You know how the hardest thing to decide at any party is what sort of music to play.  If you’re like me (as always, pretend you are), then  your friends listen to all sorts of different music, from hippie jam bands to hardcore punk to gangsta rap and everything in between.  That makes it incredibly tough to put together a musical playlist to cater to every whim.  The best thing about Halloween is that you already have a great playlist to pick from, just use horror movie themes!  Cinematical has picked out their seven favorite horror themes, and I’ve got plenty more to add.

For example, 28 Days Later has become a modern classic, thanks in no small part to their use of an eclectic orchestral-rock soundtrack.  Dario Argento’s classic Italian horror films like Suspiria and Profondo Rosso take music to a whole new level, utilizing the skills of masterful prog-rock band Goblin to come up with dense, thrilling scores.  Argento goes the other direction and drafts Ennio Morricone, the best movie soundtrack composer not named Henry Mancini, to do the score for his seminal giallo flick, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage.  Marilyn Manson and Marco Beltrami’s industrial incidental soundtrack for Resident Evil is also a great choice.

There you go, lots of great music.  Now all you have to do is decorate the house, buy and carve a pumpkin, and rustle up some food and drinks for everyone!  The hard part’s over; now the really hard part starts!

Tags: movie soundtracks, horror movies, movie music, scary music, mood music, 28 Days Later, Halloween, movie themes, Dario Argento, Goblin, Ennio Morricone, Marilyn Manson, movie scores, incidental music

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