From the piercing strings of Psycho and the ominous rumblings of Jaws to the ballet riffs of Black Swan and the electronica of It Follows, great horror movies are often defined by — or at least elevated by — their music. As someone who (unsurprisingly) works almost exclusively to a background of film scores, I spent some time recently putting together a horror-themed playlist to help put me in the right seasonal mood, and in honor of Halloween month here at Rough Cut Cinema, I decided to share it with our readers!
I drew from some of my favorite horror (and horror-adjacent) movies and some of my favorite horror scores — often but not always overlapping — to create a varied soundscape that attempts to span the gamut of the genre. Your favorite may not be featured here (though I’ll probably be adding to this frequently throughout the month), but hopefully that will merely inspire you to create and share your own version of auditory horror.
The Spotify playlist is linked below — happy listening!