2019 YEAR IN REVIEW: The Top 10 Best Horror Soundtracks of the Year
What constitutes a good horror score? It emphasizes scares without distracting from the story and helps steer the emotions of the audience. However, an expertly crafted horror score does all of this and more. It haunts and seduces, transcends the film itself, and becomes its own character.
This top ten list is a celebration of how music crawls its way into our subconscious. The rankings are not a judgment of quality. They only mean that I have a subjective, closer relationship with certain albums. And now, onward...
- Xanthe Pajarillo, DJ
10. Corporate Animals
Michael Yezerski creates a disorienting tribal world for a satire on corporate business, human desperation, and cannibalism. In an interview, Yezerski mentions seeking inspiration by experimenting. “Take food for example. You can go into a restaurant and be served two flavors that you would never have considered putting together. I admire people who make connections that haven’t been thought of before. I try to do that in music.” This one is no exception, and is a delightful adventure to revisit often.
Favorite Tracks: A Prayer for an Inedible World, Ball Quest, Experienced Spelunkers Pt. 2, Finding Newto, The Fantastic Voyage to Meet Mr. Sprinkles (feat. The B-52’s)
9. Daniel Isn’t Real
Treat your ears to this immersive and rattling combo of surreal sounds that play on vulnerability and darkness. Composer Clark (a.k.a. Chris Clark) said it best: “It was particularly rewarding scoring [for character] Luke, clambering inside the electric majesty of his slowly dissolving mind. The record is one of my best, seriously. New pathways into forging electronics with orchestra can be found here.” Just listen to “Volatile” and try not to lose yourself…but, do.
Favorite Tracks: Spiral Crackerjack, Tickling A Nutter, Volatile, Snowflake Banger, Experts In Light, Amor
8. Doctor Sleep
How do you orchestrate around a heartbeat? Ask The Newton Brothers, who did it flawlessly. It’s difficult for me to listen to this in a leisurely manner, and I mean that as a compliment. Wherever you are, the sounds and atmosphere will absorb you just like the Overlook Hotel. The Newtons worked with a wind harp over 90 ft tall and had to coordinate with meteorologists to schedule the best time to play it. It’s easy to appreciate the way this album pays tribute to The Shining, yet holds its own style.
Favorite Tracks: Dies Irae / Violet, Turning, #19, Steam, Rose Traveling, The Overlook, We Go On
7. Chernobyl
Some may argue that Chernobyl doesn’t fall under horror, but I disagree. This was one of the most terrifying series I have ever watched, and it checked all the boxes of the genre. Masterfully executed, it leaves you with an uneasy feeling that takes more than a moment to shake off. Hildur Guðnadóttir’s visceral score fills your head with clangs of metal and leaves you with an aftertaste of longing. If you listen to these cues alone at night and feel perturbed, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Favorite Tracks: Bridge of Death, Vichnaya Pamyat, Dealing With Destruction, 12 Hours Before, Líður (Chernobyl Version), Evacuation
6. IT: Chapter Two
Benjamin Wallfisch successfully bookends the final chapter of IT by conveying the Losers Club’s rollercoaster ride of complex emotions. Building on the first film, the score pushes itself and plays with hope/hopelessness, fear/courage, and then some. I do wish the soundtrack included the song from the trailer, “Distant Memories 21951” by Anders Kempe, and "Det er det skønneste jeg ved" by Max Hansen and Peter Andersen's orchestra, from Beverly’s scene with Mrs. Kersh. Otherwise, it’s a solid farewell to the end of this adventure.
Favorite Tracks: 27 Years Later, Memory, I Swear Bill, Dirty Little Secret - Pennywise, Your Hair Is Winter Fire, Hall of Mirrors, Artifacts, Nothing Lasts Forever, Goodbye, Stan’s Letter
5. Parasite
Jung Jae-il went through a lot of turmoil to conjure what director Bong Joon-ho would accept. Bong requested a piano piece that was "hopeful and very anxious at the same time” and rejected four versions. Depressed, Jung drank himself into sadness and improvised something while he was hungover. Finally, those were the compositions that passed. The result is classy, enchanting, eerie, playful. A true example of pain into beauty.
Favorite Tracks: Opening, Plum Juice, Mr. Yoon and Park, Conciliation I/II/III, The Belt of Faith, Moon Gwang Left, Camping, Zappaguri, Ghost, It is Sunday Morning, Yasan, Soju One Glass (Choi Wooshik)
4. Child’s Play
I’m a sucker for creepy doll music: the potential to take child-like innocence and make it sinister? Yes, please! Bear McCreary embraces this to the max, going into his daughter’s studio and playing with toy pianos and Fisher-Price xylophones. It’s a truly exciting and playful score with his toy orchestra and Mark Hamill in featured tracks. As someone with a traumatic memory of Chucky (I had a nightmare when I was six that will never leave me), this score somehow leaves me with fuzzy warm feelings. Also, check out this super fun music video that McCreary made on YT.
Favorite Tracks: The Buddi Song, Theme from Child’s Play, Birth of Chucky, A New Friend, Tickle Time, Chucky’s Trap, Kaslan Theme, Child’s Play Theme (1988)
3. Stranger Things 3
Members of the experimental synth group S U R V I V E, composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, are best known for their work on Netflix’s Stranger Things. In an interview with Pitchfork, they explained, “We’ve made an album that doesn’t feel like a ‘score’ necessarily, but one that feels more like a stand-alone record than a collection of brief cues.” Achievement unlocked. This album begs to be blasted at the local roller rink, yet still works perfectly for the fantasy scenarios in the town of Hawkins. I had this on repeat long before the season was released.
Favorite Tracks: Starcourt, The First I Love You, Rats, Mirkwood, Code Red
2. Us
The eerie chorus of children’s voices in the opening “Anthem” immediately pulls you in, hypnotizes you, and doesn’t let up until the final track. Michael Abels reunites with Jordan Peele with an unnerving soundscape that rings true to the film’s theme of duality. Peele told Abels he wanted to experiment with instruments that typically don’t go together, and the result is unforgettable. The iconic “Pas De Deux” developed because Peele said “I Got 5 On It” had “this haunting lick to it, kind of like Angelo Badalamenti’s score for Nightmare On Elm Street.”
Favorite Tracks: Anthem, Beach Walk, Run, Femme Fatale, Immolation, Pas De Deux, I Got 5 On It (Tethered Mix)
1. Midsommar
Everyone’s favorite breakup movie of the year hit us with one of the most emotionally excruciating and gorgeous scores. Director Ari Aster invited composer Bobby Krlic (a.k.a. The Haxan Cloak) to the project because he wrote the script listening to his songs. Not only did Krlic helm the Midsommar score, he also wrote the music sung and played by the Hårgars. Aster and Krlic are a match made in hell, and this is a must listen for those days you’re feeling your best vengeful May Queen self.
Favorite Tracks: Prophesy, Gassed, The House That Hårga Built, The Blessing, A Chorus of Sirens, Fire Temple
HONORABLE MENTION: Zombieland: Double Tap
Dave Sardy opts for an unconventional score that mashes up Western and country licks with eerie tones of dread. It makes sense, as Sardy has been knighted by critics as a “hardcore super producer” and has worked with the likes of Jet, OK Go, Marilyn Manson and more. If you like a little Americana with your undead, look no further. This is an extremely bold, unique, and tasty collection of cues that leaves you wanting more.
Favorite Tracks: Bad News, RV Attack, Biting The Bullet, Car Talk Gracelanding, Heading Home, Burning Love (Woody Harrelson)
Other Honorable Mentions: Satanic Panic, In Fabric, American Horror Story: 1984, Castle Rock 2, What We Do in the Shadows (unfortunately I could not add them because they do not have official soundtrack releases!)