Top 10 Horror Film Scores

Music plays such an important part in horror films, arguably a more significant role than in any other genre. Great music is essential for setting up and maintaining an effective atmosphere, whether its intent is to frighten, unsettle, shock, or sadden.

There are voluminous examples of horror film themes that have made their way into the mainstream consciousness, such as John Carpenter’s simplistic 5/4 theme from Halloween, Tubular Bells’ work on The Exorcist, John Williams’ two-note terror from Jaws, and Harry Manfredini’s haunting ki-ki-ki ma-ma-ma from Friday the 13th. In fact, it’s arguable that the scores for horror films have expanded beyond the films they appear in more frequently than other genres of film. The resurgence of vinyl has spawned labels like Waxwork, Death Waltz, Burning Witches, and One Way Static that specialize in deluxe pressings of horror film scores that provide newly commissioned artwork, fresh masters, expanded track listings, and liner notes from the composers, directors, and others involved in the creation of the score. Rabid fans can listen to standalone scores from their favorite horror flicks more readily than at any other point in film history.

I am one such fan, and here is a list of 10 of my favorite horror scores — with a caveat that I purposely only provided one slot per composer; otherwise, this might have ended up with six entries from John Carpenter.

10. Puppet Master (Richard Band)

Band’s playful orchestral style was an exact match for the low-budget, fun-oriented creature features produced by his brother Charles at Empire/Full Moon. The great fit was never more apparent than on Puppet Master, as exemplified in a fantastic main theme that captures the meld of innocence and menace in the movie.

9. Possession (Andrzej Korzynski)

The score for Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 horror film is just as strange as the film itself. Disparate elements like polka, moody synths, romantic strings, electronic drones, flutes, and xylophone come together to create a disorienting soundscape that perfectly accompanies the heightened sense of unease in a movie about divorce, serial murder, tentacle sex, and the fall of the Berlin wall.

8. The Slumber Party Massacre (Ralph Jones)

There is something so oddly alluring about Jones’ music, which sounds like one of the best bombastic gothic scores ever written, but played on the cheapest keyboards available. Every cue is foreboding as hell, but laced with cheesy bleeps and bloops that make an incredible amount of sense in the context of an 80s slasher that both perfectly embodies the best tropes of the subgenre and simultaneously satirizes them.

7. The Thing (Ennio Morricone, John Carpenter, Alan Howarth)

An unusual choice for composer, Ennio Morricone wrote a number of pieces for Carpenter’s body horror classic that were ultimately cut from the final film, or edited down significantly. Additionally, Carpenter and frequent collaborator Howarth stepped in and added additional cues and textural bits to punch up the score. However, a good portion of Morricone’s work remained in the final product and resulted in some of the most gripping passages of the film. The final music is as sparse, ominous, and cold as the Antarctic setting.

6. Phantasm (Fred Myrow, Malcolm Seagrave)

Myrow and Seagrave’s music for Don Coscarelli’s weirdo masterpiece is, like the film it accompanies, a mash-up of the decade in which it was created (‘70s) and the decade for which it was paving the way (‘80s). The main theme is a creepy synth motif, the likes of which you would find in many ‘80s slashers, but underlain by percussion and instrumentation straight from a ‘70s rock band. And beneath it all is a lot of heart, just as in the movie. Things shift from moody and menacing to funky and upbeat quickly and effortlessly.

5. Creepshow (John Harrison)

The campy EC-laced attitude of the movie is brought to life by Harrison’s minimalist music that plays up the pomp and circumstance through music-box sounds, whimsical synths, and grandiose piano work at its core. It’s never too densely layered or complex, and it all sounds like it could be played live by a crazed organist sitting just off-screen in an old-timey haunted movie theatre.

4. Hellraiser (Christopher Young)

Young’s work on Hellraiser is the ultimate in gothic horror. The classical score is bold, frightening, romantic, and intense. Subtlety is thrown out the window, but the pitch black Hammer-esque music fits the melodrama of the cenobites and the otherworldly pleasures they offer.

3. Maniac (Rob)

Synth scores in the genre had kind of fallen out of vogue throughout the 90s and early 2000s, but Rob’s moody and atmospheric work on the 2012 remake of Maniac seemed to kick off a revitalized obsession with arpeggiators and sequencers. One of the best synth scores ever written that expertly captures the gritty neon darkness on screen.

2. Halloween (John Carpenter)

This is a very obvious entry, one with which almost every horror fan is familiar. But there’s a reason the music is so ubiquitous: it’s brilliant. The piano- and synth-based score is stripped down to only its most essential notes and instrumentation and could be categorized as repetitive. However, whether it was borne by necessity or Carpenter’s lack of technical prowess, the score’s simplicity and repetition is what enables it to bore into your head. Michael Myers loses almost all of his power without this music.

1. The Beyond (Fabio Frizzi)

This spot could have easily gone to Frizzi’s fantastic score for City of the Living Dead (aka The Gates of Hell), but The Beyond gets the nod for its unforgettably creepy main piano theme. It’s one of the best-written motifs in the genre and it totally realizes the supernatural peril bubbling just beneath the ground in the movie. When the haunting and slightly broken-sounding mellotron, dramatic choral work, and strings are added to the brew, a perfectly chilling aural concoction is brought to life.