4 Horror Movie Composers You May Have Never Heard Of
Horror movies are known for composers like John Carpenter, James Horner, and Harry Manfredini, but through the years other great composers have brought many thrills and chills with their big screen creations. Learn about these composers and seek out some of their best horror motion picture soundtrack vinyl collections to hear the music for yourself.
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is known for composing some concert masterpieces, but he has had quite an influence on the horror world. One of the main horror vinyl collections you may come across of his is the Candyman soundtrack collection. Glass composed the horror score for the original Candyman as well as the sequel.
His unique touch really makes soundtrack stand out and elevates the true horror depicted in the films. Glass also composed a modern update to the music for the original Dracula movie and has worked on other horror movies like Secret Window.
Bernard Herrman
While Alfred Hitchcock gets all the credit for creating the horror masterpiece Psycho, one of the movie's most iconic elements is the soundtrack. Composed by Bernard Herrman, the intensity of the music is what elevates a lot of the scares in the film and can draw listeners in just from the vinyl soundtrack alone.
Herrman's soundtrack for Psycho wasn't his only masterpiece. Herrman worked on other films like It's Alive and the original television release of The Twilight Zone. Credits weren't as extensive in the film world back in the day, so his name wasn't spread around to the film world as often as it should have been.
Charlie Clouser
One of the more recent horror film franchises that changed the genre was Saw. The character of Jigsaw is now a pop-culture icon, but the film also has a memorable soundtrack that has expanded through multiple sequels in the franchise. The soundtrack was composed by former Nine Inch Nails member Charlie Clouser.
Clouser went on to do a lot of the Saw sequels along with the main theme for American Horror Story. He also worked with James Wan on the memorable soundtrack for the film Dead Silence. The vinyl soundtracks of the movies feature deep cuts into the tracks he composed.
Marco Beltrami
Wes Craven's Scream franchise is known for infusing a lot of pop songs into the horror mix, but all four movies have an intense soundtrack and viewers hear a lot of the score when Ghostface attacks. All of the Scream soundtracks can be accredited to composer Marco Beltrami.
Beltrami has been a frequent collaborator with Wes Craven, moving beyond the Scream movies to create soundtracks for Red Eye, My Soul To Take, and Cursed. He recently composed the soundtracks for both A Quiet Place and its sequel.
Shop around to find vinyl soundtracks featuring these iconic horror movie composers.
