The Music of the Scares: A Soundtrack for Halloween

By Less Lee Moore

Halloween conjures many images: candy, costumes, decorations, haunted houses, and horror movies. While these are all integral parts of the holiday, there is one factor that is often overlooked but which is vital to embracing the spirit of the season: music.

Every year, on October 1, I break out my Halloween tunes and listen to virtually nothing else for the entire month. (This tends to annoy others who are not as enthusiastic about the holiday as I am, but I just turn up the volume and ignore them.)

For me, Halloween music can be generally classified into five categories: Halloween Kitsch; Lexiconography; Haunted Places and Noises; Soundtracks and Scores; and Just Plain Creepy. What follows is a brief introduction to and summary of these categories. Create play lists of these songs to get into the mood of Halloween or use as background music for your upcoming Halloween parties. (HINT: Halloween mix CDs also make great gifts!)

Halloween Kitsch

Probably the best way to describe Halloween Kitsch is to mention Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “The Monster Mash.” I cannot convey how much I despised this song as a kid and how much I love it now. Yes, it’s goofy. Yes, it’s embarrassing. But when you consider that Pickett made an entire career out of “The Monster Mash” and its many sequels (“The Monster Swim,” “Monsters’ Holiday,” and “Werewolf Watusi”), then all better judgment simply falls apart. Any songs that seem to have been created especially for Halloween fall into the Halloween Kitsch category, such as Disney’s “Grim Grinning Ghosts” from the Haunted Mansion ride or “Drac the Knife” by Gene Moss. In addition, there are bands who have devoted themselves to Halloween tunes with awesome results: The Revillos, The Ghastly Ones, and Subsonics. . . to name a few.

The Revillos, “She’s Fallen In Love With A Monster Man”
Running Time: 3:20

Lexiconography

Some bands tend to gravitate towards the dark side and often celebrate the subject matter of Halloween or evoke the feeling of the holiday. As a result, these artists are permanently linked with Halloween. The Misfits, Bauhaus, The Cramps, The Ramones, and Siouxsie and the Banshees can’t seem to get enough of vampires, voodoo, monsters, serial killers, and other Halloween-related subjects.

There are also those musicians famous for their non-Halloween music but who have created such classics that they simply must be included. “Little Demon” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and “Haunted House” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs are stellar examples. And yes, I even like “Thriller” by Michael Jackson without any irony whatsoever. It’s difficult to argue against a song featuring Vincent Price.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, “Little Demon”
Running Time: 2:25

Haunted Places and Noises

When I was in grade school, my art teacher would play the same haunted house album every Halloween—Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of a Haunted House—which I looked forward to with great enthusiasm. I had Disney’s A Night In the Haunted Mansion album at home and despite the fact that one side was goofy hijinx with Donald Duck and his nephews, I was so scared of it I wouldn’t even go to sleep if it was in my room!

I also tend to gravitate towards sound effects compilations. My Sounds of Horror tape has winners such as “Body Falling Downstairs” and “Body Falling Downstairs, Slow,” three separate tracks called “Ghost Effect,” and the oddly foreboding, “Horror (Serious Drama).” My favorite is one my father purchased at the drugstore in the 90s called Chamber of Horrors. It alternates between a thinly-disguised rip-off of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” Manos: The Hands of Fate-style “jazz,” and frequent repeats of some guy shouting, “Happy Halloween!” and then later, “Happy Halloween. . . YEAH!!” followed by laughter.

Chamber of Horrors: Happy Halloween!
Running Time: 15:46

Soundtracks and Scores

Many horror movies have famously distinctive pieces of music which induce immediate fear. Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” from The Exorcist, Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho, John Carpenter’s Halloween, Jerry Goldsmith’s The Omen, and Pino Donaggio’s Carrie are just a few of the many amazing scores from horror movies.

There are also great Italian horror movie music composers such as Goblin (Suspiria) and Fabio Frizzi (Zombi). Even movies that aren’t necessarily scary often have creepy scores, such as Wojciech Pilar’s scores for both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Ninth Gate. Finally, there are the famous theme songs from TV shows like The Addams Family and The Munsters and movies like The Blob. Some of these may not be scary but they are required listening during Halloween.

The Five Blobs, “Beware Of The Blob”
Running Time: 2:43

Just Plain Creepy

Pink Floyd seems to have an affinity for making music that creates a spooky atmosphere, from “Echoes” (which makes up the entirety of side two of Meddle), to “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict ” (Ummagumma), to “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” (Relics).

The music of JG Thirlwell—both instrumental and vocalized—contains a treasure trove of terrifying or just plain disturbing compositions. There’s the stalker in “English Faggot/Nothin’ Man,” the raving lunatic in “Chingada,” and the murderer from “Someone Drowned in My Pool.” More recently, Thirlwell has reworked a bit of music from Donaggio’s score for Carrie to create the creepiest love song I’ve ever heard, “Chimera,” from 2001’s Love. The Steroid Maximus albums Quilombo and Gondwanaland ooze with unpleasantries such as the four-part opus, “The Bowel of Beelzebub” and “The Smother Brother,” but it’s “I Will Love You Always (Wild Irish Rose)” that gets me every time.

Other albums which induce the willies are Cocteau Twins’ Garlands and Severed Heads’ The Art Of Noise Volume One. Then there’s Coil. With titles like “His Body Was a Playground For the Nazi Elite” and “Homage to Sewage” (both from the Unnatural History compilation) you’re pretty much guaranteed to freak out party guests.

Coil, “The Pope Held Upside Down”
Running Time: 3:43

Additional Resources:

Special thanks go to MC 5 Hour Boner from Mary’s in Atlanta GA for introducing me to so much fantastic Halloween music.

Scary Sounds Of Halloween Blog: Reuploads of Halloween-themed and sound effects albums
Monstrous.com’s Halloween Music Page: Alphabetical list of thematic Halloween songs
The Giallos Flame: Music in the tradition of Goblin, Fabio Frizzi, and others