The most terrifying film scores of all time

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We celebrate spooky season with an unnerving mix of songs from our favorite horror movie scores, including The Shining, Under The Skin, Hereditary and more.

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Featured songs and films:
1. Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind: "Main Title" and "Clockworks (Bloody Elevators)," from The Shining
2. Mark Korven: "The Goat & The Mayhem," from The Witch
3. Goblin: "Sighs," from Suspiria
4. Hildur Guǒnadóttir: "The Door," from Chernobyl
5. John Carpenter: "Main Title," from Halloween
6. Colin Stetson: "Mothers & Daughters," from Hereditary
7. Mica Levi: "Lipstick To Void," from Under the Skin
8. Cristobal Tapia De Veer: "Laura Smile," from Smile
9. Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow: "The Alien," from Annihilation
10. Bobby Krlic: "Gassed," from Midsommar

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Organic Valley, a farmer-owned dairy cooperative of small organic family farms dedicated to protecting where food comes from.
0:08.5	Learn more at ov.
0:11.5	C-O-O-O-P.
0:19.0	Well, Hazel, I have been waiting all year to do this episode with you because you and I we both love
0:25.3	horror films right?
0:27.2	We do we really do.
0:28.2	Yeah I it is your jam and that's something I clocked very early on when I met you however many years ago like oh yeah I want to hang with Hazel because we both love horror movies and now that spooky season is here. I kind of thought, you know, what better way to celebrate it than to play and talk about some of our favorite music from our favorite horror films?
0:51.0	And we got to start with one that I know we both agree is an absolute masterpiece. This is what people here when they come to my apartment. You hit my doorbell and
1:11.0	misplaced. You hit my door know, this is for I mean anyone who watches horror movies would know that
1:38.8	this is the main title to The Shining, the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film The Shining, Wendy Carlos and Rachel
1:45.2	Elkend. Oh my God in this moment we're flying over the mountains on our way to
1:50.1	the Overlook Hotel.
1:51.1	What makes this score so great,
1:54.6	or this song in particular so great,
1:56.1	is for me, it kind of like contains the Shining's
1:59.6	horror narrative in miniature.
2:01.4	It's like you have these really modern forward-thinking
2:06.7	synth washes that are like Wendy Carlos's bread and butter and then like the further that the song gets you get Rachel's vocals. It's just like there's this creepy sort of hauntedness that's buried under the
2:36.3	score like there's something ghostly that's like trying to make its way out of
2:40.9	the song or something like that but every time I hear this I'm immediately
2:44.5	chilled. Yeah and it perfectly captures, I guess because of it being the sense in a way, it
2:50.0	captures the iciness of the snowed-in resort.
	...

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