What Makes Music Creepy? | Inside the Science of Horror Music

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Maybe, because I'm no good at theory/terminology i missed it but what about unresolved progressions?

The Shining soundtrack is super creepy also

Great Video. Lots of awesome information

Phillip Glass's Candyman score is my favourite.

If you wanna really kill it, throw in some xylophone😂

I can’t Thank you enough for this video, I’m currently working on the soundtrack for a horror computer game and I have never worked on horror in my music.

This video is such a help cause now i understand how to. Again Thank You for this video.

If we consider the classical music that has been used since the beginnings of films, one could say the 'creepiness' is a learned response. Granted, some were purposefully written to evoke terror (Dies Irae) or awe, as in the awfulness of God (Bach's Toccata and Fugue in d, evil (Listzt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Others were used because they happened to use the 'horror palette: 1. Ligeti (2001: A Space Odyssey - Lux Eterna, Atmospheres and Volumina); The Shining - "Lontano"; Eyes Wide Shut - "Musica Ricercata II: Mesto); 2. Penderecki (The Exorcist - Polymorphia; The Shining - numerous ; Children of Men - Threnody for the Victims of HIroshima.)

Talking about Copyright infringements (not 'switching gears', please bear with me) Danny Elfman unashamedly re-orchestrated Poulenc's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra FP 146) replacing the piano with voice for 'Jack's Lament in the NIghtmare before Christmas. There would have been no sense in taking him to court. Melody, harmony and rhythm are identical.

That's really a nice collection of inspiring ideas for some horror scores. Also an increadibly powerful and tense example of orchestral horror music we can find in Franz Liszt "Totentanz". I just discovered this piece a short while ago and was completely speechless. I never got so frightened just by music before. That's a masterclass in creepy textures.

Fantastic video!

How about children of the Corn theme song which sounds so scary too

Minor scale and chromatic notes…

You hit all my erogenous horror zones. Dark Shadows, Vincent Price, Jaws. Awesome, man.

Suspiria, Dario Argento's masterpiece.

Other than Tubular Bells and Halloween give a listen to Goblin's "Profondo Rosso". Very similar to both and soundtrack of a horror movie.

The toy piano is an interesting thing. Many years ago I attended to some lessons about "death in music" by an anthropologist. Children's voices, carols and toy piano are elements that point to childhood. The point made by the anthropologist is that childhood is very close to non-existence as well as death. Another horror generator is the distortion of reality. Sounds vaguely distorted like you hear them in a dream while sleeping.
I remember many years ago a child woke up from a coma who said to have heard "a terrible music" while he was in the coma. It was actually a popular french pop song sung by a child that he interpreted as creepy while being in a not very deep coma.

One thing about the semitones scales. How did Sid Barret use them like in Astronomy Domine, without making them sound creepy?

a few of these themes remind me of Rite of Spring

What, no mention of The X-Files? 🙂

Thank you … this was my favorite video of ALL TiMe ❤❤❤

😎😎👍😀

Celeste is so accurate. The dance of the sugar plum fairy is a bright example of the weird and creepy feeling it generates

I would love to hear a breakdown of Angelo Badalamenti at some point! I am obsessed with the Twin Peaks soundtrack!

Great!!!

Having enjoyed many of your videos over the last few years and also being a fan of atmospheric/paranormal/cosmic/folk horror genres and particularly darker styles of music (though my tastes are very 'open'), I've no idea why I've not spotted this video before now.
Not sure if it's ever been confirmed, but when I listen to Elmer Bernstein's score of Ghostbusters (particularly the opening refrain of 'The Library'), there's a hint of that specific piece from One Step Beyond, but in a different key. It could well be a pure coincidence, or it was purposely composed as a nod to OSB, but both are very effective at producing an eerie atmosphere. With Dan Akroyd being hugely interested in and influenced by studies of and programmes about Paranormal phenomena, it may have been something he had requested or influenced... or not. Who knows.

Loved this one.

Rick, I rushed home every day to watch Dark Shadows at 4:30 pm daily. Do you remember the music box? The one that played during the wedding? I have remembered that song with precision for 45 years. Anyways, I've gotta go. I'm busy listening to this video!

as far as creepy and scary goes, you should definitely check out Dario Argento's Profondo Rosso theme, written by Claudio Simonetti and performed by Simonetti and the Goblin

Another good trick is extreme highs and lows with no (or hardly any) midtones. Then drop the highs and lows and enter the midtones in a chilling chord.

Great video. Very fun to watch. Love how creepy music can change a regular video.

Love the dark Shadows reference ;)

The shining has a lot of very good creepy music too. Not cute creepy either like real gory unstable sounding.

Loved that, great analysis. Tell me, have you ever done one on what makes music funny?

sorry to hear he passed away

Why not just call Aeolian natural minor? They’re the same and saying natural minor makes things less confusing

Another uber-informative and uber-educational video...replete with all kinds of musical 'technical terminology' which I don't have a knowledge or understanding of....though I did take one or two "music appreciation" courses, in my life, betwixt elementary schooling and university studies......*cough*.....in 3,145 manners of speaking.......*ahem*.......

I love creepy music and Halloween movies, but only when the year "falls flat" (as Robert Smith of the Cure would say, or perhaps any 'ole boy' bloke for that matter) in the latter parts...namely Autumn and early Winter.

In addition to 'soundtrack artists,' that you have alluded to.......some of the more 'contemporaneous' musical bands that are that much more listenable, for me, during the "All Hallow's Eve" season are much of the output of Depeche Mode, a lot of Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, and Ozzy Osbourne, Iced Earth (some Rob Zombie), Type O Negative, goth metal, etc.
A lot of people might consider Mannheim Steamroller to be cheesy but they have come out with some very classic Halloween-themed synthesizer albums over the years...

This is the reason why I like composing music for movies. The sounds are always amazing.

The celeste by itself sounds creepy no other instruments need to acompany it.

I love toy pianos and music boxes, both are in my default template

bruh i didnt even know suspensefull counted as horror before i got into horror movies. i have allways thought that horror was either something that you get nightmares of, or something thats creepy, something that is looming. you are being watched. someone is staring at you or something is staring at you, you blink and it is gone. theres something in your closet, under your bed. some things like that. music like jaws is not scary to be it is suspense and they are 2 completely diffrent things. and dark tones may be scary, but very light tones can be scary too. a great example of that is the dead silence theme.

Rick Beato is the BEST!!

I say the Halloween theme song is in the 3rd mode of the saba scale which is kind of like the Hungarian a minor scale

cool vid, even a seasoned vet like myself could learn a thing or two about creepy music

Rick, try two babies pull string lullaby at once, creepy as hell

I really enjoyed this!

One of my personal favorite horror songs is My Heaven from Silent Hill 1.
It's low percussion noises that get louder and louder before abruptly stopping and a dentist drill with guitar distortion.

Slow pitch bends like the original Unsolved Mysteries theme (before they changed it), it's simmilar to the pitch bend in tornado sirens in a way. It's more spooky because it's suspenseful, if you think about it ghost stories are spooky because you hardly ever see the ghost, it's all suspense. I don't find "horror" spooky at all, it's to over the top and not as subtle. Getting spooked is almost like sophisticated flirting, it needs to be a slow onset of suspense.

The Exorcist is a good example, the theme and movie were spooky but once that girl got possessed it was almost a comedy because it ruins the suspense and is too over the top.

'Tubular Bells' wasn't even written for 'The Exorcist' so I am at a loss to understand why it is included here - aside from the fact it plays in the film for about 5 seconds.

Man I just fkn love Rick. I went to University of Michigan music school years ago, and Rick makes me feel like I’m back in school, but now I’m not skipping class and I actually want to learn 🤣

Damn you're properly knowledgeable