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Let\u2019s face it, horror films are all-the-scarier because of music. Things that go bump in the night are often punctuated by the stab of violins<\/a><\/strong>, the whine of woodwinds or the cackle of choir. But not always. Composers have come up with all manner of ways to give us the willies on screen over the years. So, get some popcorn (and a cushion to hide behind) as we rank 13 of the very best horror film scores of all time.<\/p> Not many sequels surpass the original, but James Whale\u2019s follow-up to Frankenstein <\/em>(1931) is one of them and not least of all because of Franz Waxman\u2019s original score. Wildly exciting and ahead of its time in many ways, Waxman\u2019s music was riding high on the wave of the new \u2018Hollywood Sound\u2019.<\/p> Film music as we know it was really born just a couple of years before and Waxman was part of its origin story, along with Max Steiner, Alfred Newman and Erich Wolfgang Korngold<\/a><\/strong>. This horror film score, with its thrilling orchestral palette and something called a theremin<\/a><\/strong>, really made audiences sit up and take notice. <\/p> The \u201990s were all about style (over substance?) and Francis Ford Coppola\u2019s take on Bram Stoker\u2019s legendary vampire tale was certainly an expensive exercise. Keanu Reeves\u2019s British accent remains awful, but the film is \u2013 today \u2013 loved for its excesses and high camp. Gothic horror abounds on screen and in the music, with Polish composer Wojciech Kilar pulling out all the stops. The brass is flagrant, the choir is steaming and the strings are frenzied\u2026<\/p> Hideo Nakata\u2019s 1998 frightener remains one of the most talked about horror movies of all time. It\u2019s a cut above the Hollywood remake which followed a handful of years later, and the music by Japanese composer Kenji Kawai is a big part of why\u00a0Ring<\/em>\u00a0(or\u00a0Ringu<\/em>) is so intense. <\/p> Kawai created a brilliantly unsettling soundworld of synths and strings, in a John Carpenter vein, augmented by punchy percussion and all manner of sounds. Hans Zimmer <\/a>scored the remake, and while his efforts are effective, there\u2019s something more chilling about Kawai\u2019s intense horror film score.<\/p>The best horror film scores of all time…<\/h2>
13. The Bride of Frankenstein (Franz Waxman, 1935)<\/h3>
12. Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula (Wojciech Kilar, 1992)<\/h3>
11. Ring\/Ringu (Kenji Kawai, 1998)<\/h3>