Life’s No Fun Without a Good Scare
If fall is your favorite season and Halloween is your favorite holiday, the staff of Starlight made a list of haunting and horror-filled songs from musicals and movies to help you celebrate! Read about some of them below, and check out the full playlist on our Spotify channel
We kick it off with one of Broadway’s most beloved horror shows, Phantom of the Opera. Caroline from Administration chose “Overture” because “What is spookier than an organ blasting those iconic notes while you worry a chandelier may come crashing down on you at any time?”
Andy in Community Engagement chose "Prologue" from Little Shop of Horrors. "It's obvious but iconic. It has the best combo of spooky Broadway – a foreboding intro that morphs into something fun. You can’t beat perky street urchins signing tight harmonies about impending doom.”
Any list featuring horror songs from Broadway would be incomplete without Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Bess in Marketing & Sales chose “Prelude: The Ballad of Sweeny Todd” because “The first time I heard it, I was 16 years old. In the opening chorus of the Original Broadway Recording (1979), the chorus sings ‘Swing your razor wide, Sweeney!’ It still sends shivers down my spine.”
Jacques’ in Human Resources chose “The Murder” from the Hitchcock horror classic, Psycho. She said “It is one of the most dramatic arrangements for a movie. Bernard Hermann wrote absolutely perfect music to go with the scenes in this movie. The shower scene music intensified every moment.”
Jeff in Marketing and Sales asked his daughter for her favorite scary songs from musicals. "The Whole Being Dead Thing" from Beetlejuice and the title song from Goosebumps remind her of Halloween and the spirit of spookiness.
Gabriel in Marketing & Sales invoked the wrath of hell with “And Eve Was Weak” from Carrie: The Musical. He noted, “The movie frightened me as a child but seeing and hearing this dissonant melody come to life on stage by the brilliant Marin Mazzie has haunted me ever since. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!”
Ken in Ticketing Services kept it light and simple with "Transylvania Mania" from Young Frankenstein because "Mel Brooks is my hero, and I love anything funny-scary."
And I'm Jodi in Marketing & Sales. One of the songs that gave me the chills when I was a child was “Tevye’s Dream” from Fiddler on the Roof. Especially after I saw the 1971 movie with the ghoulish ghost of the butcher’s first wife, Fruma-Sarah, rising from the grave and screeching like a banshee that she would “take her by the throat…”.
Whether it’s creepy and crawlies you crave or death and drama you desire, we’re sure you can find a musical or movie with the perfect song for the season.