Haunted Ozark Theater

Episode 33 - Best Horror Soundtracks

• Paul

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 59:11

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater … H-O-T … your “hot” horror podcast! What makes a soundtrack great? Come along with us as we discuss Psycho, The Omen, Jaws, Suspirira, Halloween, Bettlejuice, Candyman, It Follows, and more!

Title Song: Hellfire by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Graphics by Jacob Hedges

© Haunted Ozark Theater 2026

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater. H O T, your hot horror podcast. And today we're going to talk about horror soundtracks. And Cody, you're a big soundtrack guy. Whenever I come in here to the studio, sometimes you have on the metal, but sometimes you have on a good horror soundtrack.

SPEAKER_02

I had on Psycho today, the original Psycho, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you seek them out. Like you'll seek out like remakes and covers of horror soundtracks, and you'll put them on in the car.

SPEAKER_02

Sometimes the soundtrack's better than the movie.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And we're going to get into that. There's a couple of movies that the soundtrack, the themes are what I draws the most to the movies.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. I hear you. But of course, we got to do this day in horror history. Today's June 4th. And it is the birthday of one Mr. Keith David. Keith David. Happy birthday. How old? Oh, I don't know. I'm not going to sell them out on the air.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. No, I never I never looked to see like their ages. Yeah, I never do for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_02

That's correct. So I thought you were going to say, because you know what came out today, 1984, poltergeist.

SPEAKER_00

Poltergeist is I got I actually have three things for for uh history of horror today. And the top one though is is Keith David. If y'all don't know who Keith David is, you'll recognize his voice, you'll recognize his face. But in the horror world, we know him from the thing. Childs. And we'd know him from They Live.

SPEAKER_02

Question real quick: Was he that was he infected at the end? I think so.

SPEAKER_00

I think so.

SPEAKER_02

Man, we could get into that one day, couldn't we?

SPEAKER_00

For sure. Um also I'm a fan of this sitcom called Community. And towards the end of Community in the latter seasons, he has a pretty neat role on that show.

SPEAKER_02

You know what else he's in that we both love that we don't ever talk about because there's really no need, but he's a voice in Adventure Time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The uh Volcano Princess's dad, I believe so.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_02

And I love Flame Princess. When I heard that for the first time, I was like, holy moly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, he's got a great voice. Yeah, he does. But as you mentioned, uh Poltergeist also was released on this day, and I've brought up Poltergeist before as being one of my one of my top choices for a haunted house movie. Absolutely. That one, I watched that one a lot as a kid. I I can't recall if we saw that one in the theater, but it came out right around that time where I would have been going and seeing things in the theater. So um, but I remember watching it a lot, and it was also the first poor movie that I showed to my sons was Pulsar Geist the original. Nice. And uh, but another movie that I just wanted to bring out, just because we haven't talked about it before, also released on this day, uh a little movie called Splice.

SPEAKER_02

Splice?

SPEAKER_00

Have you seen that?

SPEAKER_02

That's the uh the trick, the uh what is she they like engineer her, her, yeah, and she's very deadly and yeah, gets out of and she escapes. Yeah, it's been a long that was 96, 97? Um Alex Ball or one of the bald ones.

SPEAKER_00

I think you're thinking of species. Species is what I'm thinking of. But Splice came out, I think, in like oh nine. Oh, okay, then I'm way off. Oh, so you're not familiar with this? No. Okay. So it's like this species. Husband and wife scientist couple, they are experimenting with human genetics, and they create this creature, and um the powers that be at their you know, lab say, shut it down, this is an abomination.

SPEAKER_02

It's a little girl, right? And she grows really quick.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they take they take her home and raise her as if she were their daughter. Right. But um, yeah, she grows rapidly, she is very deadly, she gets to the point where they can't control her, and it gets to the point where she seduces the dad.

SPEAKER_02

Dude, it sounds like you're describing the orphan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it doesn't it? Yeah. But it's um it's a very creepy, very interesting kind of sci-fi horror. Um, it's it's very like um skin crawly, kind of makes you uncomfortable. Cringe. Yeah, but it's good, it's a good little flick. Um, I don't it didn't have like a whole lot of success, I don't think, at the box office, but uh I remember catching it on streaming once it came to streaming.

SPEAKER_02

And it did go to theater though, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was a theater release back in 09, I think. I think I watched it some years later um once it came out and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's it's worth checking out. Okay. But um Poltergeist for sure is classic of classics and uh Keith David. He rocks tip one back for Keith David, and we're gonna talk about the thing here in a little bit when we get into soundtracks. Yeah, absolutely. That's definitely one that I want to shine a light on. Uh, what have you been in rewatching?

SPEAKER_02

So, this one I'm pretty sure, if I'm not mistaken, is up your alley. Okay, and I don't there was no rhyme or reason for it. I seen it and I was like, man, it's probably been 10 years since I've watched this classic. And I think it's more of your wheelhouse and that you're like, and that's the howling.

SPEAKER_00

The howling is my all-time favorite werewolf movies.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I've it's it's a crazy movie now that I've really I love the ending, and it is so true, even more today, that ending where she's transforming at the end on a live TV, and people are watching, oh no big deal, and that you can hear the mom, kids, what's happening? The lady's turning into a werewolf, and like no one's really like it's not facing them, and I could see that being today, man. Just like, oh, it's AI, or okay, what's on the next channel? It's right, it's crazy. But uh, I had a couple of questions for you. Um, my first one was who um actually bit Bill? Oh, geez. Was it T C or Marsha? Because I I what I was really trying to wreck my brain, and what I came to was probably Marsha. I don't know if you got into it.

SPEAKER_00

It's been a few years since I've watched it, so I don't know if I have an answer off the top of my head for that.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. And then the second thing I don't know if you ever caught there were a lot of set pieces from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yes. And grandma from the skeleton, the corpse from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it's in uh uh what's it, Walter Paisley's bookstore in the back end. I mean, it's easy to see, it's not in grandma's back there. I was like, that's grandma from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah, so that was really cool to me. But it's it's a fun movie. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02

It's a really good and the the puppeteering. I think did that come out right at American Werewolf in London? They both came out the same year.

SPEAKER_00

And um, you know, the transformation scene in American Werewolf in London overshadowed everything at that time. But um the Howling has some cool designs in that they went kind of more feline almost, I feel like yeah, just just to be different because I think they knew they had to be different because of what they were gonna be up against. Was Rick Baker American werewolf?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, so his protege is um it's the guy who did this, if I'm not wrong, right? We've talked about him. Yeah, his name is escaping me right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, mine too. But um, yeah, he uh he was he was like fresh off of being apprenticed to Rick Baker, and I think the Halling was his first big solo shot. And um if you've seen any of the behind-the-scenes stuff, they all the werewolves, they only made like the top half of them, and so a lot of the or all of the werewolf scenes are are like rely heavy on camera angles, funky camera angles. So you just think that's so that you don't prove that the bottom half of the werewolf is never there, gotcha. You know, but yeah, that's a great one. I love that movie.

SPEAKER_02

Good practical effects, yeah. For sure, for sure. What'd you watch, Bob?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, I didn't re-watch, but I watched. I went and saw backrooms. Okay, tell us about it. It was not my cup of tea, not your cup of tea. And I'm not gonna say anything bad about it. It's a well done movie. Um, it was, you know, technically very very good. I I'm is it an artsy horror film? Uh here's what I'm gonna say about it. Here's the here's the main reason why I didn't care for it is it's not scary at all. I mean, to me, the cardinal sin of a quote-unquote horror movie is to not be scary at all. Right. So that was that was number one. Number two, and this is an interesting conversation to have, and and we won't get too far into it right now because this isn't the main segment, but I've been thinking that this day has been coming, and I think this day has arrived. And what I mean by that is I am almost 50 years old. You're in your prom. They're not making movies for me anymore.

SPEAKER_02

It's a new generation out there, a brave new world, Paul.

SPEAKER_00

And what I think is has finally happened with Backrooms is Backrooms is made by a Gen Z creative team for a Gen Alpha audience.

SPEAKER_02

Say no more.

SPEAKER_00

I am not part of that equation, right? Right whatsoever. I am they did not take me into consideration when they were making this.

SPEAKER_02

But on the other hand, in the same breath, you could also, I could argue though, you went and saw obsession last week, and that that kid's in his, he's gotta be young 20s, and he blew you away with that movie.

SPEAKER_00

So yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Not to say all is lost because of the young generation as well.

SPEAKER_00

No, and I'm not saying that's not at all what I'm saying. I I there's always gonna be someone who makes the next terrifier or the next, you know, uh in a violent nature, and those are always gonna be straight slashers, and theirs are always gonna appeal to old guys like us. Um, so I'm not saying all is lost, but I am saying that I I knew this day was coming where what's in vogue wholly ignores my demographic. Right. And that's okay. It is, it really is. I'm not I'm not saying anything bad about it, but it's just that day has come. And um also you have to understand that the back rooms is based on a creepy pasta, which if you don't know what that is, it's it's basically war that the internet has collectively imagined.

SPEAKER_02

Slender Man.

SPEAKER_00

Slender Man is a great example. Um, but the the just the quick background background on back rooms is that somebody posted a picture like on 4chan 10 years ago of this abandoned room that they saw in a shopping mall. And it was in the thread called liminal spaces. So it wasn't even supposed to be horror, it was just supposed to be look at this weird empty room. Let's discuss it. And somebody made a comment that said, you know, like imagine being trapped in an endless labyrinth of these rooms, and when you hear something behind you, it's too late. So somebody made a comment that gave it kind of a horror angle, and then collectively, the whole that the whole 4chan community that was took off with it. They took off and ran with and they developed this whole lore. That's pretty neat. The collective conscience of the internet, they made a universe out of it. Exactly. They built their own universe out of it, and then this kid came along and started making YouTube videos to bring the lore to life. He made his first one of these YouTube videos when he was 14. It's the same kid who just made the movie. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01

So he's baby.

SPEAKER_00

He's 20 years old now with the number one movie at the box office. Wow. And it started for him as a YouTube video when he was 14. And prior to that. It started as, you know, this creepy pasta. Right. So again, and it is very impressive. I mean, it's a technical achievement, number one. It's an achievement of passion and dedication, like we always talk about. Hats off to that kid. Much respect. Um, but yeah, I'm I it's not a horror movie. Yeah, I'm not in on well, in my opinion, I I wasn't I wasn't horrified. That was the soundtrack.

SPEAKER_02

That was the theme.

SPEAKER_00

So that's the other thing is this kid did the soundtrack too. He the kid that directed it did the soundtrack. John Carpenter on our hands, exactly, exactly. So that was impressive. Um, yeah, it's just not scary. And it's I have no dog in the fight when it comes to backrooms and any kind of creepy pasta to begin, you know, to begin with. And um, yeah, I mean, it was it directed by a Gen Z kid for a Gen Alpha audience, and I'm I just didn't love it. I didn't love it. Um again, it's okay, not your cup of tea. It's not a bad movie at all. And I will say that all my kids, from my youngest kid to my oldest kid, they all went and saw it and they all loved it. So if you're listening of the younger crowd, go see it and enjoy it. I'm not passionate at all, but to me, this was just a good opportunity to have a discussion more about you know demographics and as you get older, how you're not part of the target anymore. Right. You know, I'm not in the middle of the target anymore, I'm on the outside of the target, and that's just uh natural part of life, you know.

SPEAKER_02

And that's awesome that you can see from that lens that not too cynical about it.

SPEAKER_00

No, not that's awesome. It doesn't upset me. Because a lot of people do get yeah, no, it doesn't upset me in the least, and I'm still glad that I went and saw it, you know. Um, I just it's not gonna be one that I revisit, you know.

SPEAKER_02

Any good trailers for anything upcoming? That's what I always ask. Yeah, you love a good trailer. I do, I love being surprised.

SPEAKER_00

I don't recall anything that stood out. I will say that there were some trailers. I do remember that there were some that were horror, which was I was happy about because when I went and saw Obsession, there was a bunch of like rom-com trailers in front of Obsession. That was kind of weird. But let's get to soundtracks, and you brought up John Carpenter because we were talking about the backrooms kid pulling double duty, and John Carpenter is a great place to start this conversation because I think he's a master horror-themed, you know that yeah now we have to talk about you know John Carpenter directing Halloween, but what a lot of people I don't think casual horror fans don't realize, the hardcore fans know it. He did the soundtrack for Halloween as well. And he wrote it and performed it himself on a synthesizer, which was kind of different at the time. You know, yeah, at that time with Jaws and Star Wars and stuff, everything was going all big orchestral.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, John Williams.

SPEAKER_00

You know, and so Halloween comes out, and it and John Carpenter is just very simple playing a simple, uh, creepy progression on a synthesizer. Right. And that was very revolutionary, very groundbreaking, and it totally set the table for a lot of what happened in the 80s as far as soundtrack is going.

SPEAKER_02

And man, that soundtrack is Michael. You know, do you understand what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. That is Michael Myers. Yeah, and it's very um, what's the word I'm looking for? Generational. Everyone who hears Halloween. Yeah, it's Michael. It's instantly recognizable. That is something that's lightning in a bottle.

SPEAKER_00

Instantly recognizable. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. We've all heard it. You know it as soon as you hear it, you your hairs all stand up, hairs all over your body stand up. You instantly see the mask, the shape. The boogeyman. Yeah, the boogeyman is here. Yeah, he's here in the room as soon as you hear that music, yeah, you know, and it freaks you out.

SPEAKER_02

So it's I'm I'm glad we're getting into this. I'm glad you started with John. Um, because in my personal opinion, it means so much to me. The things, the background, the soundtrack, everything that can make or break a movie.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And I wanted to jump to Halloween 5. Now, John didn't have anything to do with that, but there's a part in that where they it it takes me out of the movie, it ruins it for me. It's when the I don't know how good you know Revenge of Michael Myers, but the cops are coming out after uh what's her name calls because she's fried and the dog's barking. Yeah, and it's got the the clown music and everything, and I was just like, it took me so far out of the movie of a Halloween movie. Did that do you remember that?

SPEAKER_00

I don't remember that particular scene. And and again, I know you pay more attention to soundtracks than I do.

SPEAKER_02

But uh I just remember going, this is a was it like pokey? Yes, I mean over like I mean cloud music of these cops and they're bubbling and I they're trying to get their point across. But it it after that, I remember being little and be like, what is this? Yeah, what what's this isn't Halloween?

SPEAKER_00

Like it might have fit in to Terrifier, uh yes, but not a Halloween. Let's talk also about the work that John Carpenter did on the fin. Oh man, that's worth we just talked about the thing uh you know with Keith David here a minute ago, but the soundtrack on that specifically is very cool.

SPEAKER_02

Dun dun.

SPEAKER_00

It's very minimal, dun, dun, and it takes John Carpenter's synth sounds and actually does layer it with a bit of minimal orchestra. And do you know who composed that? Yeah. Ineo Moroccone. Really? Ineam Moracone, nope. Fistful of Dollars trilogy. Okay, yeah. Spaghetti Western. That's awesome. I did not know that. Um, that's I didn't know that either until uh I looked it up today. But uh, yeah, he got he recruited, he recruited the uh you know the man with no face.

SPEAKER_02

That thing really again that encapsulates that strandedness, that sense of they're alone out here, absolutely, and you feel it in that. It's a very um lonely makes you feel trapped, isolated, sounds every time we get the first snow around here, I always play that always back. John made my list for three movies Halloween, the thing, and the fog.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the those three great soundtracks. Oh, I agree. The themes are awesome.

SPEAKER_00

What else you got?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I got a lot. Um, do you want to go in like an order of mode?

SPEAKER_00

Throw me out. Throw me out.

SPEAKER_02

Uh we talked about this movie last week and it's Jaws.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We we talk about how that Halloween music is to Michael. Everyone's heard the Jaws music and they parated it and everything you can think of. And I think that might have set the tone. But jumping all the way back to Psycho, do you think Psycho was the first one to really? I feel like that was a theme song for that movie. And yeah, really like, wow, these horror movies can have this now.

SPEAKER_00

I have that on my list as well.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And just to cover Jaws, you mentioned John Williams, you mentioned Jaws. It's just two notes by John Williams. That's exactly what I was just gonna say. But if it is unbelievable how iconic the Jaws music is and how ingrained it is into our collective consciousness. And it's literally two notes on a piano.

SPEAKER_02

And that two notes is pure tension. It's dread. It just sinks you into that. And you're sitting on the edge of your seat. And you oh gosh. You know, it's unbelievable. I realize it's going to pull you in.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. As it builds, you know, the cello gets added in there, and then all the orchestra gets, you know, piled on top. Uh, but the the root of that is two notes on the piano. Yeah, it's crazy. But it's it's so effective. It's super effective. Like crazy, unbelievable, simple genius of John Williams. And if you haven't watched the John Williams uh documentary on Disney Plus, I highly recommend it. It is mind-blowing. Okay. Mind blowing. Okay. This guy, I mean, we all know the guy's resume.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

But when you watch this doc and see, you know, some kind of behind the scenes things about him, he was an incredible.

SPEAKER_02

I gotta say, my favorite out of all of them is Indy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I agree with that.

SPEAKER_02

That that march.

SPEAKER_00

I agree with that. Um, Psycho Bernard Herman is the man who uh wrote Psycho. And for me, the reason why I brought this up, or I wanted to bring it up, is this motion, this stabbing motion that everybody does. We all make that sound. Right? And that's violin strings. Yeah, that's that's uh Richard Herman or Bernard Herman, sorry. Um, you know, just riding that violin string. And I saw a little interview with him today where he said he made um Alfred Hitchcock give him a cut of that scene so he could sync up perfectly with it. Yeah. Wow. He's he he did his best because he, you know, you have to keep it in time, yeah, because it is a piece of music. It's perfect with that, but he kept it in time, but also synchronized each stringslash stab, each nice stab.

SPEAKER_02

And everybody does that. Yeah, you winch, you never see the knife going, you never see that, but you feel it with that, don't you?

SPEAKER_00

Like, oh gosh. That's like another thing that's just ingrained in our culture is that that scene, the sound that goes along with that scene, and it gets it's that's it's been parodied, you know. Like I think about um the original National Lamphoons Vacation when he opens the curtain on his wife and he's got the banana. And he goes, you know, yeah. I mean, it's it's it's just one of those things. Yeah, it's crazy. But yeah, that's that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02

My next one is uh, and it's from one of my old time favorite lords, it's the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now, it's not traditional soundtrack. They used a lot of disturbing industrial sounds and noises to create the dread. And thinking about this movie, I I think this is a great topic. And it had me asking this question is silence scarier than music.

SPEAKER_00

It can be 100%. It can be.

SPEAKER_02

Because the only other movie I could think of where there is no soundtrack in a violent nature. And all you hear is the killer, and you hear the crunching of the leaves.

SPEAKER_00

You hear the You hear his footsteps and his breathing.

SPEAKER_02

How much of a different movie would that be with a uh theme if Johnny had his own theme?

SPEAKER_00

Right. No, I agree. Um, two, I'll give you two other examples that just pop into my head of silence being the soundtrack a quiet place, yes, sir, and hush. Okay, yeah. Those both rely on times of silence because both of them have deaf characters in it. But to answer your question, yes, sometimes silence is the scariest sound, the absence of sound, you know, is the scariest thing that we can have. Um Texas chainsaw, as you said, it's it's it's more of a sound scape, it's more sound design than music. Um, I I do have one little bit of uh trivia from Texas Chainsaw. The sound of the chainsaw itself is obviously a chainsaw mixed with what uh the roar of a lion. The roar of a lion. Yep, that's because what was the point of that? Well, we all know what a chainsaw sounds like, right? So if you just put in a stock chainsaw sound, it's not gonna stick with you. But if you do something to make it a little different, it's gonna like worm its way into your brain. And he put in the roar of a line with that chainsaw. And we all know when we hear Leatherface's chainsaw, we all know that it's not just a chainsaw, that's leatherface.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Paul. When you hear it, you know, and it's because of that, though.

SPEAKER_00

It's because of that, yeah. He blended that's brilliant, he blended it with the a line's roar. Who thinks did he think of that? I think Toby Hooper did, yeah. He's a genius. Yeah, I think I if I'm not mistaken, I I didn't write it down, but I if when I was doing my research, I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Toby Hooper was the one that said, let's do let's do this.

SPEAKER_02

Love it. Yeah, who would have thought?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, very cool, very cool. Um, while we're talking about kind of like sound effects or whatever, I want to uh mention uh Friday 13th.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, you got to shh. Yeah, now that's Jason, and everyone knows that.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. Similar to, you know, like you said, Michael has his own theme, um, but Jason has his own kind of like sound cue. Absolutely. It's not a piece of music, but when you hear that, Jason's near, you never know. Jason's near. Yeah. And I looked that up as well. It's uh it was it was designed by a guy named uh Harry Manfredini.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he did all I think all the way up to seven or eight. Yeah, he did most of the soundtracks.

SPEAKER_00

But for for the sound in particular, it's kill mom or um well he's he got inspired by at the end, she's going, kill a mommy. Yeah, Jason, yeah, so kill her. So he experimented, and at first he put at first he went kill, kill, kill, mom, mom, mom. Yep. Then he went ki ma ma ma. And then he ran it through a thing called an echoplex. Okay, and that's what goes.

SPEAKER_02

That's how we get that.

SPEAKER_00

So that's what it is. It's it's ki kee ki ma ma ma through an echo plex. Right. And that's the and like you said, it may not be a piece of music, but as soon as you hear it, you know exactly what time it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Anytime I'm out in the woods and it's the girls like, oh, shh.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. Well, me and my cousin used to we would like walk to the store like late at night, we'd walk to the corner store, and we would try to scare each other with that sound. Yeah. You know, if I I would hold back, I'd stay back and like behind a garbage can or something and wait for him to notice that I wasn't there. And then when he's like, Paul, Paul, where are you? Stop it, man. Quit it. That's so funny, you know. That's that's the kind of stuff we we would do to each other, you know. So that's that's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_02

That is pretty cool. My next one is uh gonna be my all-time favorite. And I it is, it's not gonna be it. I'm we're gonna talk about it. Uh it it follows. This is the one I was talking about in the beginning. I love this soundtrack more than I love the movie. It's sent heavy score, it was done by disaster piece. It creates a constant feeling that something is coming for you, and discusses how the soundtrack feels like a character itself, and that it's unbelievable. I remember going to the theater, going, man, I really movie was because they promoted it the next that was the scariest movie everybody, and walking out going, man, it wasn't the greatest, but that soundtrack, I went and bought it. Yeah, I went and bought it, and I listened to it over and over, and I it makes me love the movie even more. But that to me is some how you make a movie even better with your sounds. I agree with that, unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00

I agree with that.

SPEAKER_02

I it's very 80s almost nightmare feel to me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I enjoyed It Follows for what it is, but I am in 100% agreement with you that it's you know, I wouldn't count it as one of my all-time favorites, and I definitely don't necessarily agree when I see people putting it on their best ever lists, and it's on a lot of best ever lists, but I will agree with you that rarely do you find a movie whose soundtrack was so perfectly suited to the subject matter of the movie. Right. Because, like you said, perfect it follows the name of the movie. The soundtrack is about it following, and it feels like you're being followed in the soundtrack.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's just one thing that they do great about that. So, Michael, Jason, Leatherface, Freddie, they all have a certain beat, they all have a certain theme. When you hear that, you know who's coming. Yeah, Mikey's got it. Jason's up, you know what I mean? Yeah, and it follows every time someone's different, it has a different theme to it, so it throws you off kilter because you're not getting used to. Well, I heard this one for the last. Well, this is new, and it really messes with your mind in that sense. And I like that. It doesn't give anything away, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. I hear you, I hear you. No, that's uh that's a great pick. Well, I will throw in uh a pick that's kind of in that wheelhouse and in that now. I don't know disaster piece if if that's a person or if that's a group. I mean that's a dude, it's just a dude, and he goes by disaster piece. Okay, well, this is the first time I realized that a movie could like outsource to a group and let the group handle the soundtrack. Okay, and you know I love my uh Giallo, yeah, yeah. My Italian cinema, and there is a landmark Giallo movie in the 70s, Sespiria.

SPEAKER_02

I was gonna do that. Goblin.

SPEAKER_00

Goblin.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00

The band Goblin handled the soundtrack. Uh fun fact, the only other time they handled a soundtrack was uh Dawn of the Dead. Really? Yeah, just a couple years later. Cool. They did Dawn of the Dead. But uh yeah, I remember watching Sister. Very hypnotic, isn't it? Yeah, but very like um, it's like psychedelic, but heavy. It's not like flower child psychedelic, you know? It's like heavy, creepy psychedelic. Like it's very creepy, it's not metal, no, but it's like hard rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock. Not quite, is a good way to say it. Yeah, that's a good way to say it. It's not quite. Um, but I remember watching Susperia several times as a young person and being totally blown away by so many things about that movie. It's a fantastic movie. It is it's a it's a beautiful movie, both in composition and like color and just the way the picture is designed. But after kind of getting past the visuals, I started thinking, man, this soundtrack's really cool. And I remember being fairly young and doing what I could to figure out because this was before the internet, doing what I could to figure out, you know, who was responsible for the soundtrack. And then I found out that the whole soundtrack to Sysperia is basically an album by the band Goblin.

SPEAKER_02

You should get that, you should find that on vinyl. That's if you have a record player, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I I you know what I mean. I I have a huge vinyl collection and I have many record players, but I don't have that.

SPEAKER_02

Whole vinylists making a comeback, dude. You there's a lot out now they've produced them.

SPEAKER_00

It would be easy to find now with the internet.

SPEAKER_02

It's probably gonna run you a pretty penny though, because that's a popular one.

SPEAKER_00

If I got uh like an original pressing, they probably have reissues though that are not too expensive.

SPEAKER_02

What stood out? Do you remember about that? Because there's something it brings back that soundtrack. What always caught me and I love was the whispering voices in it, and that really got me into it. And I thought it was so creepy and well done.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's uh that's definitely part of it. But to me, I just I just remember it pairing really well with the vivid colors of the movie.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they go hand in hand, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00

It really does. And that was you know different for a horror movie to go like we talked about Midsummer uh being you know a horror movie that takes place almost entirely in the daylight. Right. Well, Suspiria is a horror movie that takes place almost entirely in a rainbow of colors, it's not it's the full spectrum, it's yeah, it's not your typical, you know, everything's dark and foggy and you can't really see what's what. Right. That's okay, and you see everything. Yeah, it's it's it's bathed in colors, and the soundtrack goes along with that. And like I said, it would be so easy to you know match something a little happier and sunshinier to the color palette, you know.

SPEAKER_02

But that's not this movie, that's not this movie, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And goblin did a great job of you know being creepy, I couldn't have gotten any better, but also just marrying itself to the colored palette.

SPEAKER_02

It couldn't have been any better if you asked me for that.

SPEAKER_00

Really, really, really good stuff.

SPEAKER_02

My next one is gonna be, and this was a heavy debate on these two, which one I was gonna put in front of the other one. So I'm I'm picking the omen, and it went against the exorcist, but I just with the omen, it was the religious chance, the choir vocals create a sense of evil of on a grand scale. And doing research on this yesterday, I found out this won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

SPEAKER_01

The Exorcist. No, the omen. Oh, okay. Yeah, Jerry Gold Steve Smith. Goldsmith.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, yeah, and man, it's so haunting. Yeah, it's so good. It it and the exorcist is I mean, it's the exorcist in that theme, but I don't know. Something about the omen just I I resonate more with it's creepier to me.

SPEAKER_00

The chanting is kind of like a staple of religious horror, right? When we're talking about religious horror, we we gotta have that chanting in there. Um, but we talked about the thing earlier, and the thing has moments of that chant in the background, yeah, it does, hidden, hidden away, you know, under the layers of of the orchestration, and um that makes it creepy. But yeah, no, absolutely. Either one of those, you can't go wrong, right? You know, but I I do think that I didn't know the omen won an accounting reward, yes, sir, but I I do agree that there's something haunting about that chanting, you know, and it and it instantly puts you in the I don't know if there's like some kind of association that we subconsciously make between chanting and like uh like church service or a religious service. Well, I don't know, but they're all it's always present in religious horror, right? It's all the chanting aspect is always there, right? Yeah, that's very true. Yeah, I don't know. That'd be neat to explore. We could one day, you know. What's why why is that what's the psychology that ties those together? Right, you know, could get pretty deep. Oh yeah, okay. We like to do that from time to time. Yeah, we get deep. Yeah, we're not total meat heads over here. What do you got next? I got one. No, I got two more, but this one is well, I'm gonna save my my favorite for last. Oh, okay. Okay, but this one is just fun. This one's just a fun romp. And you can make an argument that this isn't necessarily a horror movie, but you can also make an argument that it is, and that's Beetlejuice.

SPEAKER_02

Uh okay, I would be on the side of not horror.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But yeah, you I could see the argument.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I love Beetlejuice, dude. So I'll, yeah, if you want to talk about Beetlejuice.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Danny Elfman, who, you know, basically made a career piggybacking off of Tim Burton. Yeah. Batman. And Danny Elfman, what a uh instantly recognizable signature sound he has.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know when it's it's like the Foo Fighters. You know when the Foo Fighters are playing. Yeah. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00

And it's like you might not even instantly recognize, oh, that's Beetlejuice, or that's the song from Batman. But you do instantly recognize that it's Danny Elton. Yeah. Instantly. Yeah. Yeah. But the Beetlejuice soundtrack is just so alive. It's it just it's got a very quick tempo, and it just kind of bops along. It's super fun, man. And then not only that, you know, he he uh made the decision to put, you know, he puts that in there, yeah, and that throws a big curveball to the audience, and that's a big source of of laughs, you know. That's a huge part of the joke, yeah. And that's it's because of soundtrack choice, you know. That's half of the half of what makes that scene funny is is the choice to use that song in the soundtrack. And that's so that was pretty brilliant. I don't know if that was Elf Danny Elfman or if that was uh Tim Burton's decision, but just the main Beetlejuice theme and just Danny Elfman's body of work in general. It's fun, but still creepy, right? And he rocks that line really, really well.

SPEAKER_02

Uh you ask if Beetlejuice's horror comedy, I would ask you is a nightmare before Christmas horror or comedy.

SPEAKER_00

But see, I and I say you can make an argument.

SPEAKER_02

I would definitely on that one.

SPEAKER_00

You can make an Elfmann. And that's a great soundtrack, too. He's also a great soundtrack. That's also um trivia. Where where what band, what 80s band did Danny Elfman come from?

SPEAKER_01

Big band? Oingo Boingo. Really? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00

I did not know that. He was the creative force behind Oingo Boingo. Oingo Boingo was pretty big in the early and mid 80s. Yeah, what happened to him?

SPEAKER_02

He got famous being Ryan Tim Burton's coattails. That's exactly it. Dude, and he took it to the bank.

SPEAKER_00

He most certainly did. He, I don't know if Oingo Buingo had broken up first and then he went into soundtracks, but I do know that once he went into soundtracks, he never looked back. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Why would he?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And if you see him today, there was a whole thing, I think it was when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came out just two or three years ago.

SPEAKER_02

Um who is not in real was he married to uh Melanie Griffith? I'm not sure. He he was married to somebody famous.

SPEAKER_00

Danny Elfman was? Yes, I'm not sure. Okay, that I don't know. I think he is. Um, but there was he's like, I think he's 80 or he's pushing 80.

SPEAKER_02

He is not 80. I'm dead serious. There is no way. Look it up. He's not 80, bro. Look it up. I'll put my lunch money on it.

SPEAKER_00

He's he's either 80 or he's real close to being 80. And he was uh photographed just a couple years ago when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was coming out because he did a concert where he was not only conducting but also performing certain instruments of like his whole uh catalog of soundtracks, and he's on stage at almost 80 years old, no shirt, ripped dude is ripped covered in tattoos, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And he's got that haircut, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, he's like are you sure? I am positive. He is in his late 70s, or maybe even already 80 years old.

SPEAKER_02

Well, good for he's aging in reverse, yeah. He really is. Good for him. Yeah, good for him, dude. What do you got? Man, I uh one I'm Surprised you didn't bring up it's not huge, but I like talking about these guys because it is his theme. And I'd love, I don't know. I should have dug into this because he's got his own little catch theme, and it's Freddie. Yeah, a nightmare on M Street. We all know that one too. In the one, two, Freddy's coming to put that with Freddie, yeah. Genius, that nursery rhyme.

SPEAKER_00

That I mean, I guess it is technically part of the soundtrack, but that's another one that we would use to try to scare each other. Right. You know, we would be at a slumber party, and the lights would go out, and it was finally time for everybody to shut their eyes. And inevitably, after about two minutes of silence, somebody would go, What's up before? Yeah, knock it off, man. Knock it off. Yeah, no. No, I I agree. I agree. And I did actually look into that a little bit, and I couldn't find who came up with the actual rhyme. I mean, obviously, we can see who did the soundtrack for Nightmare on Street, but I couldn't find any credit that gave credit to who actually came up with the actual rhyme. Because it's it's a it's a uh natural chillness.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. When they just switched it.

SPEAKER_00

But it's it's what do you call it? The when the dome when it's in the public domain and it's free to use. Yeah, public domain.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's free.

SPEAKER_00

It's the the tune, you know, is is as old as time itself. Okay. But somebody in the nightmare and Elm Shoot Camp, you know, had to pin those those lyrics along to that too. I wonder if it was. It could have been. I don't know. I'll look into that. I couldn't find a good answer. Okay, but I did do a little homework on that, and I did think of that because it's another one of those things where we would use it to try to scare each other.

SPEAKER_02

And it is a scary thing, too. He's I mean, Freddie's especially the original, he's terrified. Yeah, and you because you can outrun Michael and Jason and hopefully Leatherface, but you gotta sleep, dude.

SPEAKER_00

There's only so long you can go before you guys have some shut up.

SPEAKER_02

That music with Freddie, it's it's it's awesome. And it makes the movie to me too.

SPEAKER_00

I agree. I agree. So my this is my favorite. So I'm just gonna This is your number one. This is my number one. This is my number one blows my mind every time I watch it. I watched it probably just last year, and it still blows my mind, and that's Candyman.

SPEAKER_02

I got Candyman, he's my number two, dude. It was uh scored by Philip Glass, Philip Glass, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Candyman is uh such a masterclass in soundtrack, and you know why?

SPEAKER_02

Because that music, it makes Candyman feel tragic. Yeah, you know what I mean? It makes it feel mythic rather than just monstrous, and that's how great of a soundtrack that is. You're absolutely right, Paul.

SPEAKER_00

Mythical is mythical is perfect and and it it does, it pulls on your heartstrings and it gets you to tragic to feel the tragedy. But what I also love about it, and like you were talking about how the music and it follows perfectly lines up with the subject matter. This is the opposite of that. This is uh urban Chicago in the early 90s with a gothic soundtrack.

SPEAKER_02

How about that?

SPEAKER_00

This is like taking you know two things that are supposed to be contradict each other.

SPEAKER_02

They're yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. These things are supposed to be total opposites and they go together perfectly.

SPEAKER_02

The marriages, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, when you're she's you know, walking through it's she's walking through Cabrini Green, you know, arguably at the time, one of the most dangerous projects in America. Yeah. And it's accompanied by a gothic soundtrack, but it goes great. Oh man, it's a genius move. I mean, it's a master stroke. It really is. My favorite. My favorite, uh, just because of the, like I said, they're supposed to be at odds with each other, and somehow it's a perfect match. It is perfect.

SPEAKER_02

Good pick, very good pick. I've got honorable mentions. Now I said that my all-time favorite is it follows, but one that just it goes so good with the movie I'll talk about. Honorable mention, hereditary, the witch. Yeah, one you brought up, Midsummer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Sinister. Sinister has some great sound design.

SPEAKER_02

Black phone and then insidious.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That that's another one that I know you're a big insidious guy. I'm not so much. The music makes that movie to me.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it elevates it for sure. Thank you. Yeah, okay, for sure. Sinister, I I was doing a little look into, you know, we talked about the chainsaw and the lion's roar being combined. They combined a bunch of crazy sounds to make the lawnmower sound in Sinister. And it's crazy. I can't remember because I didn't write it down. I can't remember all the sounds they combined, but they spent a lot of time and effort to get that lawnmower sound to just be as scary as possible.

SPEAKER_02

Well, they it worked, it totally worked. That is such a sleeper movie, and it's so underrated. My gosh, we do not talk about that movie enough to. Yeah, it is one of my it is all-time tin.

SPEAKER_00

It's in there, it's one that is actually scary. It is, it is actually scary. I mean, we talked about the Cardinal Sin being a horror movie that's not scary, right? This one is scary, it is, and we talked about it's really hard to scare us these days. This one gets under the skin. That was one that being family men. I literally walked out of that and said, that scared me.

SPEAKER_02

I would have given anything to watch that in theater do. Yeah, but I I I don't think it made much of a fuss or something.

SPEAKER_00

I saw it because I'm a big uh Ethan Hawk fan. So I went and saw it for Ethan Hawk. Um, I think after training day, I think I I kind of in my mind I was kind of like, if Ethan Hawk puts out a movie, I'm gonna go see it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Great, he's dude top mountain acting.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, so I said it falls to my favorite. Now, to me, this one I'm gonna talk about though is the most disturbing of all time. Okay, and that is the shining.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It uses classical and avant-garde music to create overwhelming dread throughout that movie, and it's uh you can't say enough about the shining, but you never hear people really talking about that theme, that soundtrack to it. And it's man, it's it oh, it's depressing.

SPEAKER_00

It really is that it's so depressing, but man, it's great. Now it does have a lot of traditional soundtrack music in it, but like Texas Chainsaw, it also has like a soundscape. Yeah, Kubrick was great about that man. Well, he was uh he was famous for you know his attention to detail, and that resulted in you know the stories of him demanding 150 tags, yeah. But he used that same um you know desire for perfection in designing the sound. And it shows, and it shows, you know, and all of his movies really are masterpieces in that regard. But you know, obviously we're talking about horror, and that one does it. That one really does. It's as you said, um the dread, but for me, the descent into madness. I mean, you the sound makes you feel like you're losing your mind the same way that you're losing his mind.

SPEAKER_02

And doing all this research and thinking about it, it really we don't give enough credit to the the the human beings who are making this music for these films because it got me thinking, where would these movies be if it did not have that theme to go with it? Would they be as iconic? Would Michael if he had some rinky dink, uh, you know, something they just it wouldn't have reached the levels that I mean?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah. And and again, you know, we talk about horror being kind of thrown to the side and forgotten. And there is so many talented people doing such great work, genius level work. Don't throw these things to the side. No, don't ignore these things, man. There's you know, if just just talking about soundtracks alone, there is such great work being done, you know, today and yesterday, in in the in the genre of horror, you know, that don't ignore this, you know, visit it, appreciate it, give it its flowers, whatever, you know, whatever you want to do. Somebody worked really hard on it. Yeah, and it's and and in a lot of cases they knocked it out of the park, right? And should be you know heralded as the geniuses that they are.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Next time you want to see how big of a difference these themes, the music, the sound has in a movie, put on the scariest movie you've ever seen, put it on mute, and tell me if it's still scary to you. A lot of them aren't. They're not.

SPEAKER_00

A lot of them aren't. You know, I've seen YouTube cuts where they, you know, they show like uh Michael Chase and Lori, but the sound is like deer deer doo.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's kind of what they did in five. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you're like, it's not, yeah. Now it's not not only is it kind of like that. Exactly. Now not only is it not scary, it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

You know, that's the power of the soundtrack. You know.

SPEAKER_02

Well, from what I've read before, too, uh Toby, uh, Texas Chainsaw Mask was gonna be a comedy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's and that's why two really leaned into the comedy. He was I I mean, I I think he was honestly a little bit disappointed that we didn't get the joke. We as an audience do not. But he's got a he's got a sick sense of humor, I'll tell you that much.

SPEAKER_02

But uh but I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So what are we gonna talk about next week, buddy? I've I I've got l list a mile long.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I texted you what I wanted to talk about.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I did not see it.

SPEAKER_00

So you why don't you just fill me in ball? Well, it was one of your ideas. Okay. And you said, how about we do an episode about masks? Oh, yes. So thank you. I'm looking around our studio right now, and there's at least a dozen masks in here, if not more. And how many masks are in your collection? Over 50. Over 50. So we've mentioned this before on multiple episodes, but let's say it again here for all of our listeners to hear. Cody's big ticket collection is collecting horror masks.

SPEAKER_02

Love them.

SPEAKER_00

He's got over 50 of them. I'm looking at a lot of them right now. And who doesn't love a great mask? Again, got a lot of music.

SPEAKER_02

You can make or break a character. Absolutely. You got some goofy looking man here to be like, who is this talker?

SPEAKER_00

You just said dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun Mikey. What is Mikey without that, without that uh little bit of music? Well, what is Mikey without the William Shatner mask that was modified, you know, for this specific film? Uh, I want to talk about that. And I do want to include uh not just masks, but but the but look like latex, maybe like hatching. Well, you know, I mean like Art the Clown has a great look, but he doesn't wear a mask, he wears makeup, right? You know, so I want to talk, I don't want to rule out people who don't wear masks necessarily. Okay. I know we're gonna talk about the hockey mask. I know we're gonna talk about my leatherface.

SPEAKER_02

I know you know we're gonna talk about I mean we're gonna talk about those.

SPEAKER_00

You can't not talk about those. But you know, if it's if it's uh if they have a great look, but they're not necessarily wearing a mask, I think we still need to talk about that.

SPEAKER_02

What about like the makeup? And I've got the mask right behind me based off true story, elephant man. Yeah, yeah, something like that.

SPEAKER_00

Now that's probably a combination of prosthetics and and makeup. So is it technically a mask? No. Should we talk about it? I think yeah, I think that's you know, so I just wanted to say, like, let's let's not just let's not be too nervous. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, exactly. Well, that's I I'm gonna love this episode.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I want to talk, you know, specifically about masks, but I want to talk about, man, if if the villain has a good look, we gotta we gotta talk about it. And we will, you know, and though that's that's a big part of what makes a movie memorable or forgettable. There are some good horror movies out there that honestly just have forgettable villains because the masks are trash, because their look is not iconic enough, so right, man. And it gets forgotten. Yeah, you know, it gets forgotten. I think I'm just gonna say it right now. If you want to have a franchise, your main guy has to have a good look. Absolutely. He has to, has to. That's one of the things that has allowed Terrifier to have the success it's had, you know, in modern day.

SPEAKER_02

Well, look at all of them. I mean, ghost face. Yeah. Everybody. You're you're 100% right. Yeah. Have me slasher villains. I mean, I would even call Freddy's a mask, you know, the burnt. That's very, it's not something you see every day. Right. You know what I mean? It's a look. Pinhead.

SPEAKER_00

Not Freddie, you know, is a great example. I don't, you know, it's it's not a mask necessarily, just some awesome makeup. But the makeup and that and the fedora. Yeah, man. They go together. That gives a look that's undeniable. Just like Art in his little hat. Yeah, yeah. So that's what we're going to talk about next week. Y'all come back and listen. And uh, thanks for listening today.

SPEAKER_02

And go listen to some great horror soundtracks. There's a lot out there.

SPEAKER_00

Don't sleep on them.

SPEAKER_02

No, they're awesome. They'll make you better.

SPEAKER_00

Sleep on them. All right, y'all. Take care.

SPEAKER_02

Be good.