Favorite horror scores
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Since we now have October we have to have this topic. What are your favorites?
Hard to pick as Goldsmith and especially Yound did so many great, so here a quick attempt of five:
- Goldsmith: The Omen (somehow like Damien less )
- Carpenter: Halloween (so simple but so iconic!)
- Young: Hellraiser
- Young: The Dark Half
- Goldenthal: Interview With A Vampire
- Special mention ;-): Elfman: Nightmare Before Christmas
As I allude to in this thread, I’ve always had an issue with a lot of the dissonant music that is used in horror, especially tropes like tenuto strings (“sneaking-around music”) or stingers. Needs to be darkly romantic somehow. Or lots of synths.
Still, picking just five is incredibly difficult. Plus, you always run into those genre problems — where does line go between thrillers and horror? Sci fi and horror? Etc.
But some random favs (more than five, sorry):
HELLRAISER (Young)
FULL CIRCLE (Towns)
SLEEPY HOLLOW (Elfman)
IN DREAMS (Goldenthal)
CAT PEOPLE (Moroder)
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Söderqvist)
VAMP (Jonathan Elias)
MIMIC (Beltrami)
MANIAC (Rob)
THE GUEST (Moore)
CARRIE (Donaggio)
FIRESTARTER (Tangerine Dream)
THE UNINVITED (V. Young)
THE NINTH GATE (Kilar)As I allude to in this thread, I’ve always had any issue with a lot of the dissonant music that is used in horror, especially tropes like tenuto strings (“sneaking-around music”) or stingers. Needs to be darkly romantic somehow. Or lots of synths.
Indeed this topic was meant as a kind of more specific follow up. I agree, I like those scores best that are not totally dissonant or “noise”.
Still, picking just five is incredibly difficult.
Absolutely and I just picked what I thought of first. Good list too. Although I don’t know a few of them.
Budd: The Phantom of the Opera
Glass: Dracula / Kilar: Dracula
Waxman: The Bride of Frankenstein
Elfman: A Nightmare Before Christmas
Goldsmith: The Final ConflictJohn Williams – The Fury
Bernard Herrmann – Psycho
Howard Shore – The Fly
Chris Young – Hellbound – Hellraiser 2
Jerry Goldsmith – The Final ConflictOn a related note, I’ve always been a bit weary of us Europeans “importing” Halloween traditions from the US. I’ve never celebrated it, and never will. But I’ve noticed here in Norway that younger generations and kids these days do. I suppose October is often rainy and grey and dark to begin with, so suits horror listening. But I don’t set aside the month to listen to them. I’m seasonally independent! 😀
I like many “horror” scores, just as I like many “western” scores, or “science fiction” scores… but what is a “horror” score?
Leaving aside all the “science fiction” movies with horror elements (like ALIEN or THE THING), and just taking a look at what Lexica of “horror” movies tend to include, there are still many fine scores out there. Of course, I love THE OMEN scores (all of them, but my favorite may be DAMIEN – OMEN II), and classics such as Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN. I could name lots… including such obvious classics as JAWS (which is often listed in horror encyclopedias), but to limit myself, here are five I chose to highlight today:PSYCHO by Bernard Herrmann
Just strings for a black & white movie, PSYCHO is still THE classic, perhaps the first truly “modern” horror movie (just thinking about how often I saw on many old VHS covers that sold the latest cheapo-slasher stuff like: “It started with PSYCHO, then came HALLOWEEN, and now it’s BLABLABLA”).
It’s also a tremendously modern score, fully concentrated on mood. Never tire of listening to it.POLTERGEIST by Jerry Goldsmith
This was my very first purchased Jerry Goldsmith score, and wow, what a first… THE OMEN was the Oscar-winning score for Goldsmith, but I find POLTERGEIST even more interesting. One of his most exciting scores. It’s at times ethereally beautiful as well as darkly menacing. “NIGHT OF THE BEAST” is one of my favorite cues ever… I really played that a lot as a teenager, wondering how so much fury could be jam-packed into just a couple of minutes.BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA by Wojciech Kilar
There have been many Dracula scores, such as those by Philip Glass, James Bernard, John Williams, to name just a few, but if I had to pick one, it would be this one. This sounds like music where the notes are hewn into stone—archaic, ancient, mysterious. I remember when I noticed Kilar’s name on the posters for the upcoming Dracula movie. I had one album of his at the time, the wonderful Le Roi et l’Oiseau. That was the only score of his that I knew, though I had read about some of his concert works (but not listened to them). Still, I was very much looking forward to this score, and it was everything I had hoped it would be.CAT PEOPLE by Roy Webb
Was this perhaps the first score for a horror movie that took a child’s lullaby as its core theme? Not sure, but the music is sublime. Roy Webb was really one of the unsung masters of the Golden Age film scores. This is a horror film score that plays, apart from the movie, as music that is both unsettling and soothing at the same time.SCARECROWS by Terry Plumeri
Now here’s a gem hardly anyone knows about. I sure didn’t know about it before Intrada released the score in 2009. I had no idea about the movie, nor did I know the composer, but I liked the cover, which is why I ordered the score. And it’s very good, very dense. I’ve seen the movie since—it came out in 1988, released in the days of endless Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween sequels—and there are quite a few things I liked about it:
First, it showed what you could do with a really low budget if you know how to use it. Then the movie eschews the clichés of the genre at the time and made something totally different: instead of beautiful teens that get stalked by invincible maniac killers, SCARECROWS pits a bunch of renegade mercenaries, who are on the run with two hostages after a successful robbery, against ominous killer scarecrows who lurk in cornfields. Far out and wonderfully creepy (when I saw the movie, I was actually overnight quite alone in a house far away from neighbors… so that certainly added to the movie’s effectiveness. 😀 ). And against a lot of 80s low-budget horror conventions, Terry Plumeri’s music is purely orchestral and relies on atmosphere and mood rather than stingers and dissonance. It’s creepy, eerie and spooky, and conjures up images of vast, deserted cornfields protected by menacing scarecrows.On a related note, I’ve always been a bit weary of us Europeans “importing” Halloween traditions from the US.
On the other hand, as a European, I have always been fascinated by Halloween, and it’s one of my favorite holidays, though there is no real tradition for the holiday in continental Europe. Of course, Halloween is originally Irish, so it’s certainly European. Still, I like it, I’ve spent lots of time in the US and always enjoyed Halloween (I’ve even been on an incredibly large private Halloween party once that was later crashed by the police (just shortly after I had left… lucked out. 😀 ). I enjoy Halloween and I do take the month of October as an excuse for us to watch horror movies (though I’m not the biggest “horror” movie fan).
Yes, I don’t necessarily mind it, i.e. that Norwegian kids have fully embraced the Halloween tradition now, which wasn’t the case when I was young. It’s just something that irritates me a little bit, the US culture influence on certain things. But then I’m old and out-of-touch.
Cool rundown of classics, Nick, although I take Moroder’s CAT PEOPLE over Webb’s any day of the week. 😉
Well, just like the movies, the Roy Webb CAT PEOPLE and the Moroder CAT PEOPLE are totally different worlds. I remember when I started to collect film scores, the Moroder score for CAT PEOPLE was everywhere… record shops were plastered with that thing.
I like both (that David Bowie song is really cool), though I listen to them at completely different occasions. However, the Webb score is the more interesting one to me. 🙂On a related note, I’ve always been a bit weary of us Europeans “importing” Halloween traditions from the US.
I second to that. What is especially tricky, around here in the city you don’t send your kids around completely alone letting them Ring on every doorbell. I am living in a socially not completely unproblematic area. So, if you let the kids go out on Halloween you go with them. I have done that a few times with a pack of parents following closely their kids. And I always found that setup a little embarrassing. At one point I stoppen doing that. And when my kids asked if we go out on Halloween I said, you can go, if you like, but I won’t. It’s not for me.
Halloween party at home on the other hand can be very nice. But this walking around and asking for candy, no way.
Yes, I agree. It does feel a bit odd. We live in a quiet neighborhood, so it’s sort of ok, but still… I wouldn’t want to go around with my kids begging for candy… it’s just no real tradition here.
On the other hand, I do love to carve a good ol’ jack-o-lantern every few years. I remember in 2021, I carved a big pumpkin and prepared our house entrance a bit (with speakers hidden in the plants) and pre-recorded “dialog” options I could click and play (such as “Who goes there?” “What do you desire?” “Silence!”, “Don’t move near the candy claw”, “yes/no” etc.). I did that so I could distort and warp the dialog to sound quite spooky and place it among small speakers in the pants in front of our house. I then eventually opened the door in a faceless costume and handed out some candy. It was neat for the small kids, and they didn’t expect that.
However, the following year, I didn’t feel like it at all, so we darkened our house and just weren’t officially home.Of course, Halloween is originally Irish, so it’s certainly European.
Yes, it is a re-import. I think it is even generally Celtic and not limited to Ireland. Over here it is a huge “season”. Of course it is as overly commerical by now as is Christmas and to a lesser degree Eastern.
But kids over here have fun with it, it’s a bit like carnival (“Fasching” called overhere) earlier the year when they also masquerade. Door bell ringing only happened occasionally in my neighbourhood only. I think here in Nothern Germany there is also a similar but rare folklore custom called “Rummelpottlaufen” originally on New Year’s Eve.
but what is a “horror” score?
Well, any genre “horror” is fluid with other genres. The topic title was also open to interpretation so you could also list your personal “horror scores” You don’t like at all. But probably that would be nice other topic 😉
But I don’t set aside the month to listen to them. I’m seasonally independent! 😀
I can listen to such scores any season, too. But I can only listen to Christmas scores around Christmas 🙂
In Norway, we had something called ‘julebukk’ (directly translated as ‘Christmas buck goat’), which is an ancient local tradition and also common when I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s. We dressed up, usually as Santas, and collected candy from neighbours. But that’s gone almost completely extinct, and seems to have been taken over by this Halloween thingie.
As I’m going through my entire collection at the moment, I’ve listened to some Christmas scores throughout the year. Feels weird to listen to them in the summer heat, but it is what it is. I’m not too bothered. I listen to what I feel like at the moment, rarely caught up in the seasons.
Sorry for the off-topic venture. More horror score recommendations are appreciated!
Feels weird to listen to them in the summer heat, but it is what it is. I’m not too bothered.
I know several illustrators create children’s books. The Christmas books and other stuff is always commissioned/done over summer so they are ready in time.
I love all THE OMEN scores, they are excellent, but if pushed, DAMIEN – OMEN II is my favorite.
THE MEPHISTO WALTZ is another favorite of mine; I’d love another new recording of that.
And THE CAR… Leonard Rosenman at his best. The movie may have been an odd affair — JAWS in the desert with a car — but the music nailed that concept. One of my favorite “horror” scores, perfect with the “Dies Irae” woven in as a main theme.JAWS in the desert with a car
That’s basically the description of Spielberg’s own DUEL too. Never seen THE CAR, and no big fan of Rosenman, but it sounds like a jolly good B movie time.
It’s a jolly good B movie, though of course (and this should be perfectly clear), it’s nowhere near as good as JAWS, nor is it anywhere near as good as DUEL.
It’s just a movie about a mysterious black car that comes out of nowhere into the American West desert and goes on a murderous rampage. 🙂
it’s nowhere near as good as JAWS
I mean, what is?
Even though I am a big John Williams fan I am not sure if I would call his horror related scores like Jaws, The Fury or Dracula really horror scores. In a way they are too good, too sophisticated. Like the whole genre is kind of a b-movie genre the score should be somehow “cheap”.
Even when it is orchestral.
In that sense the two composers who best manage to bring some orchestral sophistication to horror and still stay true to the genre are Christopher Young and the early James Horner.It’s October again. A lot of people, mostly Americans, play their horror scores this time of year. As I said last year, earlier in the thread, I have no tradition for Halloween, nor do most Norwegians (except the youngest generation), so I don’t really set aside October for this — not even the few horror scores I DO like. But if people have any more suggestions, that’s always useful.
Yeah, me neither.
I play various horror scores all year round and only do Halloween if we’ve got the boys staying over or are visiting their house.
Although I do hit my Christmas scores around December a lot more, the other holidays don’t have me needing to score them.
But I do always seem to play Something Wicked This Way Comes by James Horner as the nights draw in and Autumn unfolds in all its green, brown and red glory.Favourite horror scores??
Way too many to mention.
But the cream of the crop includes the classy stuff by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Pino Donaggio, Christopher Young and the John Carpenter’s and Lalo Schifrin’s and…October is definitely the month for spinning horror scores. My taste in horror is more gothic/supernatural than slasher. Here are a few faves, in no order:
Gil Melle – The Sentinel
Harry Sukman – Salem’s Lot
Les Baxter – House of Usher
Jerry Goldsmith – Peter Proud
Jerry Goldsmith – The Omen
Gary MacFarland – Eye of the Devil aka 13
Komeda – Rosemary’s Baby
John Williams – Family Plot
John Williams – Images
Philippe Sarde – Ghost Story
Francois de Roubaix – Daughters of Darkness
Carlo Rustichelli – The Whip and the Body
Carlo Rustichelli – Blood & Black LaceHonorable mention: Robert Cobert’s Dark Shadows library.
John Williams – Family Plot
That’s a straight comedy. Isn’t it?
But yes. The music has some typical elements of gothic horror. But the movie?Family Plot I would never have expected, for me it is a crime movie in the first place.
In general I do play some horror score this month. It’s just an occasion to play some scores among the many I haven’t listened to for a while 😉
That’s a straight comedy. Isn’t it?
But yes. The music has some typical elements of gothic horror. But the movie?When I’m listening to an album, I don’t care about the film. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid is a comedy, but it is a noir score. I’ve never seen Family Plot and I probably never will. Hitch was irrelevant by that time. But the album plays like a gothic horror score, albeit with some comedic moments.
I understand that but Family Plot never even came to my mind as sounding like a horror score. But maybe because I know the movie (Which is not prime Hitchcock, true). I guess one more score I really need to re-listen to.
“But the album plays like a gothic horror score, albeit with some comedic moments”
Agreed. There’s a dark, devilish streak running through FAMILY PLOT, with the harpsichord and Williams doing the typical Herrmann-style forebodings.
The celestial choir also adds to the otherworldly/supernatural atmosphere.
Yes, there are some light, frivolous passages, but THE FURY also has moments like that too.
Great 70s Williams-in-his-pomp scoring.
I wanna go play it now.I remember I was disappointed that the rest of the score didn’t sound like the glorious “End Titles”, with that classy theremin & harpsichord-like, light-spooky “joie de vivre”, and which I had owned on the MUSIC FROM ALFRED HITCHCOCK FILMS CD from Varese/Collosseum Schallplatten for years — probably the oldest pressed CD in my entire collection (early 80s?). A lot of perfunctory suspense music. But I’ve come around on at least some of it in more recent years. I was very glad that Varese finally put it out.
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