The best horror movie themes are the ones that leave you anxious at the sound of the first note, long after the movie has ended.
For many film enthusiasts, the best thing about a horror flick – apart from the pivotal knee-jerking, seat-jumping, scream-inducing scary scene – is the music that comes with it.
Back in the day, award-winning composers were commissioned to come up with the perfect music accompaniment for movies, which is why a few of the tracks we've featured here are considered timeless tunes (even if a little creepy).
1. Tubular Bells – The Exorcist theme song (1973)
Written by Mike Oldfield, this haunting musical ditty mainly features, as the title suggests, tubular bells (or chimes) and piano, two of the three instruments that are prominent in many horror movie theme songs. It starts soft and slow, and steadily builds up into a melodic crescendo, with bursts of violin strikes in between.
Linda Blair doing some special gymnastics in The Exorcist.
2. — from The Omen (1976)
The late composer Jerry Goldsmith, who also wrote hundreds of music for movies and TV shows like The Twilight Zone, The Mummy and Logan's Run, won an Oscar for his excellent work on this movie's soundtrack. This is one of the very few tracks from classic horror movies that feature singers – in this case, a choral singing group.
3. It Was Always You, Helen – Candyman theme song (1992)
This Clive Barker movie features a composer who's probably one of the the last people you'd think would come up with the theme for a horror production – US composer Philip Glass. The talented Glass won an Oscar for his work in the Jim Carrey drama, The Truman Show.
It Was Always You, Helen is mainly piano-driven, with some choral music thrown in. However, there is a music box version that's even creepier.
In the film, the music is used to increase the scare factor, but if you're just listening to it, it sounds oddly soothing. No, seriously.
4. Psycho theme song and "Shower Scene" track (1960)
Everyone knows the tune, and many might even know which movie it is taken from. The "shrieking violins" (another instrument that's prominently used in many horror tracks) used in the shower scene of Alfred Hitchcock's cinematic genius, Psycho, is perhaps one of the most sampled piece of music around.
Just like how Hitchcock once described the scene ("the suddenness of the murder in the shower, coming, as it were, out of the blue"), both the film's theme song and Shower Scene track also depict the same sort of "suddenness" that makes you want to pee in your pants when you're watching the movie.
The consistent bursts of low violin strokes in the main theme also effectively keep you in suspense over what's to come. The themes were created by multi-award winning composer Bernard Herrmann, who also did nine other scores for Hitchcock.
That's right, Janet Leigh. Scream your lungs out. (Psycho, 1960)
5. Bram Stoker's Dracula theme song (1992)
There's something a little sinister about an innocent marching tune when it is played with a combination of violins, organs and other instruments capable of producing ghoulish-sounding notes. Throw in a hauntingly melodic scream and you've got yourself a beautiful theme song that manages to capture the tortured soul of the movie's central character, Count Dracula.
Plus, the build up to the climax in the song is just awesome.
Francis Ford Coppola's film won three Oscars, though none was for Wojciech Kilar, who wrote the score (he did, however, win at the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards).
6. Ju-On: The Grudge theme song (2002)
That face ... those eyes ... they go very well with the creepy music by Hiroyuki Hamamoto. The original Japanese version of this horror flick, directed by Takashi Shimizu, is scarier and a lot more entertaining than the Hollywood remake. Plus, the music makes your skin crawl.
It starts off innocently enough with a simple tune on the piano, but once the other instruments kick in, you can tell that there's more to it than that.
7. The Ring theme (2002)
This movie starring Australian actress Naomi Watts is a Hollywood remake of the 1998 Japanese horror movie called Ringu. The sample here is a short number (the full-length version, by composer Hans Zimmer, is here), featuring a child singing.
Seriously, a child singing in a horror movie is a terribly frightening thing. Especially when the lyrics go: "Round we go, the world is spinning. When it stops, it's just beginning; Suns comes up, we laugh and we cry; Sun goes down and then we all die."
Yikes.
8. Halloween theme (1978)
Directed by horror-meister John Carpenter, Halloween is about a guy named Mike Myers who goes on a killing spree on Halloween. Okay, there's more to the story than that, but there are 10 Halloween films to date and each one is pretty different.
Carpenter himself composed the track and performed the piano part himself, apparently. It has some vague similarities to the opener of Mike Oldfied's Tubular Bells, although not as melodic.
Mike Myers is a tortured soul. Who likes to kill. On Halloween.
9. Dead Silence theme (2007)
A movie directed by Malaysia-born filmmaker James Wan (who, with his partner Leigh Whannell, created the Saw movie franchise, the two Insidious films, The Conjuring and is currently filming Fast & Furious 7), Dead Silence is where Billy the ventriloquist doll first made "his" appearance.
Some. Dolls. Are. Just. Too. Creepy.
This theme song by Charlie Clouser also uses the same music patterns as Tubular Bells, but somewhere in the middle it starts to sound a lot more modern and mainstream. Still a good listen, though.
10. The Thing theme (1982)
Here's another Carpenter cult classic, this time about an alien that kills people and takes their form. Celebrated composer Ennio Morricone (he did the score for ) was asked by the filmmaker to work on the soundtrack for The Thing, and he came up with this genius track.
Listening to this makes you want to constantly look behind you to see if anything or anyone is lurking by...
Why, hello there! (The Thing, 1982)
To listen to more horror movie themes, check out our playlist on YouTube.
Source : http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Entertainment/Movies/News/2014/10/06/Cover-your-ears-10-creepy-tracks-from-horror-movies
