but they don't. Instead they choose to follow and torture you as you freak out when you see them. They're a black mark of death, following wherever you go.
The way the tune loops just reminds me of how these spirits, though hateful are themselves forced to relive their deaths and their last moments of despair. And they share that despair with anyone who crosses their paths.
The song is sort of a warning. Because once you're marked you're basically fucked. Seriously, one of the things we learned from the movie is that once these things decide to haunt you there is NOTHING you can do. You are forever cursed and whenever they decide to put you our of your misery they will come. So the song in a way is a warning before you enter the house. A warning to people that this house is forsaken and
you should stay away unless you wish to invoke the wrath of ....
Okay that’s enough of that!!! Scroll Down, this is freaking me out!!!
Okay safe... Next up is....
I’ve mentioned before that this is one of the creepiest
themes ever. I’ve never been as unnerved as I am when I hear the way they
torture violins to get that screeching sound. Skip ahead to about 2:28 in the theme to hear what I'm talking about.
Of all the themes on this list, I’d
guess that if I were locked inside of a pitch black room and I had to listen to
this on repeat then I would go insane the quickest.
Either that or I’d will myself to die
from fear. I love that this actually sounds otherworldly It’s a perfect
description of the nether. A place absent of hope and filled with despair. The theme perfectly creates the sounds you'd expect to hear from a place like hell or any sort of purgatory.
It's frightening and it honestly creeps me out just to hear it. It's almost as if the walls and the air are wailing directly at you. As if you don't belong here. As if it knows that you're one of the living, walking amongst the dead.
Nightmare on Elm Street
This movie has certainly earned its name as a horror staple.
Freddy Kruger is one of the all time sickest villains with his signature claws
and the premise of a monster that literally haunts your dreams making him
inescapable.
But his horror theme is brilliant. It’s almost like you’re
dreaming when you listen to it. The notes playing seem to go in in one
direction then they nonsensically change. It’s sort of an ambiance more than
anything. And it perfectly sets up the world that Freddy lives it.
Actually if
you want a freaky haunted house, this is exactly the music you want playing
over the speakers. The sense of unease and the way that it’s impossible to tell
where the song is going is perfect.
One of the best horror movie themes ever!
The Ring--- Samara's Song
Very short but very cool. While the tune comes up throughout the film you actually hear very little of this song actually sung in the
movie. But when you do it’s absolutely perfect. It is a compilation of all the
things that went into the other songs on this list. It’s soft and haunting.
Samara eerily sings the words that are deceptively sinister. What’s works so
well is this song can be completely innocent and unassuming without the use of
heavier notes. It doesn't need to have a dark undertone to be creepy. The song itself and it's lyrics do that for it.
 |
| Maybe none of this wouldn't have happened if they put her on the track team |
The sound of the lone girl singing is representative of the
story and the way that Samara was outcast and left alone to die.
It’s a horrifying
reveal at the end when you find out what happened to her and that makes her
song all the creepier. But it's only deceptively innocent. There's something malicious right under the surface which can't be seen until you look closer. Much like the characters in the film find out about Samara. She seems to be an innocent victim but there's actually something very evil inside.
The brilliance of this song is that it totally could be a
really nursery rhyme like Ring Around The Rosy. But listening to the last words
of the song “.... and then we all die...”
 |
| Don't Look!! Too late.... my bad. |
It’s just perfectly done.
It's the unknown. This sound is the sound of approaching something that's completely uncharged ground. A place that human's have never gone and possibly a place that humans never should go.
These Honorable Mentions are also great horror themes. They aren't necessarily worse that the ones listed above I just had less to say about them. =\
Jaws
Probably the ultimate theme of looming danger, that's silently stalking you.
Psycho
And the shower stabbing music. Much like the Insidious music this is the embodiment of the sound of sheer terror.
The Fog
Bram Stoker's Dracula
And in my humble opinion the greatest music video ever
made....
No comments:
Post a Comment