Movie themes are great. Music and film have always gone hand in hand, and when it’s done right, a good theme can take a piece of film and turn it from just good to great. The effect of the combined visual and aural aspects can have a profound impact on the viewer, resulting in a strong emotional tie with the movie or television show that it comes from. The horror genre in particular has a lot of great themes, and so, this is a list of 10 of my personal favorites listed along with their composers.

Saw (Charlie Clouser) [youtube id=”vhSHXGM7kgE” align=”left”] Maybe this isn’t the most universally loved of all horror franchises, but the way all of the movies connect and have so many twists and turns at the end always blows my mind. Having this song over the final reveal really amplifies the feeling of shock at the revelations as to who did what and to whom. It’s a great little theme and is often overlooked because “the guy cuts off his own leg, man!”

 

Twin Peaks (Angelo Badalamenti) [youtube id=”pXrjMaVoTy0″ align=”left”] What a song! The intro to this show is so beautiful. It perfectly paints the mood of the entire series. I often find myself thinking of this song more than I actually do of the actual scenes from the show. Little known fact: Badalamenti and the show’s creator David Lynch wrote the entire song in 20 minutes.

 

 

Ghostbusters (Ray Parker) [youtube id=”Fe93CLbHjxQ” align=”left”] While this will never land on any list of scariest anything, the theme song for Ghostbusters is definitely one of the best and most popular. Almost every single spooky soundtrack that you can buy at a Party City is going to include this song, even if it’s ambient haunted house songs. It just won’t go away, but I’m not complaining.

 

Goosebumps (Jack Lentz) [youtube id=”Kx10MYrh4MY” align=”left”] There were so many times as a kid that this show scared the ever loving shit out of me that even today hearing the opening sequence gives me the creeps. The show, although kid friendly, had some very scary moments and horrifying visuals for a young child. Subsequent watches have proven to me that it’s scare factor really doesn’t hold up as I’ve grown older, but…okay, I’m lying. This show still scares me. Next subject.

 

The X-Files (Mark Snow) [youtube id=”HQoRXhS7vlU” align=”left”] Riddled with echos and whistling, this is another song that seems to really get under people’s skin. There are a lot of cool facts about this song. The first being that the echoing reverb effect on the keyboards was a complete accident; Snow was attempting to compose a good theme for the show, but became frustrated and slammed his arm down, pushing a button that activated the reverb effect and boom. The theme was born. As for a second awesome fact, the whistling was inspired by everyone’s favorite moody British bastard Morrissey and his band The Smith’s “How Soon is Now?”

 

Friday the 13th (Harry Manfredini) [youtube id=”xR8oke8rzp8″ align=”left”] “Ki ki ki…Ma ma ma…” The greatness of this theme comes along with the fact that it is only heard when the killer is afoot, and so when you hear it, it can only mean one thing; you are screwed. It is widely known that the human noises in the score came from the line “Kill her, mommy,” which is said during the final sequence. If ever you find yourself in the woods and this song comes to mind, it would probably be in your best interest to run as fast as possible.

 

The Exorcist (Mike Oldfield) [youtube id=”Hj83ugShbic” align=”left”] Now we’re getting really scary; “Tubular Bells,” by Mike Oldfield was used as the main theme of what is still considered one of the scariest films of all time, but many people did not know that it wasn’t specifically composed for the movie. It is actually a solo piano segment on Oldfield’s debut album of the same name. Unfortunately, Oldfield was not as pleased with it, and claimed that he was not impressed with the inclusion of it on the film. I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you there Mr. Oldfield.

 

Jaws (John Williams) [youtube id=”A9QTSyLwd4w” align=”left”] Your boss walks into your workspace, and what do you immediately hear in your head? I’m just going to leave it at that. Terrifying.

 

 

 

 

Halloween (John Carpenter) [youtube id=”iP-jYiuDD9g” align=”left”] Simple, yet effective. This is absolutely without a doubt one of the most iconic theme songs in all of film history. John Carpenter himself composed almost all of the music for the first three Halloween themes with little help. His simplistic use of keyboards were extremely effective, with the soundtrack being stated as one of the strongest points of the film. It really amplified the situation at hand. If you’re a fan of Carpenter’s music like I am, you’ll be happy to find out that he just recently put out an album of all original music entitled “Lost Themes.” I highly recommend purchasing it.

 

Psycho (Bernard Herrmann) [youtube id=”Me-VhC9ieh0″ align=”left”] Yet another film that has a completely amplified effect because of the music, the shower scene from Pyscho reigns as the number 1 champion on this list. The shrieking, violent, malevolent violins during the stabbing scene have been used since in so many forms of media all across the board. It has been stated since that it is probably the most famous cue music in all of film history. You cannot hear those strings and not think of a terrifying murder scene. It’s damn near impossible. However, this almost never happened; when Herrmann showed the musical sequence for that scene to Hitchcock, the filmmaker disagreed and thought that there should instead be no music during the scene. Herrmann thankfully stood his ground, solely for the fact that one day on iHorror.com a writer would hopefully decide that his music would make the cut for the number one horror music theme in all of film. Kidding (sort of).

 

What about you? What are your favorite themes in horror? There are so many, it would be impossible to include them all. Let’s hear your picks!