**This article originally ran on the horror blog Death Ensemble as an induction into the site’s “Hell of Fame.” It is reposted here, along with links to the respective movies whose themes are listed here. I hope you enjoy!**
The music is usually the final piece of any film to fall into place. It can also be the most influential in how we feel about a film after the fact. Film music has been a passion of mine for 25 years, and I’ve even been given the chance to write scores for a couple of short films, as well. One genre has been particularly inspiring to me over the years, however, and that is horror. For many of the last 15 years, I have done annual “marathons” of horror cinema during the month of October, and music has played a huge part of that. In 2004, I wrote my first piece inspired by the cinema I was watching in October, and four of those pieces found their way onto my 2013 album, Storytelling. I have written other such pieces since, and it was an exciting way to challenge myself as a composer when it came to crafting mood, atmosphere, and orchestrating in particular ways to accomplish the moods and atmospheres I wanted to achieve. This year, Fasso offered me the chance to write an induction, of my choice, for Death Ensemble’s Hell of Fame Week, and my mind immediately went to film music that has inspired me during those Octobers. But I couldn’t just boil it down to one theme, or one score, and so, I present five great horror music themes that rate among not just the best in film music history, but, I would argue, in musical history, as well.
To begin, allow me to start with the first piece I thought of for this induction, the theme to Sean S. Cunningham’s 1980 classic, Friday the 13th, by Harry Manfredini. The franchise of Jason Voorhees was my first, significant time spent with the horror genre growing up, and while the films it accompanied leapt up and down in terms of quality, the lasting impression of Manfredini’s theme in unquestionable. Yes, the tone and orchestrations borrow from two other themes, which will be mentioned below, but the musical effects that every fan attempts to mirror at some point, which sound like a voice saying “Jason…Kill…,” is creepy and evocative whenever heard, whether it’s when Jason is stalking his prey, heard over the opening credits, or even in that crazy disco version done for “Part 3.” Like this first chapter in the franchise, Manfredini’s theme is simple and powerful in the brute-force manner in which it goes about its business, and it is unforgettable.
Next up, but certainly not an afterthought, is another classic theme from the slasher genre, and one of the early masterpieces of the genre, with John Carpenter’s legendary theme for 1978’s Halloween. It’s impossible not to hear the influence of Carpenter’s driving, minimalist music on Manfredini’s two years later, and it’s equally impossible to forget the impact of Carpenter’s propulsive, yet evocative, theme for his nightmare masterpiece when Michael Myers returns to his hometown, and kills teenagers on Halloween night. This is not necessarily my favorite horror theme of all-time (that will come later), but it is, quite simply, the best, and while- like the “Friday the 13th” series- the “Halloween” franchise has had ups and downs, as well, the strength and power of Carpenter’s composition remains, as does its influence. (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross did a very nice cover of it this past year that pays tribute to the music’s hypnotic pull on the listener.)
Predating both of these films, and scores, however, was the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great Bernard Herrmann with 1960’s all-time masterpiece, Psycho. The original slasher film, Hitchcock’s pulpy crime thriller establishes a lot of the DNA that later films, such as the two mentioned above, would mimic as they ramped up the exploitation and violence. Filmed with his TV show crew on the cheap, Hitch nonetheless brought on Herrmann- whom had just scored “Vertigo” and “North By Northwest” prior to this- for the music, and his all-strings score is one of the greatest of all-time. It was Herrmann who chose to score the shower scene upon which the whole movie changes (Hitchcock originally did not want to), and it is one of the most impactful uses of film music in cinematic history.
For the fourth theme to be inducted, we return to the year 1980, and go to a genre icon on the other end of the spectrum with Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King, The Shining. It’s true that the vast majority of the film is scored by pre-existing classical pieces like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” but it is the electronic adaptation of Berlioz’s “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath” and “Dies Irae” by Wendy Carlos that sets the stage for Kubrick’s film. The synthesized dread Carlos and Rachel Elkind concoct for the ominous helicopter shot following Jack Torrence’s car up to the Overlook Hotel puts us on edge immediately, with its howls of pain bouncing around in our head even when the classical music of Ligeti, Penderecki and Bartok do the heavy lifting when the Torrences are trapped at the Overlook for the winter. It’s only heard once, but it’s instantly associated with the film it was written for, as any great piece of film music becomes.
Finally, there were a few ways I thought to possibly go with this slot, but in the end, it had to be the most famous two notes in movie monster history. I am referring to John Williams’s theme for Steven Spielberg’s shark thriller, Jaws. Of course, there is more to the score, and the theme, than the two notes that start it out, but Williams’s ominous opening is the work of a master supremely comfortable in his ability to chill us with subtle motifs and orchestral ideas. Since Spielberg had to improvise the film to show as little of the shark as possible, it was up to Williams to make its presence known musically, and he succeeds brilliantly in making Spielberg seem like a genius for not showing the shark, even though technical issues didn’t allow him to as much as he was originally planning on.
Admittedly, all five of these pieces and themes are easy choices for induction, but the greatest usually are, regardless of what you’re referring to. I often listen to horror scores with a vengeance in October, and many have made it into regular rotation beyond these five; the past 38 years have given fans a lot of great horror scores, including the careers of genre mainstays like Howard Shore and Christopher Young. This is a genre of bold artistic statements and ambitious creative ideas, at its best, and Manfredini, Carpenter, Herrmann, Carlos and Williams have all played a part in that legacy, because, they are honestly, the best at what they do. I’m honored to present them all to the legacy of great horror mainstays.
Viva La Resistance!
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
