For as long as images have been committed to celluloid, filmmakers and audiences alike have revelled in all things horror.

The silent era of the cinema featured countless entries in the genre’s canon; Hollywood brought to life the archetypal monster of Frankenstein in 1910, while the 1920s saw the German Expressionists terrify us with Nosferatu and the nightmarish dreamscapes of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. These silent films relied heavily on music to help tell their story. However, in 1927, the first ever ‘talkie’ was released with The Jazz Singer and cinema as a whole underwent its first major revolution. Film music now had to evolve to work alongside these new elements to heighten the storytelling.

A year after The Jazz Singer came The Terror; the first-ever horror movie as we know it today, with the first ever ‘modern’ horror score composed by Louis Silvers. In the near-century that has passed since, film — and film music — has undergone constant transformation. However, one thing remains the same: horror, more than any other genre, is synonymous with its music.

And, as our appetite for stories grew, so did the ways in which you could tell them. As television and video games matured into mediums that were just as worthwhile as their cinematic counterparts, the horizons of horror music expanded too — with composers finding new and exciting ways to explore soundscapes and scare their audience.

From Hollywood heavy-hitters that you could hum in your sleep to iconic games and modern art-house horrors that may have gone under your radar, our selection encompasses and celebrates the whole spectrum of horror music. Let’s look at...

OUR TOP 10 HALLOWEEN SOUNDTRACKS FOR 2023

Under the Skin - Mica Levi (2013)

Redefining the horror movie soundtrack with a single blow, Mica Levi’s score for Under the Skin managed to capture the otherworldly and alien like never before. This abstract sci-fi horror marked her first foray into the world of film composition, and it remains not just one of the best horror soundtracks, but one of the most definitive and iconic scores of all time.

The Shining - Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elking (1980)

While the scratching, nerve-shredding violins of Krzysztof Penderecki often populate Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror masterpiece, The Shining will forever be remembered for its iconic opening scene showing the journey to the Overlook Hotel. Wendy Carlos & Rachel Elking’s ‘Main Theme’ took a mediaeval poem, ‘Dies Irae’, and turned it into a warbling electronic dirge that etched itself into our collective memory.

The Witch - Mark Korven (2015)

Robert Eggers’ debut film is widely considered to have kicked off a renaissance of ‘elevated’, art-house horror — and the chilling soundtrack by Mark Korven plays a vital role in this. The score for The Witch utilises a mesmerising blend of modern and folkloric sounds to hint at the presence of something evil. “We tend to fear the unknown,” he explains. “Sounds we’ve never heard before are the friends of good horror. Familiarity is our enemy because it comforts us.”

Halloween - John Carpenter (1978)

Director, composer and all-round movie-making maestro John Carpenter has made dozens of contributions to the world of film, applying his signature style and sounds to almost every entry. “With scoring movies, that's always been my goal, to make it big,” he told us. Never has that been more obvious than his genre-defining score for the unforgettable slasher masterpiece, Halloween, and its continued legacy.

It Follows - Disasterpeace (2014)

After carving a name for himself as an accomplished indie game composer, Richard Vreeland (aka Disasterpeace) made his debut film score with David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows. Channelling a strong Carpenter spirit and paying homage to synthesised soundtracks of the 1980s, Disasterpeace’s first movie soundtrack stood out in the modern horror soundscape as distinct and deeply terrifying.

Final Destination - Shirley Walker (2000)

As one of Hollywood’s first female composers, Shirley Walker will forever be remembered as a seminal and trailblazing player in the world of film composition. In 2000, after two decades of scoring, she made one of her most iconic contributions with the soundtrack for Final Destination: a gleefully bombastic score that acknowledges the inherent humour and melodrama of the franchise.

Midsommar - Bobby Krlic (2019)

“In film and TV,” Bobby Krlic said, “there’s a finite amount of time that you have to say what you want to say musically.” Far be it for us to disagree with one of contemporary cinema’s finest composers, but with his score for Midsommar, he seems to say a lot. The second collaboration between Krlic and director Ari Aster, Midsommar yields a modern masterpiece of a horror soundtrack that is beautiful and evocative yet deeply unsettling.

The Conjuring  - Joseph Bishara (2012)

James Wan’s The Conjuring represented the pinnacle of modern commercial horror — a haunted house tale, replete with demonic jumpscares, wrapped up in a bow of sheer class and style. It was so iconic that it kickstarted the only other shared cinematic universe that could rival Marvel, and at the heart of it lay Joseph Bishara’s music, which delved into the operatic and grandiose without ever abandoning its core mission: to be utterly terrifying.

Chernobyl - Hildur Guðnadóttir (2019)

While not ostensibly a horror, the real events depicted in HBO’s series Chernobyl were far more terrifying than any story about poltergeists or axe-wielding murderers. The genius and power of Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score lies in her ability to deftly weave between expansive and epic sounds that capture the essence of a large-scale crisis, and churning music that embodies the abstract and unfathomable horror of its fallout.

Silent Hill - Akira Yamaoka (1999)

From Jason Graves’ work on Dead Space to Gustavo Santaolalla and his iconic The Last of Us soundtrack, the world of video games is rich with incredible horror music. Over 20 years ago, however, Japanese composer Akira Yamaoka made history with his score for Silent Hill. Playful, unpredictable, and — of course — scary, Yamaoka’s music played an indelible role in crafting the disturbing atmosphere of the long-running franchise.