The top 15 music videos based on horror films
Halloween is still several months away, but the scene is always ready for a little horror. From the critical success of Michael Jackson’s werewolf-filled “Thriller” to Kanye West’s American Psycho-inspired “Love Lockdown,” music videos have been drawing inspiration from scary movies since their inception. Here are some of the best music videos based on some of our favorite thrillers, slashers and old school horror films.
“The Kill” by Thirty Seconds To Mars
From abandoned hotels with endless hallways to eerie figures lurking in bathrooms, “The Kill” looks like a modern-day adaptation of the 1980 film The Shining, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Just make sure no one goes into room 237.
“Everlong” by Foo Fighters
“Everlong” is one of Foo Fighters’ most critically successful songs, but ironically, the video for the track is based off a film that could have easily flopped. The low budget 1981 film The Evil Dead takes horror to a camp-filled level that turned the movie into both a cult favorite and massive franchise.
“The Universal” by Blur
Set in the Korova Milk Bar, “The Universal” draws directly from the opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s acclaimed thriller A Clockwork Orange. Dressed in all white, the British band portray the fiendish droogs performing at their favorite drug-filled milk bar.
“Communion Of The Cursed” and “Hell In The Hallways” by Ice Nine Kills
Ice Nine Kills make it on this list twice with tracks from their latest album, Every Trick In The Book. Sampling a real exorcism for “Communion Of The Cursed,” the band venture into the world of the 1973 film The Exorcist and then recreate scenes from Stephen King’s bestselling novel-turned-film Carrie for “Hell In The Hallways.”
“White Noise” by PVRIS
The lighting alone in PVRIS’ music video for “White Noise” is enough to creep you out, but when vocalist Lynn Gunn gets ripped from her bed and plastered to a wall, your skin is sure to crawl. If anyone wasn’t sure that this video was based off Poltergeist, look closely and you’ll see the band’s mirror logo turn into the TV from the 1982 thriller.
“Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie makes scary movies for a living, so it’s no wonder he would adapt one of his music videos into one of his favorite films. Alongside his wife, Sheri Moon, he recreates scenes from The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, a 1920 silent film that fits Zombie’s visual aesthetic perfectly.
“Paranoia” by A Day To Remember
Though not necessarily based on the film, the music video for “Paranoia” bears a remarkable resemblance to many of the scenes from It Follows. Chased by a monster that can—and will—find you anywhere, the band get stalked beneath parking lots and highway overpasses, just like many of the characters in the 2014 horror flick.
“Predictable” by Good Charlotte
The whimsical, dark animation contrasted with the stark brightness of the little town below Good Charlotte’s brooding castle just screams Edward Scissorhands. Though neither of the Madden brothers traded in fingers for razor sharp knives, the setting of the video could easily fit into any of Tim Burton’s fantastical worlds.
“Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us” by My Chemical Romance
For a band blatantly obsessed with vampires, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that horror movies influenced many of their stylistic choices. Based off the 1999 Japanese film Audition, “Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us” recreates the scenes of one man’s search for a perfect wife gone horribly wrong.
“Pet Sematary” by the Ramones
The Ramones love a good scare. Their iconic “Gabba Gabba Hey!” chant is even taken from the 1932 film Freaks. For their track “Pet Sematary,” based off the Stephen King-inspired film of the same name, the band recreated pet burial and resurrection scenes while dancing about in a pretty punk graveyard.
“In The Mouth Of Madness” by Nightmares
Nightmares’ debut album Suspiria was a collection of tracks that were all based off scary movies, hence their single “In The Mouth Of Madness,” which recreates a lot of the Lovecraftian tropes used in the film of the same name.
“3 a.m.” and “You Don’t Know” by Eminem
Fun Fact: Eminem loves Hannibal Lecter. He mentions the villain in numerous tracks and even portrays the infamous cannibal of The Silence Of The Lambs in the music video for “You Don’t Know.” In the single “3 a.m.,” he references several lines from the movie, even though the music video is far more akin to the shaky, home-made shots from 1999’s The Blair Witch Project.
“I Miss You” by Blink-182
Lyrically, “I Miss You” has a lot of influence from The Nightmare Before Christmas, but the music video is far more of a classic haunted house story—think Beetlejuice meets House On Haunted Hill.
Basically everything by Motionless In White
From their earlier tracks like “Creatures,” which is reminiscent of the film Seven, and “Abigail,” a modern spin on The Crucible, to the Frankenstein-esque grave robbing outside of a haunted hotel in Reincarnate, Motionless In White draw inspiration from multiple horror films and archetypes in just about all of their major music videos. Check out “A-M-E-R-I-C-A”: It is eerily similar to Freaks, the same movie that the Ramones obsessed over.
“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by Backstreet Boys
Yes, one of the greatest, most recognizable pop songs of all time used horror (and a bit of Michael Jackson’s dancing style) in the music video. The video put a ’90s boy band twist on iconic scenes from Universal Studios’ The Wolfman and The Mummy, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and adaptations of The Phantom Of The Opera and Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde.
