Halloween Horror Roundup
Written by Justin Bielawa
October 25, 2006

Slashing strings. Ominous horn blasts. Droning synthesizers. Everyone likes a good scare, but often the scariest films depend on a great score to make them truly terrifying. Just in time for Halloween, Justin presents his list of the ten best horror scores ever created.

10. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
Angelo Badalamenti

Though the television show only lasted two short seasons, Twin Peaks is a fondly remembered media darling that was both loved and hated by critics. The plucky jazz numbers and the dew-eyed theme for Laura Palmer were expanded upon in the much despised prequel movie. Combining the original show's thematic sound with a much more malevolent overtone gives way to a classic and often disturbing film noir soundtrack that is firmly rooted in the movie's violent horror segments.

9. The Ninth Gate
Wojciech Kilar

Another much despised movie, Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate was based upon Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel "El Club Dumas". In turn, the score's hypnotic overture is based on Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, seemingly note for note. However, much credit is due to composer Kilar for creating a dark, twisted score that is in some ways an expansion on his acclaimed score for Bram Stoker's Dracula seven years prior. The City Of Prague Philharmonic, chorus and soprano Sumi Jo mount a fantastic performance that literally culminates in a deal with the devil himself. "Even Hell has its heroes"

8. Salem's Lot (2004)
Christopher Gordon & Lisa Gerrard

Stephen King's infamous novel about a small town plagued by an other-worldly secret came to the small screen in an adaptation that was much more successful in it's interpretation than the 1979 movie (or the best forgotten 1987 television follow-up). Christopher Gordon crafts a sublime, intelligent horror score that stands out like a sore thumb with it's creative, challenging writing, as well as a gorgeous vocal performance by Lisa Gerrard (of Gladiator fame) over the "Salem's Lot Aria". With challenging tonal passages and segments so dissonant one could only call them "Goldenthalesque", Varese Sarabande had the good foresight to release this one to disc.

7. Jaws
John Williams

Badum. Baaaadum. Baaaaadum badum.

One of the simplest musical ideas ever put to film also turned out to be one of the scariest things ever. After Spielberg was having the worst luck possible with his stunt double (read: robotic shark), he was forced to use less of the shark than he had hoped, leaning heavily on Williams to help insinuate the blood-thirsty animal. The result is one of the great classics in the horror genre. Just don't bother with anything after Jaws 2.

6. The Bride of Frankenstein
Franz Waxman

The classic James Whale movie produced a score so loved by the public (and the studio) it was later recycled into sci-fi serials like Flash Gordon. Anchored by a Processional March worthy of the dead and orchestrations that have become so beloved as to now be clichés, Waxman's fascinating and at times even comically unsettling score is truly one of the greats. An excellent 1993 rerecording from Silva exists which also happens to contain suites from other fine Waxman scores like The Invisible Ray, Prince Valiant and Rebecca.

5. The Fly
Howard Shore

Known for his gut-churning effects and face-forward violence, David Cronenberg was hired as a replacement for director Robert Bierman - but only if he got to use his standard crew. Luckily, this included composer Howard Shore who crafted a truly tragic monster scores. While still containing the obligatory horror stabs, the overall sense of the score is one of deep loss and great humanity. While the composer would move on to write such amazing scores as Ed Wood and The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, this writer has never found anything quite as powerful as this gem from 1986. (Christopher Young's sequel score is also highly recommended and just missed being added to this list)

4. Alien3
Elliot Goldenthal

Probably one of the biggest "love it or leave it" scores of the last twenty-five years, Goldenthal's challenging, deeply realized score to the Alien franchise is something of an expansion of Jerry Goldsmith's score for the original installment. Harsh brass work and laboring string writing plays against the score's utilization of a strong melodic humanization - usually in the form of a boy soprano. The ultimate culmination of the score is in its final release in "Adagio", where the score is given a beautiful sense of completion that would be sadly cheapened by the trashy Alien Resurrection.

3. Psycho
Bernard Herrmann

I believe it was Robert Townson of Varese Sarabande who once said that there were only two ways to compose a suspense score: with a lot of droning synth or to try and be Bernard Herrmann. Such is the influence of Psycho - so brilliant is the score and so unsettling that it might very well be more famous than the movie itself. The fact that the composer is now synonymous with the music written for the shower scene speaks about its singular power over the audience. Psycho, much like Star Wars or Indiana Jones, is such a successful piece of brilliance that it is an entity separate from its genre.

2. Night of the Hunter
Walter Schumann

While calling this a "horror movie" might be a bit broad, the score is firmly rooted in such dark suspense that it's plain to see that this Aesop Fable gone wrong has heavy horror leanings. Scored by the underrated Schumann, the score utilizes both song ("Dream, Little One, Dream") and heavy dramatic underscore, bolstered by a vicious brass motif for "Reverend" Harry Powell. One of the best expressionist American movies ever made, Schumann's score is as classic as the movie. As of this writing, the score has never seen release outside of a spoken-word album long in circulation. Rumors of a rerecording are rampant but as of yet, no solid evidence of such.

1. The Final Conflict
Jerry Goldsmith

In what could be described as one of the biggest musical overhauls in film history, The Final Conflict represented a bookend in one of Jerry Goldsmith's best remembered series. While he may have won his only Oscar for the original movie, The Final Conflict represents a magnum opus in not only writing for film but writing for music in general. So primal and powerful is the matured theme for Antichrist Damien Thorne, another composer may not have been able to counter-balance it with a theme quite as brilliant. However, Goldsmith forever astonished score fans with his gorgeous sacrosanct theme for the Second Coming, building to a choral climax that remains one of the composer's best loved moments.

Click here to discuss this article in our forum »»