Your favorite eerie television themes/music
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Outer Limits
siukong — 12 years ago(March 03, 2014 11:36 PM)
Rewatching some old episodes got me thinking about which shows had the best eerie/creepy/spooky music (either as the main theme or general incidental music). A good opening theme can chill you before the episode even starts! A good way to set the mood. Here are some notable ones I could think of (in no particular order):
Opening themes:
The Outer Limits - while I love the theme, I actually like
the main background/end credits music
more. Haunting. (
it turns out I was thinking of the music in 'Valerie 23' - I seem to remember it being used more often throughout the series
) the Control Voice helped too!
The X-Files - classic.
Unsolved Mysteries - bonus points for Robert Stack's gravitas.
Are You Afraid of the Dark? - nice imagery in the opening as well.
Buffy - just the first 5-10 seconds.
Babylon 5 - maybe.
Gargoyles
Batman (the slower parts)
The Tomorrow People - cheating a bit here since I've never actually watched this show
Incidental/background music only:
The Twilight Zone - although the theme is notable in its own right, I'm on the fence about classifying it as "eerie".
Tales from the Crypt (sometimes, depending on the episode) - again, the opening theme is nice, but a little too upbeat to qualify as eerie.
Lost (often overdid it)
So what do you think? What would you add/change on my list? What music/intro chills you the most? -
LucusNon — 12 years ago(March 14, 2014 01:21 PM)
The Twilight Zone - although the theme is notable in its
own right, I'm on the fence about classifying it as "eerie".
A Wikipedia writer has (perhaps a bit harshly) called Marius Constant's TZ theme
"jarring and dissonant."
But Bernard Herrmann's original TZ theme (now often forgotten?) was very different. -
siukong — 12 years ago(March 16, 2014 12:02 AM)
Yes, the theme I was talking about is the one with guitar and bongos. It's too bad the Herrmann theme is not remembered as much as the Constant one - I myself had forgotten it when I wrote my post. I'd certainly qualify it as eerie.
I also remember really liking the score in the episode "A Hundred Yards over the Rim". I think it was by Fred Steiner. -
Erik-Bloodaxe — 11 years ago(February 15, 2015 03:40 AM)
Journey To The Unknown
Thriller (UK TV series)
Both these were by Brian Clemens who always had great music in his shows (he did The Avengers too).
As an earlier poster said "The Invaders" is probably top of the list.
'Knowledge is cheap at any price' -
tbonesays — 11 years ago(February 15, 2015 06:48 AM)
Twilights Zone is the only one that fits how I use the word "eerie" which is a bit hard to define.
Check out the theme for the first two seasons of Sanctuary. I would describe it as: mysterious, melancholy, feminine, noble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I14p86Vm2w -
lowsonpearse — 10 years ago(April 25, 2015 07:52 PM)
I like this post.. Mine has to be the theme music for Midsomer Murders!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sv6TO11TNg
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gemtea-2 — 9 years ago(May 17, 2016 03:59 PM)
Nothing even comes close to Harry Lubin's Theme for
Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond
. I even bought the entire vinyl album of Music from One Step Beyond. The main theme for One Step Beyond was Fear. Another good one used was Weird. He then did music for season 2 of the original
Outer Limits
. In addition, he wrote specific music for different episodes specific to the mood of each episode. I thought his stuff was brilliant.Some of these themes are still available for download from iTunes and other sites.
Check Lubin out:
http://www.imdb.com/board/20523900/