Sound design is an integral part of the horror movie experience. Be it blood-curdling screams, atmospheric soundscapes, or a distinctive score. Of course, we could talk horror movie film composers all day, but what about secular music? There’s something chilling about using something familiar or upbeat as a false sense of security. In my article on Tales From The Darkside, the opening theme made a beautiful countryside give me nightmares! In this series, I want to share some of my favorite scenes in horror movies, elevated by the use of pop culture sounds. This is…
Curated Terror: The Songs of Horror vol. TWO.
Metropolis “The Darkest Side of the Night” – Friday The 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
By the eighth installment, the Friday The 13th franchise was starting to get tired. As a last-ditch effort to make things seem interesting, producers hoped moving Jason Voorhees away from Crystal Lake would be just what the doctor ordered. Unfortunately, budget cuts made Jason Takes Manhattan seem more like Jason Takes A Mediocre Boat Ride. But one thing the film got right was its cold open.
Set to a backdrop of various New York City set-pieces, “The Darkest Side of the Night” vamps away. Equal parts synth-pop and power-ballad, the Metropolis jam makes the city feel like a character of its own. Regardless of how the movie turned out, the opening does a fantastic job of building tension. Or at least this installment was trying something different. Even outside of the franchise and horror, it’s an effective opening for any film. Today, it acts as a bizarre peek of a somewhat seedy, pre-9/11 NYC.
AC/DC “D.T.” – Maximum Overdrive (1986)
In the l70s and 80s, Stephen King was everywhere. Plenty of his heavy-hitting novels were adapted into movies (with various degrees of success) including, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, and Christine just to name a few. But in 1986, King was approached to actually direct a film himself. Despite not being a filmmaker, he reluctantly agreed to adapt his own short story, Trucks. A story about all the world’s machines going sentient and initiating a killing spree. Filled to the brim with purposely annoying characters and an overabundance of dark humor, Maximum Overdrive is a romp from start to finish.
With so much emphasis on action and sometimes, over-the-top campiness, there isn’t much room for scares. Especially with a soundtrack by AC/DC (King’s favorite band). But there is one scene, in particular, that’s both chilling and genuinely scary. Cut to “D.T.”, a blistering blues-metal instrumental, a 12-year-old boy rides through his neighborhood on a bike only to see its inhabitants recently killed by various machines. It’s one of the few scenes in the movie that builds any tension. And something about the AC/DC track makes it even more visceral.
Kula Shaker “Hush” – I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
When Wes Craven’s Scream single-handedly revitalized the slasher genre in late 1996, a slew of cash-ins were thrown into production. Including Scream writer, Kevin Williamson’s adaption of Lois Duncan’s 1973 teen suspense novel, I Know What You Did Last Summer. While the story was closer to something from Alfred Hitchcock, Williamson’s 1997 screenplay didn’t shy away from the witty dialogue and pretty-teens-in-peril template set forth by Scream.
Okay, this one might be a little bit of a cheat because the song “Hush” by Kula Shaker (a Billy Joe Royal cover) was kind of wasted in the film. However, it was used heavily throughout the film’s promotion leading up to the film’s release. I had already read the novel years before and had no interest in seeing the film, but when I heard the track in the theatrical trailer, it clicked. The quick slasher-esque edits cut to the now-haunting lyrics “Hush, hush. I thought I heard you calling my name” gave the song a whole new meaning. And it worked! The power of good marketing, yeah?
Oingo Boingo “No One Lives Forever” – Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
There was no way on God’s green earth anyone was going to top the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So when director Tobe Hooper signed on to direct the sequel, he decided to focus on the dark humor aspects many fans overlooked in the original. The result is a gory, colorful, almost slapstick affair worlds apart from the highly influential first film. Although not as groundbreaking, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 developed a quick follow and remains a cult classic still today!
If the original film took aim at the hippy movement of the late 60s, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 took on gentrification and yuppies prominent in the 1980s. In the film’s opening, we see 2 obnoxious college kids driving erratically while antagonizing a local radio station via request line. Things take a dark and horrifying turn when the Sawyer family shows up to antagonize the college kids. With a near-action sequence involving 2 cars on a bridge and a chainsaw murder occurring while on the road, the film set out to be bigger and more indulgent. And with this sequence cut to Oingo Boingo’s “No One Lives Forever”, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 achieved its goal. And then some!
Jesus and Mary Chain “Reverence” – Pet Sematary Two (1992)
The 90s were a weird time where it was okay for sequels to be weirder, and trashier, with shifts in tone and consistency. Such is the case with Mary Lambert’s Pet Sematary Two. With this sequel, all the nuance and subtle dread of the original is thrown out in favor of oddly placed dark humor, MTV editing, and a plethora of bizarre choices in both tone and visuals. Despite not being a good movie, I’ve always been fascinated with how this movie goes for broke with something entirely different.
The same goes for the soundtrack. The score is made up of trashy electric metal guitar shrills while the soundtrack opts for alternative rock. Hey, it was 1992, and grunge hit hard!. The Ramones return with “Poison Heart”, there’s a track from L7, and even a song from Traci Lords (yes, that Traci Lords). But the perfect example of this film’s penchant for clashing tone is a vehicular murder scene while “Reverence” from Jesus and Mary Chain plays. Like Pet Sematary Two itself, It’s just so strange and off-putting that it actually works!
Corey Hart “Sunglasses At Night” – Nope (2022)
With each film, Jordan Peele as a horror filmmaker gets more and more polarizing. Playing upon audience expectation while being a love letter to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, comes Nope. As discussed in my review for the film, Nope tells the story of a brother and sister duo terrorized by something otherworldly on their secluded Hollywood ranch. While simple in its premise, Peele takes the opportunity to explore how we deal with grief, regret, and exploitation.
I won’t spoil the scene too much seeing as of writing this article, the movie is fairly recent. But there’s a scene midway through the film where the main characters find themselves at the mercy of the film’s antagonist in their own home. As the sky literally regurgitates blood and bone, an eery chopped & screwed version of Cory Hart’s 80’s staple “Sunglasses At Night” plays on a nearby radio. The lyric of this corny synth-pop song takes on an entirely new meaning in true Jordan Peele fashion.
Robert & Johnny “We Belong Together” – Christine (1983)
Another day, another Stephen King adaption. But in this case, the adaption is by the master of horror, John Carpenter! While the original story explores the unhealthy obsession men have with their possessions by the way of a haunted car. Carpenter’s version makes it more about jealousy, toxic masculinity, and of course, auto-possession. Leave it to both King and Carpenter to turn a wholesome story of a boy restoring a car into a twisted tale of obsession, revenge, and blood-lust of a Plymouth Fury named Christine!
In one particular scene, the date (seeing Grease at the drive-in, no less) between Arnie and Leigh isn’t going as Arnie had hoped. After an argument about Arnie’s obsession with his car, Christine’s windshield wipers go faulty causing Arnie to go out and fix them. Meanwhile, Leigh finds herself locked inside. In a supernatural (and catty) act of payback, Christine blasts the radio and brightens her interior lights to blinding levels, causing Leigh to choke. The scene is uncomfortable, claustrophobic, and beautifully shot. Combined with the soundtrack of a late 50s makeout song, it’s one of the most effective scenes in the film!
There are countless other examples of how music can elevate a scene in a horror film. And that’s not even discussing actual film scores! The correlation between sight and sound is often overlooked in the genre, but I think it is easy to hear how these particular songs take on new meanings when used in the context of horror. Who knows, we may not hear them the same way again…