Horror Movie Soundtracks

Horror Movie Soundtracks

Dark Ambient has a strong connection to the world of horror movie soundtracks. Not only are Ambient artists often featured in Video Games and Movies, like my own project Atrium Carceri in Deliver us from Evil and Sinister 2, but many of us artists draw inspiration from Soundtracks and especially so those within the Horror genre.

I asked some artists within the community about their thoughts on Horror Movie Soundtracks.

What’s a good horror movie soundtrack that doesn’t get enough credit?

Neizvestija:I like Walter Rizzati’s soundtrack to Lucio Fulci’s 70’s classic House By the Cemetary a lot. As creepy as the movie itself, easily.



Another great soundtrack, though I’m sure it does get lots of credit nowadays, is Goblin’s music for another Italian horror masterpiece – Dario Argento’s Phenomena from 1985.

Robert (Apocryphos): David Julyan’s soundtrack for The Descent. It possesses everything that a quality horror film soundtrack should have. A moving, emotional main theme and deep ambient swells that build tension and unease as the film progresses. Julyan’s work is always emotional and captivating and hiring him to score The Descent was a wise decision on the filmmaker’s part.

Juho (Kolhoosi 13): Not a horror movie per se, but an intense scifi thriller bordering claustrophobic horror: The Andromeda Strain from 1971. The soundtrack by Gil Mellé is fantastic! Modular synthesizer drones with some processed acoustic instruments. It’s one of those soundtracks that lifts the movie to another level. It is a revolutionary soundtrack easily on par with Artemiev’s Stalker from 1979, both being brilliant unsurpassed classics.

Bruce (God Body Disconnect): While it can be considered more of a thriller than a pure horror film, “Internal Affairs” (1990) boasts some of the darkest mood influencing music I’ve ever heard. Dreary underhanded drones, float underneath sparse and ghost-like accents, to weave an uncomfortable yet strangely addicting experience. Plus you get to see Richard Gere play one of the creepiest roles to ever to grace the screen. Just check out the ending scene, it never fails to make me feel vulnerable.

Which horror movie soundtracks have inspired your own work?

Neizvestija:I love Edvard Artemiev’s soundtracks for Tarkovsky’s films, not least the magnificient Stalker from 1979. Also Vangelis’ music for Bladerunner. Would love to hear a version without that sax though. Ridley Scott removed the stupid voiceover, but the sax is still there! With all the “director’s cuts” about, why not do the final edit of the score too?

Duncan (Flowers for Bodysnatchers):

Mica Levi – Under the Skin

David Lynch – Eraserhead

Both decades apart and polar opposites. Under the Skin thrives on less is more and Eraserhead is incredibly dense.

Many listeners describe our music as “soundtracks to unwritten movies” would you agree?

Juho (Kolhoosi 13): It depends… Some tracks have clear cinematic feel and certain clear narrative embedded in them that gives them qualities often associated to soundtracks. They work brilliantly in as soundtracks! I, on the other hand, tend to approach my music as paintings or pictures. Soundscapes that capture a moment or an event in a more abstract way without any predetermined narrative elements.



Neizvestija: Just today I found out somebody has been using tracks from my album Majak, which deals with nuclear disasters in the former Soviet Union, on a film shot in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Works great.

