Creepiest Horror Movie Themes

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.

 

Child’s Play 1 and 2

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....

Insidious

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.

2001: A Space Odyssey

For my money this is probably the most unnerving and just plain creepy theme music I've ever heard. If fear of the unknown had a sound, this would be it. The mysterious Monolith. What does it mean? why it is here? what can it do? These are the questions this thing asks us. Every time this thing appears in the movie you hear this sound. It's truly unnerving, horrific at points, creepy, but most of all ... it's alien.

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.

It's not the psycho theme with the knife coming down. It's not the jaws theme of the looming shark in the distance. This is more or less just a theme that embodies fear. That's the best way I can describe it. 

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

The Exorcist

Bram Stoker's Dracula

And in my humble opinion the greatest music video ever made....

 Thriller

Poltergeist Review / Insidious Chapter 3 Review

We constantly get hit with a slew of subpar ghost movies. I know, I'm a huge sucker for horror movies about ghosts. However in the past few years we've been hit with a pretty impressive group of horror films, the Insidious films included.

Some are kinda weak and boring. They really aren't worth your time unless you're a devout Horror fan.
Ex.

 

Some are still pretty crappy but are still fairly fun anyway. Worth the watch if you just wanna see a few good scares.
Ex.

 

Every blue moon, a choice few that cross that line and become truly amazing and some even deconstruct the genre or dealing with issues so much larger than your average horror film.

Ex.

And some that are just good old fashioned Horror goodness. Solid movies with great scares. The sort of films you want to show your friends.

Ex.

 


So where does this summer's horror duo come into play.



Poltergeist is a remake of a classic horror film.

With easily one of the most memorable theme songs of all time. 

The credited director is Tobe Hooper.... buuuuut really it was directed by Steven Spielberg.
So before we go any further we have to go in knowing that this isn't going to be as good as the original.

That said it's above average but more or less forgettable. Don't get me wrong it's worth the watch but if there was no original poltergeist and this film stood on it's own I doubt it would get as much Press as it did.



The movie still gets a lot right. It builds the characters of the family and lets you know them as people and you're honestly concerned about them. Sam Rockwell is clearly giving it his all, bringing so much character to a role that would have never come through with a lessor actor.  I also thought it was interesting that it spent more time developing the character of the little brother as well as the Ghost Expert they call in. I also like that they invented new scares and put them in different places because the movie is smart enough to know that we've mostly likely seen the original.

The downside is it feels like this movie is rushing. Because it follows the beats of the original I kept comparing it to that, and 80's horror movies has such a different pace then modern horror. We like cheap thrills, get us in, make us scream, get us out. The original movie, much like Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Exorcist, or  Halloween, is a slow burn and focuses on ambiance and storytelling. They focus on being more thrilling than scary. This movie feels pretty rushed at points.

They certainly made the clown creepier, I'll give them that

Overall it's a good watch. But trust me you have to view it as a separate film and it's own thing. It has some solid scares, and is a fun horror film. It's absolutely worth a rental.


Now speaking of things that take liberally from the OG Poltergeist.

If we're talking spiritual successor to Poltergeist. I think the original Insidious was probably the best evolution of that story. And while some people hated it, I thought Insidious 2 was a fantastic sequel.

But what about the 3rd film in the franchise.

I'm a huge fan of this mythology, especially its theme music. Seriously it's like a violin is moaning in agony. Try listening to this alone in the Dark.

This movie us fun, but it's unfortunately a shadow of it's previous two films but it's still very creepy. It sets up great ambiance and it's terrifying at points. What I love about these films is that they do so much with so little.

They don't use huge CG effects, or smoke monsters or anything. They just flash an image of a man standing in the corner or the sounds of footsteps when someone thinks their alone. It's incredibly effective what you can do with lighting, shadows, and skulking dark figures.

This story is a prequel involving one of the strongest parts of the series, Elise played by Lin Shaye.

Elise is the spiritual expert. She acts as a guide to the main characters in the first two films. She acts as a sort or ray of sunshine when the family is in a really dark place. You just have to love her character, she's so dedicated and nobel yet so approachable and charismatic.

  At this point in her life she's given up being a medium because it's just getting too dangerous for her. And I'm guessing in an attempt to build on their audience they introduce... cute teenagers!!!

Stephanie Scott plays Quinn, a young girl who tries to make contact with her recently past mother. Though she wanted to reach her mother, something else, something evil responds.

While the movie had some great ambiance and scary moments, it also drags at points as well. It doesn't stand alone as well as the first two did, and it could have used more Lin Shaye!!!


Both Stephanie and her father (Dermot Mulroney) do a great job in the movie but they don't have enough to do.

 Also the new threat isn't quite as well rounded as the other threats from past movies. All three movies prominently feature The Black Bride.

A malevolent spirit they refer to as a parasite.

And then there's the Lipstick Face Demon

Who was the main threat in the first and was hinted at in the other two.
Both of these characters were more interesting and scarier than the new one.

To be honest the creature in this one is pretty terrifying in the beginning of the film, but without giving too much away the ending of the film kinda defuses him as a threat. Personally, as scary as a ghost is, demons are just more threatening to me.

 I think that if they're going to do more films they should consider deepening the mythology. Who says it's just ghosts and demons in the further. What if there are even more insidious things lurking out there.




This film was a step above most horror flicks because of the specific Insidious style, and because I love the series. But outside of that, its not a super memorable ghost story. It's absolutely worth the watch and it's fun, but it doesn't quite live up to its predecessors.

That's it for now!