Top 10 Horror Movie Soundtracks of All Time
by danmvalverde | created - 01 May 2017 | updated - 01 May 2017 | PublicThe best horror movie soundtracks of all time from some iconic composers. Info, Trivia, and Soundtrack links included.
Which of these haunting harmonies is your favourite?
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1. Halloween (1978)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tony Moran, Nancy Kyes
Votes: 220,836 | Gross: $47.00M
Composer: John Carpenter
Perhaps the most iconic of Carpenters 35 soundtrack credits. The repetitious minor melody invokes fear and dread. The piece was recorded by The Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6R5ILblyto
2. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
When a 12 year-old girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 352,200 | Gross: $232.91M
Composer: Lalo Schifrin, Mike Oldfield
Lalo Schifrin’s score was originally rejected by director William Friedkin due to pressure on the studio to tone the music down, after audiences were left overly scared. The decision was made to use modern classical compositions, the most famous being Mike Oldfield’s 1973 “Tubular Bells”. It was then sampled for the main theme.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ffml1zUmE
3. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 860,866 | Gross: $44.02M
Composer: Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind
This soundtrack featured liberal use of Krzystof Penderecki’s pre-existing compositions particularly in the climatic moments. Carlos & Eklind's tones can be heard most notably in the opening credits and set the tone for the film perfectly.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWbI19Pt_nU
4. Candyman (1992)
18A | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 67,108 | Gross: $25.79M
Composer: Philip Glass
Possibly one of the more elegant pieces on the list, Philip Glass encompasses the movies' romanticism with his amalgamation of pretty piano and haunting organ.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ8M7uCFH1Q&t=774s
5. Phantasm (1979)
R | 89 min | Horror, Sci-Fi
A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a lethal arsenal of terrible weapons with him.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester
Votes: 30,978 | Gross: $11.99M
Composer: Fred Myrow, Malcom Seagrave
When classically trained composers with a love of rock music are asked to create a film soundtrack, this is what you get. A spooky 8th note piano theme evolves through layers of modern instruments.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kafEN7--Jw
6. The Omen (1976)
R | 111 min | Horror
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner
Votes: 104,098 | Gross: $4.27M
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
This Academy Award winning pieces' main theme, "Ave Satani" is a harrowing meld of choral chants and itchy orchestral staccato. Said Goldsmith, who was nominated for the Best Original Score Oscar eight times earlier without a victory, "I was very surprised when I won for The Omen since, I didn't think it was the kind of film Academy voters would go for."
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAFCiEFX6ag
7. Psycho (1960)
18A | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A Phoenix secretary embezzles forty thousand dollars from her employer's client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a young man under the domination of his mother.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock | Stars: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin
Votes: 581,342 | Gross: $32.00M
Composer: Bernard Herrmann
The seething orchestral intensity that is Psycho always manages to unsettle the viewer from the very open. Interestingly, Hitchcock had wanted the shower scene to transpire without music, just Janet Leigh's screams. Herrmann offered those forcibly played, high-pitched strings and the rest is history.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is2sgWRK7D0
8. The Wicker Man (1973)
14A | 88 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A puritan Police Sergeant is sent to a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl who the townsfolk claim never existed; stranger still are the pagan rites that take place there.
Director: Robin Hardy | Stars: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland
Votes: 66,591 | Gross: $0.06M
Composer: Paul Giovanni, Magnet
This soundtrack could easily be mistaken for a collection of traditional British folk songs but, when heard within the context of the film, the ancient-sounding songs take on a darker, more disturbing tone.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED5yq7lgQak
9. Rosemary's Baby (1968)
18+ | 137 min | Drama, Horror
A young couple trying for a baby move into a fancy apartment surrounded by peculiar neighbors.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer
Votes: 185,714
Composer: Krzysztof Komeda
Komeda's Jazz connections come through in this subtle piece but, there's something more sinister coming from between the La-la-la's of a young Mia Farrow.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ycy9I1t1CvQ
10. Jaws (1975)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Thriller
When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Votes: 532,248 | Gross: $260.00M
Composer: John Williams
Williams’ ominous, now iconic theme became the key to this picture's terror. The impending "Da-da" that built to what could only be expected as a horrific crescendo makes it one of the most important musical themes ever written for cinema.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WwcsjWPIQ
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