Scare up Halloween Spirit with Spooky Movie & TV Themes

Music in thriller/horror movies and TV shows plays a HUGE role in making the action on-screen more scary. Imagine the shower scene in Psycho without the howling violins... not quite as effective, right? The dissonant, sudden and screeching sounds mimic the noises of panic and tell the audience how to feel.

In honor of Halloween, here's some of our favorite thriller/horror titles. Nothing spices up your Halloween party or your neighborhood's trick-or-treating experience like a little spooky, live music!

Click the titles next to the

icon to download the sheet music.

Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells

Instantly recognizable and inherently eerie, Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" is The Exorcist's iconic theme song. "Tubular Bells" is taken from Oldfield's debut album of the same name, recorded when the artist was just 19 years old.

Bernard Hermann - Vertigo Theme

Hermann was a master, the man behind the music for Citizen Kane, The War of the Worlds, North by Northwest and Psycho. His Vertigo score is just one of his many collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, but it's one of our favorites.

Harry Manfredini - Friday The 13th Theme

Sean S. Cunningham, the director of Friday the 13th told Harry, "I am going to make the scariest film ever, called Friday the 13th, and you are going to score it." Fast-forward decades later and Manfredini's chilling theme is still one of the all-time horror classics. Read a really cool interview with the composer here.

Charles Bernstein - A Nightmare on Elm Street Theme

Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street has what may be the most recognizable theme of 80's horror movies. Learn more about how Bernstein composed the ominous soundtrack in this interview.

Mark Snow - The X-Files Theme

The unmistakable theme from the hit TV show The X-Files is the work of Mark Snow, who told NPR that the theme's famous whistle melody is a mix of a synthesizer sound and his wife actually whistling.

Danny Elfman - Tales From The Crypt Theme

Danny Elfman's The Simpsons theme may be his best-known work, but he also scored Good Will Hunting and Men in Black. His "Tales from the Crypt Theme" is familiar to anyone who watched the HBO's groundbreaking horror anthology television series.