Songs from horror(ish) movies that are not, themselves, 'spooky'?
October 2, 2017 9:25 AM   Subscribe

Do you have recommendations for songs famously featured in horror movies, but not themselves spooky/horror-y/Halloweeny/etc.? Think more Day-O/Jump in the Line from Beetlejuice or Hip to be Square from American Psycho, but not the Ghostbusters theme or Mozart's Requiem Mass (Dies Irae).
posted by flibbertigibbet to Media & Arts (25 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Tubular Bells in The Exorcist.
posted by rd45 at 9:28 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Goodbye Horses, as used in Silence of the Lambs?
posted by theatro at 9:33 AM on October 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Blue Moon in An American Werewolf in London.
posted by cazoo at 9:41 AM on October 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" in Shaun of the Dead.
posted by Ufez Jones at 9:47 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Touch Me (All Night Long) in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge is my personal favorite!
posted by cakelite at 9:52 AM on October 2, 2017


Best answer: Bad to the Bone or Not Fade away in Christine
posted by andrewzipp at 9:53 AM on October 2, 2017


Best answer: Also from An American Werewolf in London, "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Tubular Bells isn't spooky? You're braver than I am.
posted by holborne at 9:55 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Ray Noble/Al Bowlly's recording of Midnight, The Stars and You as featured in The Shining.
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 9:55 AM on October 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Wicker Man is kind of a horror movie, but it's also kind of a musical with some killer folk ditties written for the movie.
posted by cakelite at 9:58 AM on October 2, 2017 [6 favorites]


Best answer: Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys
posted by fshgrl at 10:24 AM on October 2, 2017 [3 favorites]


In the movie 1408, "We've Only Just Begun" is used (repeatedly, I think). To be honest, I always thought that song had a sinister tone to it before the movie came out -- but I think I'm an outlier.
posted by mean square error at 10:46 AM on October 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Time is On My Side by the Rolling Stones (Fallen)
Rocky Mountain High by John Denver (Final Destination)
Sympathy for the Devil by Guns N Roses (Yes, this specific version; Interview with the Vampire)
Moondance by Van Morrison (An American Werewolf in London)
The End of the World by Skeeter Davis (Not really any specific horror movie I can think of, but they tend to play this song when they are setting up a suicide or mercy killing in movies and TV shows. See: Girl, Interrupted; Cold Case)
When the Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash (Dawn of the Dead reboot)
posted by helloimjennsco at 10:47 AM on October 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


The main title from Cannibal Holocaust.
posted by dilaudid at 10:51 AM on October 2, 2017


Best answer: Superstition by Stevie Wonder in The Thing.
posted by otolith at 11:22 AM on October 2, 2017


Ben by Michael Jackson, from the film Ben.
posted by cazoo at 11:25 AM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Enthusiastic "seconds" for Time Is On My Side, We've Only Just Begun and Don't Stop Me Now.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:49 AM on October 2, 2017


Best answer: I don't know if it's famous enough, but I thought of One Thing Leads to Another from House of the Devil.
posted by pepper bird at 11:54 AM on October 2, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: My favorite of all time is Let's All Chant, from the batshit disco murder fashion shoot in The Eyes of Laura Mars.
"Hi, Laura."
"Hi, Jim."
"You're in the pool, dead."
(Shrug) "For a hundred bucks an hour..."
posted by lieber hair at 1:55 PM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


Best answer: For me it's "American Girl" by Tom Petty from Silence of the Lambs.
posted by ApathyGirl at 2:05 PM on October 2, 2017 [2 favorites]


"Paint It Black" in "Stir of Echoes."
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:18 PM on October 2, 2017


Is "Jeepers Creepers" too on the nose?
posted by Drosera at 4:11 PM on October 2, 2017


Best answer:
Angel of Love
from Perfect Blue. So catchy!
posted by en forme de poire at 10:09 PM on October 2, 2017


96 Tears was featured in a segment of the movie Cats Eye ca. 1985
posted by davidmsc at 11:57 PM on October 2, 2017


Best answer: Singin' In The Rain in Clockwork Orange.
posted by rhizome at 12:07 AM on October 3, 2017


Best answer: Anyone who saw You're Next will remember Dwight Twilley's Looking for the Magic.

Manhunter had In a Gadda da Vida.
posted by heatvision at 4:04 AM on October 3, 2017


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