Spooky Tunes: Horror Vibes
With Halloween fast approaching, people are probably trying to cram in as many scary movies as they possibly can to help set the mood. Another more passive way to get into the spirit is by putting on some spooky tunes while we go about our committments that take us away from the television. In a lot of ways, music is even better than film at setting the appropriate atomosphere. What’s in your playlist this year? Here are a handful that I think deserve to be on it.
Monster Mash (Bobby Pickett, 1962): THE Halloween song. The Mash has successfully maintained its status and prominence in popular culture by 1.) being legitimately catchy (MASH GOOD) and 2.) by being the kind of funny that continues to attract ironic listeners.
Rapture (Blondie, 1980): This little ditty was brought back to the spotlight recently by The Boys Season 3, where Soldier Boy is seen performing it in clips from his heyday. It’s extremely weird. There’s a man from Mars who really seems to like eating cars — after first killing and eating you, of course. So, in a way, you’re eating cars with him.
Goodbye Horses (Q Lazzarus, 1988): I looked up the meaning behind this song’s lyrics to see if it was actually creepy (it’s not meant to be) and came across some interesting background. While working as a taxi driver, the unsigned artist played the song for Jonathan Demme and it blew him away. He subsequently used it in his 1988 film Married to the Mob before, much more famously, including it in Silence of the Lambs. The context in which its used — as the soundtrack for serial killer Buffalo Bill’s dancing and, ahem, positive affirmations — will ensure that it will likely never be forgotten.
Insect Eyes (Devendra Banhart, 2004): Here’s another song that I don’t really know the meaning of, but it’s certainly got some creepy vibes. That’s probably why it was used in the teaser for 2007’s The Hills Have Eyes 2. I never saw the film, so maybe it failed in its goal, but I certainly remember the marketing.
Werewolf (Michael Hurley, 1971): If you’ve been paying attention to the Spooktacular, then it’s probably easy to guess why I picked this one. Hurley is something of a genius, if you ask me, and he’s got the discography to prove it. There are a couple versions of this song that vary slightly — the other one being “The Werewolf Song”. Both are haunting and beautiful and, by themselves, are some of the best wolfman tales across any medium. There’s also a Cat Power cover that’s pretty rad.
And this is just the songs with lyrics. It’s probably a lot easier to find instrumental stuff to accompany the holiday. You can lean pretty hard on classic film scores: you’ve got The Exorcist’s “Tubular Bells”, Goblin’s Suspiria theme, various iconic tracks off the Candyman soundtrack, and, of course, the Halloween theme (or really anything by John Carpenter). Some more modern spooky scores you should consider checking out are It Follows, Mandy, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Summer of 84 and Gretel & Hansel.
If you’re looking for more suggestions, you can always check out my Spooky Tunes playlist on Spotify.
