Popular songs – across all categories: rock, country, hip-hop, metal, R&B, take your pick – can have that same powerful effect. You may hear one song on the radio and immediately remember its place in a horror movie and how it was married to perhaps a scene of extreme tension or violence. Or maybe it was perfectly placed when the screen cut to black, closing out the film’s narrative and carrying you into the credits. Think about how you felt when Se7en closed out with David Bowie’s haunting “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson” after what we just experienced. Or, hell, consider how we entered into that film, ignorant of what was to come yet being treated to a remix of Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer” as the opening credits hypnotized us.
I selected five songs that play regularly on the radio out here in Los Angeles that frequently hit me with “horror movie flashbacks” and I explain why. A few may be on-the-nose, the others may be unconventional. In the comment boards below, hash out your own picks, I’d like to give them a read!
Also Check Out: The Top 10 Horror Movie Soundtracks
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
Sure, “Goodbye Horses” by Q Lazzarus gets the “dick tuck” fame, but this Petty classic is forever tied to The Silence of the Lambs for me. This one was used to introduce us to Catherine Martin before Buffalo Bill abducted her. Catherine was getting down to the song while driving home, she was grooving to it and she knew the lyrics. We don’t get to know much about Catherine, but the song she’s revelling in tells us everything. I know it’s a weird association for me to draw, but it leads up to some serious creeper activity that is quite alarming.
The Chamber Brothers – “Time Has Come Today”
When I hear the opening “tick, tick, tick, tick” of this 1967 tune, visions of a burned Richard Lynch in 1988’s Bad Dreams in which this song was called upon many times. It’s a great selection and it’s perhaps the repeated use that drove this one deep into my memory. Bad Dreams also featured Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” for the end credits and I fondly associate that song with the film, too.
Head on over to the next page for three more selections!
