Need to ramp up the creeping dread in your supernaturally terrifying scene? Build a haunting soundtrack with eerie royalty-free music.
When you need scary, otherworldly vibes to sell your story, it’s time to put your soundtrack to work in the spookiest way possible. Let’s take a look at the goosebump-inducing instruments that composers turn to when it’s time get ghostly, some of which were employed in the creation of the horror-friendly royalty-free tracks in the playlist at the bottom of this post.
1. Waterphone
The shadows spread across the room as the sun sets outside the window. Your hero cautiously approaches the closed basement door, the wooden floor groaning with each step. He pauses and lets silence take the room. He reaches for the handle — suddenly, a harsh red light beams through the keyhole as a musical cue rises from beyond:
Meet the waterphone, one of Hollywood’s go-to musical tools for scoring things that go bump in the night. The nerve-racking noise created by this instrumental oddity is the very definition of eerie. Keen-eared listeners may have heard the waterphone’s metallic wailing in Poltergeist, Let the Right One In, Aliens, and during pretty much every dramatic moment in every reality TV show ever.
If the waterphone sounds a little like a whale to you, you’re not alone. It also sounds like a whale to whales.
2. Theremin
Patented in 1928, the theremin is an electronic instrument capable of creating music both beautiful and unsettling. The theremin requires no physical contact; performers control the instrument by positioning and moving their hands near two metal antennae — one changes the pitch, the other changes the volume. The theremin’s outgoing electric signals then run into an amp and out of a speaker. Here’s what the instrument sounds like (not) in the hands of its inventor, Leon Theremin.
The theremin sounds as much like a ghost as it does a laboratory aboard a UFO. It was famously featured on the soundtrack for The Day the Earth Stood Still and, more recently, in the score for First Man. For all of our Whovian readers, the theremin is what makes all the BWEEEoooooo and bwooEEEEE sounds in most iterations of the Doctor Who theme song.
3. Ondes Martenot
There must have been something in the water in 1928. Not only was that the year the world met the theremin, it’s also the year that cellist Maurice Martenot seemingly looked at the theremin and said, “No, I require an electronic instrument that is somehow even more unusual. A new instrument as expressive as my beloved cello that will allow me to replicate the accidental tone overlaps of military radio oscillators by playing it like a keyboard or by sliding a ring across a suspended wire.”
Enter the ondes Martenot (French for “Martenot waves”). How does it work? Here’s how The Guardian explains it:
Well, duh. You can hear the instrument in music by Tom Waits, Joe Jackson, and Damon Albarn — and in the scores of Lawrence of Arabia, There Will Be Blood, and Ghostbusters, to name a few.
Here’s a beautiful segment from the 2012 documentary Wavemakers in which Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, the man responsible for bringing the instrument to modern audiences, tells you everything you need to know — and everything he loves — about the ondes Martenot.
Put Your Audience on Edge with Eerie Royalty-Free Music
If you’re looking to deliver shivers and chills, the curated playlist below features more than a dozen royalty-free songs hand-picked for their haunting atmosphere and horror-flavored ambiance. All of them are perfect for cranking up the creepiness in your next video, and each can be yours in in perpetuity with a simple $49 Standard License.
Cover image via Lario Tus.
Header image via FOTOKITA.
Playlist header image via ARTFULLY PHOTOGRAPHER.
Looking for more royalty-free music? Just click through to the playlist below.
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- Ghostly Visions By Tenacious Orchestra
- Dark and gloomy, featuring solo cello and atmospheric textures creating a somber, pensive mood.
- Floorboard Secrets By NEURON
- Dark and mysterious, featuring piano, strings, brass, growling synthesizer, and heavy percussion creating a haunting, eerie mood.
- Knife in Hand By Mocha Music
- Dark and mysterious, featuring piano and strings that create a creepy atmosphere.
- Time Passes By Richard Heacock
- Dark and mysterious, featuring ominous textures and melancholy clarinet that create a mood of despair.
- Intruder By Olive Musique
- A dark pulsing and sinister introduction leads to swelling drones, ghoulish sound effects, screams and swelling string textures that build at the end create a mood of anticipation and fear.
- Beginning of the End By Diverse Music
- Dark and aggressive, featuring strings, brass, piano, glitchy synthesizers, and boomy percussion creating an solemn, foreboding mood.
- Haunted by Dark Spirits By High Street Music
- Dark and haunting, featuring strings, percussion, and sound design creating an eerie atmosphere.
- Ninth Gates By Serj Anto
- Dark and epic, featuring driving strings, brass, choir, synthesizers, and powerful drums that create a passionate, dramatic atmosphere.
- Distant Light By Yan Perchuk
- Dark and eerie, featuring haunting vocal oohs, piano, strings, brass and pulsing percussion creating a menacing mood.
- Journey Unknown By Michelle Carter
- Floating and atmospheric, featuring smooth strings and drones that create a haunting mood.
- Last Fight By Tellent Studio
- Dark and heavy, with production / film scores trailer elements featruing menacing strings, percussion, and synthesizer to create an intense and fearful mood.
- Unerva By Firefly Music
- Atmospheric and dark, with production film scores horror elements featuring pulsing synthesizer, strings, brass, and percussion to create a threatening and nightmarish mood.
- Kingdom of Shadows By Viljami Mehto
- Deep and reflective, featuring lush strings, piano, and deep drum machine hits that create a dark and somber mood.
- Tribal Warfare By Tristan Barton
- Dark and determined, featuring didgeridoo, flute, saw, vocals, and ethnic percussion creating an aggressive, powerful mood.
- Parking Garage Lurker By Harpo Marks
- Eerie and atmospheric, featuring menacing violins, cello, and bass creating a sinister mood.
- Suspicious Behaviour By Lost Harmonies
- Dark and mysterious, featuring tense strings and eerie pulsing drones that create a suspenseful and anticipatory mood.
- Horror Trailer By Immersive Music
- Dark and ominous, featuring eerie piano and celeste that lead to dissonant strings, monster brass, and heavy percussion creating an urgent, sinister mood.
- Ghost Chaser By LATG Music
- Dark and mystifying, featuring ethnic percussion and haunting textures that create light tension.