5 Best Songs From Horror Movies
Horror movies such as Halloween are known for their theme songs. Some movies took things a step further by giving us awesome original songs. Here’s a look at the best of them — some we remember and some we sadly don’t.
5. ‘Tubular Bells’ from ‘The Exorcist’
According to Collider, “Tubular Bells” by Mike Oldfield wasn’t written for The Exorcist. Regardless, we wouldn’t be discussing this track if it didn’t appear in William Friedkin’s horror blockbuster. The song starts out a tad tense, like it’s the theme song for a legal show, before getting more and more ominous and working in scare chords. The tune wasn’t written for a scary movie but it was meant for that context.
Later horror themes, such as those for Halloween and Suspiria, took their cues from “Tubular Bells.” Oldfield went on to have a pop career — he even wrote “Family Man” by Hall & Oates — but he never topped “Tubular Bells.”
4. ‘He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)’ from ‘Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives’
Alice Cooper is a walking scary movie character. He lives the genre in a way few people do. Cooper had to write a tune for a slasher movie at some point. Lucky for him, he got to pen a theme for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, one of the better-received movies in the Friday the 13th series.
“He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” is a blast of pure hair metal. It’s no “Poison.” It’s still a lot of silly fun.
3. ‘Cry Little Sister’ from ‘The Lost Boys’
The Lost Boys mixes operatic 1980s horror with comedy straight out of The Goonies. The film’s operatic side is encapsulated by the soundtrack song “Cry Little Sister,” which mixes Gothic rock, new wave synthesizers straight out of a Genesis hit, and darkly poetic lyrics. The song showed so much potential from singer-songwriter Gerard McMahon but, sadly, he never became a star.
Marilyn Manson brought “Cry Little Sister” back into the public consciousness with his cover in 2018. What a disappointment. While his version of the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” radically reinterpreted the song, his “Cry Little Sister” was painted by numbers.
2. ‘Pet Sematary’ from ‘Pet Sematary’
The 1989 film version of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary is nothing to write home about unless the idea of a zombie pussy cat scares you. The best part of the movie is The Ramones’ “Pet Sematary,” which blasts over the closing credits. The track lifts a riff from “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by the Blue Öyster Cult.
The film captures the tongue-in-cheek nature of many 1980s horror films. Unfortunately, it was tied to a humorless slog of a movie. When Pet Sematary was remade in the 2010s, it was smart to include a cover of The Ramones’ song while leaving much of the original film behind.
1. ‘Love Song for a Vampire’ from ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’
People remember Bram Stoker’s Dracula for its gorgeous set design and Gary Oldman’s memorable turn as the Transylvanian count. Arguably, the best thing about it is Annie Lennox’s soundtrack single “Love Song for a Vampire.” It’s eerie, romantic, and beautiful. It’s everything the movie should have been.
However, Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a loud, tonally incoherent mess that people only like because the 1990s were nearly a dead zone for scary movies. If only people remembered Lennox’s lovely ballad as much as the film itself.
