Horror film score

John Carpenter performing in 2016. Carpenter has directed and scored numerous horror films throughout his career.Part of a series on
Horror films

* History
* Lists

By decade

1896–1959

* 1890s
* 1900s
* 1910s
* 1920s
* 1930s
* 1940s
* 1950s

1960s

* 1960
* 1961
* 1962
* 1963
* 1964
* 1965
* 1966
* 1967
* 1968
* 1969

1970s

* 1970
* 1971
* 1972
* 1973
* 1974
* 1975
* 1976
* 1977
* 1978
* 1979

1980s

* 1980
* 1981
* 1982
* 1983
* 1984
* 1985
* 1986
* 1987
* 1988
* 1989

1990s

* 1990
* 1991
* 1992
* 1993
* 1994
* 1995
* 1996
* 1997
* 1998
* 1999

2000s

* 2000
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008
* 2009

2010s

* 2010
* 2011
* 2012
* 2013
* 2014
* 2015
* 2016
* 2017
* 2018
* 2019

2020s

* 2020
* 2021
* 2022
* 2023
* 2024
* 2025

By continent

Asia

* India
* ghost
* Hindi
* Malayalam
* Indonesia
* Japan
* South Korea
* Thailand

Europe

* New French Extremity
* Giallo
* German
* Expressionism
* underground
* UK

Key topics

Content

* Disability
* Gender
* Final girl
* Scream queen
* Found footage
* Analog horror
* Music
* Jump scare
* Race

Genres

* Analog
* Arthouse
* Body
* Cannibal
* Comedy
* Folk
* Holiday
* Monster
* Psychological
* Satanic
* Social thriller
* Slasher
* Splatter
* Supernatural
* Vampire
* Zombie

Related

* Extreme cinema
* Grindhouse
* Vulgar auteurism
* Video nasty

* Portal
*  Category

* v
* t
* e

A horror film score is music used and often specially written for films in the horror genre.

## History

[edit]

Early sound film scores included little music. Universal Studios was among several studios that had a policy of no music under their dialogue, which they felt interfered with it.[1] What little music existed in early sounds films from the studio consisted of a combination of original compositions, classical music, and published music which had been composed for use accompanying silent films.[2] In early 1931, Paramount Pictures initiated the idea of scoring films from beginning to end with music, other studios followed, including Universal creating a fully fledged score for Frankenstein (1931).[3] Just as Universal tended to reuse similar characters, actors and writers for their horror films, they also did so with their music, often using the same music again and again in film in their series.[4]

Film journalist and musician Stephen Thrower stated that following Bernard Herrmann's score to Psycho (1960), horror film soundtracks have rarely been mere background music, noting that James Bernard's music for horror film productions by Hammer have been "gallopingly melodramatic, although one has to say it often raises more giggles than goosebumps".[5]

Neil Lerner, in his book Music in the Horror Film, found that stylistically, the genre allowed for greater freedom for composers to experiment with harmony and instrumentation.[6] Approaches in the 1960s and 1970s included work from Ennio Morricone, who Thrower described as bringing "shuddering, paranoiac quality" based around jazz, electronic effects and "rampant atonal twanging" to films by Dario Argento, Aldo Lado and Lucio Fulci.[5] A short lived trend in the 1970s was for progressive rock scores in horror films following the release of The Exorcist (1973) with "Tubular Bells". Italian progressive rock band Goblin contributed to several scores for Argento, about whom Thrower stated that "like Morricone, they occasionally gave brilliant work to dumb movies" noting their scores to Spasmo and Contamination.[5] The shades of progressive rock were also found in other American productions, such as Carpenter's Halloween, with its main theme having the piano tap out five beats to the bar.[5]

Thrower found that by the 1990s, horror film soundtracks were "stuffed with pop and rock in the hope that the album might shift enough units to reach the charts.", noting the popular success of the soundtrack to Flashdance.[5]

## See also

[edit]

* Halloween music

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Rosar 1983, p. 392.
2. ^ Rosar 1983, p. 393.
3. ^ Rosar 1983, p. 395.
4. ^ Rosar 1983, p. 418.
5. ^ a b c d e Thrower 2011.
6. ^ Lerner 2010, p. ix.

### Sources

[edit]

* Lerner, Neil (2010). Music in the Horror Film. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-99202-2.
* Rosar, William H. (1983). "Music for the Monsters: Universal's Pictures' Horror Film Scores in the Thirties". The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress. 40 (4).

* Thrower, Stephen (August 18, 2011). "From Goblin to Morricone: The Art of Horror Movie Music". The Guardian. Retrieved March 24, 2022.

* v
* t
* e

Horror film

Subgenres|

* Arthouse
* Blaxploitation
* Body
* Cannibal
* Christmas
* Comedy
* Folk
* Found footage
* Gothic romance
* Holiday
* Lovecraftian
* Monster
* Kaiju
* Postmodern horror
* Psychological
* Satanic
* Slasher
* Splatter
* Supernatural
* Social thriller
* Teen
* Zombie
* comedy

Territories|

* Asia
* Cambodia
* China
* Jiangshi
* Indonesia
* Japan
* Korea
* Thailand
* Europe
* German underground horror
* Mexico
* United Kingdom

Film lists|

* Highest-grossing
* First film by country
* Indian
* Hindi
* Malayalam

| By decade|

* 1890s
* 1900s
* 1910s
* 1920s
* 1930s
* 1940s
* 1950s
* 1960s
* 1970s
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s

|

By type|

* Anthology
* Comedy
* Eco
* Ghost
* Indian ghost movie
* Natural
* New French Extremity
* Sci-fi
* Set in academic institutions

Topics|

* History
* Score
* Gender
* final girl
* scream king
* scream queen
* archaic mother
* Jump scare
* Disability
* LGBT
* Race
* Indian burial ground trope
* Characters
* hosts
* villains

Related|

* B movie
* Exploitation film
* Extreme cinema
* Grindhouse
* Video nasty
* Vulgar auteurism

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Horror fiction

* Speculative fiction

Media|

* Anime
* Comics
* Creepypasta
* List
* Films
* History
* Magazines
* Podcasts
* Television programs
* Video games
* List

Types|

* Analog
* Art
* Black
* Body
* Cannibal
* Christmas
* Comedy
* Zombie
* Creepypasta
* Cosmic
* Dark fantasy
* Dark Romanticism
* Faustian
* Grimdark
* Splatterpunk
* Erotic
* Guro
* Monster erotica
* Zombie pornography
* Folk
* Found footage
* Ghost
* Giallo
* List of films
* Gothic
* American
* Southern
* Southern Ontario
* Suburban
* Tasmanian
* Urban
* Japanese
* Korean
* Lovecraftian
* Monsters
* Jiangshi
* Vampire
* Werewolf
* Occult detective
* Organ transplantation
* Penny dreadful
* Postmodern horror
* Psychological
* Survival
* Techno
* Weird fiction
* New weird
* Weird menace
* Weird West
* Zombie apocalypse

Monsters|

* Demons
* Devils
* Ghouls
* Div
* Evil clowns
* Extraterrestrials
* Fire-breathing monsters
* Chimera
* Dragons
* Gargoyles
* Kaiju
* Killer toy
* Mutants
* Ogres
* Sea monster
* Piranha
* Therianthropes
* Werecats
* Werewolves
* Undead
* Death
* Ghosts
* Mummies
* Skeletons
* Vampires
* Zombies
* Witches

Related genres|

* Black comedy
* Fantastique
* Fantasy fiction
* Mystery
* Paranormal
* Science fiction
* Shenmo
* Supernatural
* Thriller
* Tokusatsu
* Urban legend

Other|

* Conventions
* Deathrock
* Grand Guignol
* Horror host
* Horror punk
* Horrorcore
* Macabre
* LGBTQ themes
* characters
* Vulgar auteurism
* Writers

Related|

* Bram Stoker Award
* Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Pulp magazine
* Video nasties

* Category
* Portal

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template