OK - I don't know if I'm going to get shot for this, but I never really pay attention to the music. The only one I know is Halloween and that's just because... I don't know. I guess somewhere along the line the theme song got popularized. I own and religiously watch the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series, and I can honestly say that I haven't a fucking clue about any of the music in any of the movies. I couldn't even swear under oath that there even was any music in any of those movies.

Let the shooting begin.... :eek:

Holy shit you've gotta be kidding:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Halloween music no good?
 

I am new to this board and anyone who says Halloween's soundtrack is no good is nuts. Simplistic is surely the way to go with horror movies music.
Fear is the most basic feeling so why not go with the most basic music?
Don:D

I swear to god. I remember in Friday the 13th there was that gay ass shit that wasn't really music. But yea, I didn't even know that there was music in Nightmare. I only remember some of the music that played because the characters were listening to it, like I remember that Johnny Depp was listening to some music and watching a tv show. I couldn't tell you what music he was listening to or what he was watching on tv, though.

Hellraiser had really good music by Christopher Young. That theme was awesome!

I'm listening to Hellraiser Theme right now. I didn't really take notice of the music in the film. Quite nice.

Interesting question about best musical score in a horror film. Some would say the best musical scoring is the one you don't notice, meaning it's seamless within the film.

A film score is not meant to be played without the film, because it should sound 'incomplete', missing it's own spine. Scores that sound good on their own should rather be just an odd discovery.

With that in mind, I would say the musical soundtrack for Alien (Jerry Goldsmith) is the best horror soundtrack I've ever heard. It's so finely integrated with the sound effects (and naturally, the film) that it's really one of the tour de forces of cinema.

Other horror film musical scores I thought were excellent (within the film ::wink::), all very viscerally, evocatively effective, were Halloween (John Carpenter), Psycho (Bernard Herrmann), Poltergeist (Jerry Goldsmith), King Kong (1976) (Jerry Goldsmith), Nightmare on Elm (Charles Bernstein), Gojira (Akira Ifukube) and Evil Dead II (Joseph LoDuca).

Definitely The Exorcist for me