A classic horror film is only as good as its theme. Think about it; almost all of the great horror movies that have stood the test of time have a great, iconic piece of music attached to them, something that instantly makes you think of the film within two notes of hearing it.

What is Jaws without John Williams’ theme? Can you conjure up the infamous shower scene from Psycho in your mind without thinking of Bernard Hermann’s music? And a solid argument can be made that at least half of what makes John Carpenter’s original Halloween and Wes Craven’s first A Nightmare On Elm Street movies work as well as they do is their musical scores.

But re-do some of these themes in a major key and just about everything that makes them creepy goes right out the window. A YouTube user going by the name Muted Vocal has reworked the iconic themes from Halloween, The Exorcist, The X-Files, Saw and A Nightmare on Elm Street in major keys, and hearing them is a somewhat surreal (and hilarious) experience.

X-Files now sounds like the kind of calming muzak you hear in the waiting area of a dentist’s office, while Halloween sounds like the opening bits to some Katy Petty pop-radio anthem. Saw sounds like something from an uplifting Olympic sports montage, and The Exorcist’s “Tubular Bells” sounds like one of the annoying ringtones pre-programmed into your phone. Points must go to the original A Nightmare On Elm Street theme however, for still managing to sound creepy no matter what. If you ask me…it might even be worse this way.

HT: Muted Vocal via Factmag

Featured image courtesy of deviantArt // artist: franco-american