Standard theremin-heavy creepy music is boring. This Halloween, add atmosphere with a classical playlist instead! Well, I mean, you can use horror movie soundtracks if you want, but keep in mind this will make you exactly like ALL your neighbors. Consider these instead.
- Toccata and Fugue in d minor, by J. S. Bach (which goes without saying, but dude, did you know that Bach’s authorship has been challenged?)
- Carnival of the Animals, VII “Aquarium,” by Camille Saint-Saens (weird Tim Burtonesque quality is fitting as he used it to open The Nightmare Before Christmas)
- Funeral March of a Marionette, by Charles Gounod (if Hitchcock used it…)
- “The Ghost’s High Noon” from Ruddigore, by Sir Arthur Sullivan (I’m partial to the King’s Singers version)
- The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, by Paul Dukas (can’t tell me the opening measures aren’t foreboding)
- I. “Gnomus,” from Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modest Mussourgsky
- “Grim Grinning Ghosts” as performed by the Swingtips BECAUSE I CAN THE HAUNTED MANSION IS LIKE A RIDE-ON MUSICAL SHUT UP
There. That should terrify the local five year olds well enough. Any other suggestions?
Updated to add:
- Ed Blonski suggests Mussourgky’s Night on Bald Mountain. To which I say: shoulda thought of that one myself.
- I DID think of this one myself: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Your favorite movements or all of them — seriously haunting stuff.
- I thought of another DUH one: Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens. Duh.
Night on Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky.
Good call! Shoulda thought of that one — in the immortal words of Finding Nemo‘s Jacques, I am ashamed.
How ’bout the last two movements of Symphonie Fantastique?