Spooky non-spooky songs

October 5, 2019 12:08 PM

I’m looking for individual songs that are tied to horror movies, such as Jump in The Line and Day-O from Beetlejuice or Goodbye Horses from Silence Of The Lambs. I am not looking for songs specifically written for movies (Ghostbusters theme), instrumental scores, or movies where the entire soundtrack could be used (The Lost Boys or Rocky Horror).
posted by Diskeater to Society & Culture (29 answers total)

Time is on my side from Fallen
posted by Comrade_robot at 12:15 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

- Enya’s “Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” (from “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”)
- Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (from “Zodiac”)
- Led Zepplin’s “In the Light” (and a bunch of others from “ Mindhunter”...David Fincher is really good at this!)

You may want to search for “soundtrack dissonance”...which is music that’s juxtaposed with the scene/mood (e.g. “Singing in the Rain” in “A Clockwork Orange”, “Hip to be Square” in “American Psycho”, etc.) “The X-Files” and its sister show “Millennium” used this often to great (often comic) effect.
posted by lovableiago at 12:32 PM on October 5, 2019

"American Girl" also from Silence of the Lambs

It's TV, not a movie, but Johnny Mathis's "Wonderful! Wonderful!" was used as a theme throughout the X-Files episode "Home"
posted by pykrete jungle at 12:33 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

"Mad World" from Donnie Darko.
posted by nkknkk at 12:37 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, as used in The Exorcist.
posted by parm at 12:51 PM on October 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

I Got 5 On It, by Luniz, from Us
posted by rollick at 1:05 PM on October 5, 2019 [6 favorites]

"should I stay or should I go" is used significantly in stranger things.
posted by nakedmolerats at 1:53 PM on October 5, 2019

John Carpenter’s movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine has a funny/awful use of Little Richard’s “Keep-A-Knockin’” in one scene.
posted by ejs at 2:18 PM on October 5, 2019

I don’t know if this technically counts, but Singin’ in the Rain in a Clockwork Orange
posted by seemoorglass at 2:22 PM on October 5, 2019

"Looking For The Magic" from You're Next.
posted by lakemarie at 2:25 PM on October 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Slim Whitman’s Indian Love Call was a key plot point in "Mars Attacks!"
posted by homodachi at 2:41 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Run, Rabbit, Run is used to creepy effect in “Get Out” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”
posted by homodachi at 3:11 PM on October 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

Party Time by 45 Grave in Return of the Living Dead
Cry Little Sister by Gerald McMann in Lost Boys
You’re Dead by Norma Tanega in What We Do In The Shadows
posted by iamkimiam at 3:13 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

While the film isn’t horror, Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” always makes me think of the horrifyingly violent scene it was used in in “Reservoir Dogs.”
posted by homodachi at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

Seasons Don’t Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult in Halloween (and Scream)
posted by iamkimiam at 3:16 PM on October 5, 2019

Angel of the Morning by Juice Newton in It Chapter Two
posted by iamkimiam at 3:28 PM on October 5, 2019

An American Werewolf in London used three different versions of Blue Moon. Bobby Vinton, Sam Cooke, and The Marcels.
posted by cazoo at 4:12 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who is addicted to horrow movie soundtracks so I know a surprising number of these. They are indeed usually good soundtracks!

Cry Little Sister / People are Strange cover from Lost Boys
I Have The Touch by Heather Nova from The Craft
Burn by the cure from The Crow
Mad World cover from Donnie Darko
Hip to be Square from American Psycho
Surfing Dead from Return of the Living Dead
Pet Semetary and Sheena is a Punk Rocker by the Ramones from Pet Semetary.
Confusion by New Order from Blade
Partytown from Flatliners
R
Rocky Mountain High from Final Destination
posted by fshgrl at 4:31 PM on October 5, 2019 [2 favorites]

O Fortuna from Carmina Burana is commonly associated with The Omen though it doesn't actually appear on the soundtrack.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:47 PM on October 5, 2019

"Don't Fear the Reaper" is also used in The Frighteners.
posted by gudrun at 8:21 PM on October 5, 2019

amazing iconic incongruous music in a horror film: Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1978) had an intense chase sequence where massed Scottish Bagpipes randomly kick into 'Amazing Grace' on the soundtrack, because... of course.

(more trivia: Jerry Garcia played some banjo on the score according to Wik)
posted by ovvl at 8:58 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

the second movement from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake is associated with the 1931 version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:00 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Down in Mexico by the Coasters.
posted by The_imp_inimpossible at 5:07 AM on October 6, 2019

Seconding "I Got Five On It." I was recently listening to an NPR podcast about marijuana legalization, and they had a segment where someone referenced that song - and they started playing it and my heart rate instantly shot up about ten beats per minute and I started looking over my shoulder for red-suited people with scissors despite myself.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:03 AM on October 6, 2019

Definitely +1 to the "I Got Five On It" recommendations, but I'm always a little sad that it overshadows the other amazing song from the Us soundtrack: "Les Fleurs" by Minnie Riperton. It's especially incongruent (where "I Got Five On It" is kind of a spooky-sounding song on its own, tone-wise, "Les Fleurs" is sweet and trumphant), and a great classic song, to boot.
posted by rhiannonstone at 12:16 PM on October 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

The first Insidious uses "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" by Tiny Tim to pretty good effect - it's essentially the audio hook for 'something scary is about to happen', and the song itself is already creepy.
posted by codacorolla at 12:47 PM on October 6, 2019

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave was used quite a bit in the Scream movies.
posted by to recite so charmingly at 5:59 PM on October 6, 2019

Red Right Hand also got used in the X-Files episode when Scully got abducted; it's what the dude who was selling her to the aliens was blasting in his car when he was driving her to the dropoff point.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:06 AM on October 7, 2019

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song "She Said" tells the story of the 1941 movie "The Wolf Man".
posted by Quonab at 11:29 AM on October 11, 2019