Heavy Metal and Horror

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With the horror genre as a potent force in gaming, seen in several franchises from Castlevania to Resident Evil, it’s only fitting to discuss the broader impact of music on horror media in films and television. The inclusion of heavy metal is often considered a no-brainer, as the overlap between horror storytelling and the aesthetic of the heavy metal subgenre is extreme. Yet before the ever-indulgent heavy metal fueled soundtracks featured in movies like Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects or Fede Álvarez 2013 remake of Sam Raimi’s 1983 cult classic, Evil Dead, horror movies have typically fallen under the radar from mainstream pop culture. It’s not to say that horror movies haven’t earned their fair share of recognition on the grand scale of cinema and Hollywood production, it’s that horror movies aren’t always immediately recognized for their original scores and soundtracks. As horror movies thrived in theaters in the 1950s and 1960s as controversial, violent, and disturbing interpretations of what we all fear, the sounds used in these movies exude the tension and anxiety displayed in their presentation. 

George Romero’s legacy as a filmmaker stretches as far back as 1968 with the black and white classic Night of the Living Dead. According to the Walter Reade Organization, “‘We chose a selection of music for each of the various scenes and then George made the final selections. We then took those selections and augmented them electronically.’ Sound tech R. Lococo’s choices worked well, as film historian Sumiko Higashi believes that the music “signifies the nature of events that await” ^[ 1 ]. While the film did feature “the opening title music with the car on the road had been used in a 1961 episode of the TV series Ben Casey entitled “I Remember a Lemon Tree,” and is also featured in an episode of Naked City entitled ‘Bullets Cost Too Much.’ Most of the music in the film had previously been used on the soundtrack for the science-fiction B-movie Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), as well as several pieces used in the classic Steve McQueen western series Wanted Dead or Alive (1958-61)” ^[ 2 ]. 

Perhaps Romero’s Living Dead legacy of movies wasn’t the foray of cinema experimentation with new genres of contemporary music, its eerie moods and tonality certainly made a disturbing accompaniment to the film’s official score. The film did eventually receive an official soundtrack years later.  “A soundtrack album featuring music and dialogue cues from the film was compiled and released on LP by Varèse Sarabande in 1982. In 2008, recording group 400 Lonely Things released the album Tonight of the Living Dead, ‘an instrumental album composed entirely of ambient music and sound effects sampled from Romero’s 1968 horror classic’” ^[ 3 ]. It’s the potency of older styles of music used in such films as Romero’s zombie that provoke the fearful dread of a zombie apocalypse as the ghosts in the music manifest their way onto the screen in a more figurative and metaphorical manner. Night of the Living Dead spawned a slew of sequels and spin-offs—and countless video games inspired by the “zombie apocalypse” trope—and would serve as one of many catalysts in the horror movie sub-genre for future films of the same cloth. 

The Sounds of Horror

While Romero’s films were far removed from contemporary music especially in the beginning of his filmmaking career, horror movie icons of yesterday like Romero, Alfred Hitchcock, and Tod Browning helped pave the way for directors like Rob Zombie, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven. It is in the classic form of horror movie cinema that the use of lo-fi and/or classical music, atmospheric music and sounds, and the audible indicators of unease and dread that helped propel such movies like Hitchcock’s Psycho, Browning’s Dracula, or James Whale’s Frankenstein into a cult legacy of horror movie classics. Perhaps their official soundtracks or arrangements don’t remain the focal point of the themes and narratives they displayed; some tropes remain just as relevant today. 

One clear example is that of Hitchcock’s 1960 slasher/thriller, Psycho. One of the most iconic moments in movie history is the shower scene in Psycho with Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) stabbing of the character Marion Crane (Janet Leigh). While this scene’s legacy extends beyond the horror movie genre and promulgated into one of the most recognized in filmmaking, in addition to the knife-wielding silhouette of Norman Bates approaching the shower curtain sending chills down viewers’ spines, the tense and staccato string section timed with the multiple stabbing motions in the scene is just as iconic. Composer and conductor Bernard Herrmann, the composer behind Pyscho, was also known for his arrangements with Orson Welles radio shows including the famous adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds in 1938. The same radio adaptation sent listeners into a panic, as many thought the broadcast was so real that an alien invasion was happening. It’s no surprise that Herrmann’s arrangements were varied enough to emulate a news broadcast and dynamic enough to build tension in a gruesome murder scene. 

“The sound of fear can’t be constrained by a single genre or instrument, but at its best, this music is as gripping as the scariest visual, and it is timelessly evocative. Take Bernard Herrmann’s Hitchcock soundtracks, especially his sleek, highly-strung score for Psycho (1960); its ‘stingers’ (those slashing violins, designed to shred your nerves each time you hear them) defined a device that has been echoed in countless other films” ^[ 4 ]. 

Herrmann’s composition in the iconic Pyscho scene not only resonated with the then cult sub-genres of horror and thriller movies, but with all of cinema. This scene has been parodied, copied, and paid homage to through movies, television, comic books, video games, and even advertisements since its release in 1960. 

Building Tension

While the subversive stylings in horror, thriller, and darkened science-fiction movies hasn’t strayed too far from the original narratives presented in classic horror movies since Psycho, breaking away from traditional film score arrangements and soundtracks has changed in the last 70 years. The ultimate message the average horror movie is expected to deliver to audiences is typically that of a frightening, terrifying, shocking, or all the above experience. When making the comparison between filmmaking and musical composition and showmanship, there are similarities that parallel. Perhaps amongst the most significant sub-genres of music that draws many of its influences from horror movies is that of shock rock.

Shock rock artists like Alice Cooper and KISS, who gained their popularity in the early 1970s, didn’t just write music that was provocative, arguably offensive, and sometimes thought provoking, they also gave unforgettable performances. Like cult classics like 1975’s Rocky Horror Picture Show directed by Jim Sharman, popular bands at the time were presenting this caliber of theater performance on live stages. While horror movies of the 1970s still loosely based their soundtracks off contemporary music to set the calm tonality of the films before the inevitable horror segments begin like in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead with “I Remember a Lemon Tree,” the genre had evolved since then. 

Movies like Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (also released in 1975) was scored by legendary composer John Williams, whose iconic string sections complimented the pre-historic deep-sea predator’s murderous rampages and have become just as iconic as the shower scene from Psycho. Many would agree that the staccato classical string sections featured in these films ultimately help establish the tension and unease in these scenes. While shock rock bands of the time didn’t typically exude tension or unease, their imagery was among many of the controversial catalysts of the Satanic panic of the early 1980s.  When the combined lyricism, imagery, stage presence, and aggression of the music of the time came to the fore, artists like KISS and Alice Cooper received a great deal of flak from media for their outlandish theatrics, provocative themes, and alleged Satanic messages that were corrupting youth cultures. Such comparisons could easily be made today with artists like Marilyn Manson or even Lady Gaga. Among the most misunderstood sub-genre of raw and aggressive music laden with darker imagery and influence is that of heavy metal.

Heavy Metal Thunder

It’s difficult to determine when heavy metal was first established as a sub-genre of rock ’n’roll, but many will agree its inception came about from British hard rockers Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and the late 1960s. While the bands subsequently became known as some of the most influential rock bands of all time, during their early years, their music and lyrical content was constantly under scrutiny for being too offensive, provocative, or Satanic. To define heavy metal simply by the sounds, one could describe it as heavily distorted and down-tuned guitars, fast paced drumming, and either high pitched soaring vocals or guttural screams. While heavy metal since its early years has branched out into a plethora of sub-sub-genres, the initial foundation for what heavy metal was became well-known by the 1970s. Interestingly, horror movies in pop-culture had already become a phenomenon, just as hard rock and heavy metal were. 

Heavy metal since its loud and thunderous burst was raw, aggressive, and unforgiving, and that was the point. It sounded like evil, it was unapologetic, innovative, and was palatable to younger audiences. When making the comparison to western culture’s viewpoints on horror movies, it sounded like the same outdated traditionalist argument. By today’s definition of heavy metal, which is very different to the pioneers of the genre in the 1970s the differences are stark. In the 1970s, heavy metal was a moniker given to bands like Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, or Rainbow. Now those bands are often labeled as classic rock to the undiscerning. Today the sub-genre has branched out into a multitude of sub-genres including thrash metal, black metal, death metal, folk metal, power metal, progressive metal, nu-metal, djent, and many more. To understand how these sun-genres blossomed and prospered in their own respective underground communities, making the comparison back to cinema in general can help better clarify what they exhibit.  

Today, many heavy metal acts draw much of their influence from classic horror movies on lyrical themes surrounding death, murder, and the macabre. Weighing in heavily on the horror movie aesthetic, contemporary metal bands like the Murderdolls, Cannibal Corpse and Rob Zombie’s music career exhibit the horror movie genre through their lyrical content, imagery used on album artwork, and the raw aggression in the music itself. It’s easy to assume that all metal bands excessively weave their themes around the gore, violence, and terror around horror movies. However, many metal bands’ music used in horror movies, whether it be songs used in the official soundtrack or music composed for the official score, typically are used to emphasize the intensity of the scene in the movie. For example, Swedish Progressive Metal band Meshuggah can be heard in the intro scene of the campy ’80s horror movie homage Slice (2018, directed by Austin Vesely.) While Meshuggah’s lyrical themes are often obscure and esoteric to the typical gore splattered death metal track, the intensity of the music sets the overall over-the-top tone of Slice—a film where a pizza place becomes the central hub of a supernatural ghost town. This use of pre-existing material as opposed to music made for the film diverges between the use of heavy metal in films in general, as many horror movie’s soundtracks are laden with heavy metal tracks while the traditional film score is mostly classical orchestration and eerie sounds. More on that later. 

Sounds of the 1980s

The 1980s became sort of a renaissance for horror movies as they gained mainstream popularity. Franchises like Friday the 13^th, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, and a slew of films based on Stephen King novels were all becoming well recognized on the big screen. With the popularity of horror movies increasing, so was the musical influence of heavy metal. By the early 1980s there was somewhat of a divergence on musical delivery, lyrical content, and imagery in heavy metal. On one side, the shock rock or glam rock of the time that emphasized heavy use of sticky sweet melodies, big hair, and sexploitation, which formed the appeal of bands like Ratt, Motley Crue, and Dokken. On the other side, bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer were major contributors to the emergence of the sub-genre of now known as thrash metal. Thrash metal became an underground movement while glam and hair metal took the mainstream on radio and MTV. East coast thrash metal band Anthrax would also go on to score most of the soundtrack to John Carpenter’s sci-fi/horror film, Ghosts of Mars. 

Mainstream popularity in music, especially North American is fleeting, hence why the hair metal invasion of the 1980s was relatively short lived and encapsulated to the decade. While there weren’t many horror movies that tasked a metal band at the time to compose a piece for that movie are sparse, there were some exceptions. Speaking of Dokken, who were well known for the hair metal stylings and shredding solos by guitarist George Lynch, actually wrote a song and performed a music video for 1987’s Nightmare on Elm Street 3. “Dream Warriors” was a track the simply screamed ’80s hair metal, unapologetically. While the song didn’t emphasize the use of gore and violence that was exhibited by the film series main antagonist, Freddy Kreuger, it instead served as a radio-friendly service to the franchise, emphasizing the optimistic yet fearful “Dream Warriors” battling for their lives against the nightmarish Freddy. It’s a lyrical direction that is now often exhibited in the sub-genre known as power metal.

Since the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise became such an iconic series for the decade, dissecting the music used in the films is worth further analysis. 

“As the end credits roll on Jack Sholder’s horror sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), an unexpected voice from yesteryear erupts on the soundtrack. It belongs to legendary crooner Bing Crosby, asking ‘Did you ever see a dream walking?’ in a brassy big band tune dating from as far back as 1933. Jaunty, whimsical, the song is utterly unlike anything we’ve just seen, providing an ironic tonal counterpoint to the violent slasher surrealism preceding it. The contrast offers comic relief, a release of tension. We can relax now. Or can we? The new context for this old standard invites us to take Mack Gordon’s lyrics at face value. For Freddy Krueger is quite literally a dream, the ghost of a killer invading the psyches of suburban youths while they dose, his clawing, mauling attacks manifesting themselves as real bleeding wounds in the waking world. This dream walks. The gender of the song’s subject is also switched in the transplant. Crosby presumably had some luscious, Dorothy Lamour-shaped female fantasy figure in mind, but now finds his serenade addressed to a man (albeit a disfigured monster in a soiled fedora). This reversal ingeniously mirrors the film’s subtext: its teen protagonist’s struggle with his own burgeoning homosexuality, an anxiety cruelly exploited by Kreuger to drive him to murder. Such clever recycling of creaky popular songs is a common trope in horror movies and one that’s worth examining in more detail” ^[ 5 ]. 

This example of using a pop-influenced song of yesteryear is simply the understated contrast of light-hearted pop melodies conflicting with the films gratuitous violence and gore and help alleviate the tension and create an audible balance for the viewer. Either used metaphorically for its lyrical content just as in Romero’s Living Dead films with “I Remember a Lemon Tree,” a pop song can either break the overall dreadful tone of the film and create a breath of fresh air from all the blood and killing. Often, the pop song can be interpreted for its lyrical content in an even more disturbing manner.

“The Chordettes’ bubblegum classic ‘Mr. Sandman,’ for instance, was sinisterly repurposed at the close of Halloween II (1981), rescuing the mythical bringer of sleep from their wholesome prayer and aligning his bedroom interloping with the crimes of masked maniac Michael Myers. The process interferes with our personal relationship with this familiar song, upsetting whatever pleasant associations it might hold, toying with us in a way that no orchestral score, even one as terrifying as John Carpenter’s original, ever could.” ^[ 6 ].

Not to discount the use of heavy metal in films’ soundtracks in the 1980s, they were plentiful. Heavy metal songs in movie soundtracks from the 1980s until today are often meant to emphasize intensity and tonality of a scene, while rarely becoming a showcase for the film. As heavy metal influence made its way into mainstream popularity throughout the 1980s the culture became entwined with cinema, and ultimately the often-campy nature of horror films of the time. Among the more obscure films that arose from the decade that broke this mold include 1986’s Trick or Treat. A film that “blends the Satanic Panic fueled era of ’80s heavy metal with the silly supernatural terror of late phases Freddy. Trick or Treat was “scored partially by Hellraiser composer Christopher Young and the band Fastway” ^[ 7 ]. Another B-movie of the era that simply oozed the nature of heavy metal was that of 1987’s The Gate. “The Gate is a 1987 supernatural horror film directed by Tibor Takács and starring Stephen Dorff in his film debut. The film follows two young boys who accidentally release a horde of demons from their backyard through a large hole in the ground” ^[ 8 ]. Composed by Michael Hoenig and J. Peter Robinson, “The Gate is no mere heavy metal horror. The film is a step-by-step guide on how to unlock the unholiest of holies. Within every backyard is an opportunity to bring everything we hold dear crashing down” ^[ 7 ].

Filmmakers Use of Metal: Definitive Style in Contemporary Music

Contemporary films, at least ones from the 1990s until today, have approached scoring and original soundtracks in a slightly different manner. When analyzing the use of heavy metal in movies, the penultimate shift from original compositions used in the films as mentioned in the previous examples became evident in this era as the use of heavy metal in horror movie soundtracks were plentiful. On rare occasion, one or more of the licensed tracks used on the soundtrack would make its way into the final production of the film. 2002’s Resident Evil, based off Capcom’s videogame franchise, featured tracks by Slipknot, Marilyn Manson, and Rammstein. In addition, 2003’s remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre featured tracks by Hatebreed, Pantera and Lamb of God. Comparatively, some of the artists featured in these soundtracks carry wildly different metal styles but manage to make their way into the final cut of the film. Iowa based nu-metal band Slipknot also made a music video for their song My Plague which featured scenes from the Resident Evil movie. Even the bombastic, black ’n’ roll stylings of Norwegian based Kvelertak can be heard during the end credits of 2010’s Trollhunter, directed by André Øvredal.

Mixing Up Styles

As previously mentioned, heavy metal throughout its complicated and controversial history in the music industry has branched off into so many sub-genres, it’s difficult to determine what music style of metal should be featured in a horror movie. While visceral, raw, and aggressive stylings of death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and even some nu-metal manage to hold intrinsic ties with the horror movie sub-genre, other musical stylings bubble to the surface. Movies like 1994’s The Crow directed by Alex Proyas featured a moodier, more gothic narrative that didn’t fit the mold of typical ripping guitars and double bass attack. Instead, The Crow featured industrial and new wave artists like Nine Inch Nails and The Cure. The more gothic aspect of films that featured a relatively hard rocking soundtrack distinguished themselves from the typical “heavy metal” soundtrack heard in so many horror movies. Films like 1999’s The Matrix and 2003’s Underworld, while vastly different sub-genres, featured darker and experimental electronic artists such as Ministry, The Prodigy, and Skinny Puppy. While these artists aren’t necessarily considered to be metal in any way, they still provide a darker moodier appeal to their music that is reminiscent of the multi-faceted genres of heavy metal. 

Sound is Key

To a discerning analyst of music theory, the use of tritones—or “the devil’s third”—describes a musical phenomenon of intervals that creates tension and unease. Often used in the harmonic minor scale of western music, tritones are often utilized in horror movies to help build that tension. While horror movies and the inherent sub-genres that have spawned in contemporary filmmaking have provided moviegoers with tension, unease, and apprehension, many of the sounds heard in horror movies aren’t always melodic. Atonal clangs, cacophonous and jarring bumps in the night all help establish the unease many viewers feel when watching a horror movie. While yes, “(w)hispering voices, shrieking violins and unrelenting synth beats” encapsulate the three elements of making a horror movie soundtrack into a chilling experience, sometimes the sounds themselves don’t carry a tune ^[ 9 ].

When analyzing some of the instruments used in horror movie scores, one would assume it being an instrument that it would produce somewhat of a tonal and dynamic range to convey music. While this is partially true, some instruments defy traditional convention.

“A waterphone (also ocean harp or AquaSonic waterphone) is a type of inharmonic acoustic tuned idiophone consisting of a stainless-steel resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck and bronze rods of different lengths and diameters around the rim of the bowl. The resonator may contain a small amount of water giving the waterphone a vibrant ethereal sound that has appeared in movie soundtracks, record albums, and live performances. The instrument was invented, developed and manufactured by American Richard Waters (1935-2013)” ^[ 10 ].

In addition to the ethereal and unsettling sounds of the waterphone, another instrument that predominantly finds its way in horror movies, especially that of b-horror alien movies is that of the Theremin. The Theremin 

“is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the Thereminist (performer). It is named after its inventor, Léon Theremin, who patented the device in 1928. The instrument’s controlling section usually consists of two metal antennas that sense the relative position of the Thereminist’s hands and control oscillators for frequency with one hand, and amplitude (volume) with the other. The electric signals from the Theremin are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker. The sound of the instrument is often associated with eerie situations. Thus, the Theremin has been used in movie soundtracks such as Miklós Rózsa’s Spellbound and The Lost Weekend, and Bernard Herrmann’s The Day the Earth Stood Still” ^[ 11 ].  

Instruments like the waterphone and the theremin—heard on numerous horror movie soundtracks—often convey the tonality of some heavy metal acts, especially those of an avant-garde or progressive musical persuasion. Such instruments create a mood of unease and apprehension. Speaking of apprehension, “movie composer Mark Korven wanted to craft the perfect sounds for horror movies, but the instruments he needed didn’t exist, and he was tired of using the same digital samples. To produce the original effects needed for evoking breathtaking moments of suspension, he teamed up with guitar maker Tony Duggan-Smith to craft an original instrument that would better aid in manufacturing fear. The Apprehension Engine is that tool, a mechanism built with several bowed metal rulers, spring reverbs, a few long metal rods, and other attachments that allow for spooky interludes and effects.

“A normal instrument, you are playing it and expecting it to have a sound that is pleasing,” said Korven to Great Big Story, “but with an instrument like this, the goal is to produce sounds, that in this case, are disturbing.

“The Apprehension Engine expresses the emotions that cannot be expressed in other ways, triggering fear with intense sonic methods” ^[ 12 ]. 

While instruments like the waterphone, theremin and the experimental creation that is the Apprehension Engine are used as more than just musical instruments, the music they produce isn’t technically music. The dissonant and atonal noises they produce have become a staple for the horror movie genre.

The Future Face of Heavy Metal Horror

When analyzing heavy metal music and horror movies, one would be quick to lend credit to musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie. Zombie is well known for his original films, House of Thousand Corpses and Devil’s Rejects, as well as his interpretations of the iconic Halloween series. While Zombie isn’t the first into the fold for remaking classic horror movies, some have become critical of his takes on the genre. In a 2013 article for The Atlantic, author Ian Buckwalter had a few criticisms for Zombie’s foray into filmmaking. 

“Ever since he first made the jump from musician to moviemaker, horror fans like me have wanted to root for Rob Zombie. It has little to do with whether one is a fan of his music or not. It’s that there was a consistent aesthetic at work in everything he did that made it seem like he was going to make the kind of movies that genre buffs were going to love.

“After all, here was a guy who named his band (White Zombie) after a great 1932 Bela Lugosi horror flick, sampled exploitation and horror classics like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Night of the Living Dead in his songs, and embedded cult culture and film references throughout his records. In short, beneath the shaggy hair, scraggly beard, and heavy metal gloom, he was basically just a sci-fi/horror nerd. Add to that his background in graphic arts, filmmaking experience making music videos, and it was easy for any person who shared his tastes to figure some good could come from having Zombie behind the camera.”

While Buckwalter wanted to thoroughly enjoy Zombie’s efforts in filmmaking, he and many felt that the musician approached his movies too literally and uninspired.

“The Devil’s Rejects felt like a summation of a half century of exploitation cinema, with Zombie rolling together the lurid grime of grindhouse with dusty existential road movies and human-nature-based horror, and even added in a tongue-in-cheek Star Wars homage along the way. It’s a stretch to even call it a horror movie, but like the best horror, it had pointed social and political resonance for the time in which it was made, not to mention just being a relentlessly good time. It’d have been hard to imagine how someone could make a montage set to the entirety of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird even remotely tolerable in 2005, but Zombie both pulled it off and made it the unforgettable climax of his movie” ^[ 13 ].

While Buckwalter’s reaction is powerfully mixed, his praise is undeniable. As with others, the genre conventions will continue to evolve while remaining disruptive. That’s the beating, monstrous heart of the horror milieu, driving its artists and audiences forward into the realm of the disconcerting, examining the uncomfortable and monstrous. These themes and tropes keep this scene very much “The Devil we know.” No matter how often he changes wardrobe.

Images

1.  “The fictional Bates Motel has been rendered an enduring location, from both the cinematography and Hitchcock’s signature use of violins.” Source: jimo663. “Bates Motel Norman Bates Psycho.” Pixabay, 10 Feb. 2016, pixabay.com/photos/bates-motel-norman-bates-psycho-1190460/ Psycho. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Paramount Pictures, 1960.
2. “Some of the most artful tropes in Horror is invoking (subtle or otherwise) “camp,” such as Halloween 2’s use of the iconic track “Mr. Sandman,” which has been cause of much speculation.” Source: “Halloween II Movie Shot.” JoePack.wordpress.com, 2018, joepack.wordpress.com/2018/09/23/halloween-ii-and-the-chordettes-mr-sandman/ Halloween II. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, Universal Pictures, 1981.

About the Author

A classically trained musician, when paired with her talents in creative writing, her career as a technician and industrial electrician, and her education in journalism and the arts, Kyla’s a force to be reckoned with. Having served in SFS’ core and intermediate writing staff, she’s made her mark, both on The Living Multiverse and, of course, The Unconventional. Her series Sonata of the Screen and Grid, provides in-depth analysis of the usage and evolution of music in video games and cinema.

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