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Author	Topic: The most threatening theme?

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	I just watched "Ben Hur" again yesterday, and it occured to me that the rowing theme (with the Leper theme) is probably the most threatening theme I've ever heard. What's important to me is that the THEME itself is very threatening. E.g., the Darth Vader theme has some very threatening renditions, but the theme itself is not really threatening. "Ave Satani" is great, devilish, but not really threatening per se, either. What do you think?
posted 04-05-2000 01:50 PM PT (US)

mlw Oscar® Winner	dangerous film music: Ennio Morricone's Violent City (it'll burn you down and leave you begging for another hit) Jerry Goldsmith's Total Recall and Basic Instinct Bernard Herrmann's every other note.
posted 04-05-2000 03:07 PM PT (US)

Floyd Pepper Oscar® Winner	Since everybody knows the threatening music of the Alien-score, I'll mention another one: How about "Step Across The Border" by Fred Frith? Or some of John Zorn's music for films... I think some of their music really puts strain on the listener's ears, but in terms of avantgarde and experimentalism their scores are very interesting (though they are not so well known, even among the people of the soundtrack community...). Cheers! Floyd. NP: HELLRAISER (Chris Young) [This message has been edited by Floyd Pepper (edited 05 April 2000).]
posted 04-05-2000 03:56 PM PT (US)

Rang Oscar® Winner	Marian, my dad and I have a long-running joke where whenever something shocking happens, we hum the "Lepers" theme (motif) from BEN-HUR. Quite simply, it's one of my favorite pieces of music. Who else thinks the "Lepers" should be required in every film and/or TV show when that shocking moment arrives? I'm quite serious, too! Really... Williams' grumbling effect in scores like CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, JURASSIC PARK, and THE LOST WORLD. The best example I can think of right now where this effect appears is in the tail-end of "The Trek" from THE LOST WORLD. Not necessarily a theme, but nicely threatening (and extremely funny) nonetheless. Come to think of it, most of these threatening type passages that I remember are more of an effect than a theme. Doyle's chilling stinger motif from FRANKENSTEIN (in pieces like "Death of Justine/Sea of Ice," "The Honeymoon," "She's Beautiful" etc.) is another favoite.
posted 04-05-2000 04:33 PM PT (US)

Timmer Oscar® Winner	The music for Talos in 'Jason'. Also listened to Goldsmith's brilliant theme to The Satan Bug-very ominous!!! NP : The Beatles-62-66 5/5
posted 04-05-2000 04:40 PM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	Rang, great joke! When I think of it, the "Lepers" motif is very fascinating. It hits you completely unprepaired, making your hairs stand straight. But the second half of it is more of a foreboding, nevertheless, some brooding notes. Really brutal, in fact. Still, there have been some great themes mentioned, but for me, none of them comes close to the "Ben Hur" themes. It's an epic and beautiful score, but when watching the film yesterday, I realized how much of it is plain brutality.
posted 04-05-2000 04:41 PM PT (US)

Howard L Oscar® Winner	Ya want ominous? menacing? Try Fred Steiner's score to Twilight Zone's "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim."
posted 04-05-2000 04:49 PM PT (US)

joan hue Oscar® Winner	Most hummed threatening theme by the general public is the two note motif to Jaws.
posted 04-05-2000 05:10 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	Alex North's Vermithrax theme from DRAGONSLAYER. Christopher Young's "Leviathan," HELLBOUND. Akira Ifukube's Godzilla death march, from the original GODZILLA (1954). Any number of cues from Elliot Goldenthal's ALIEN 3. This is an odd one, but I think Jerry Goldsmith's "Imperial Palace" cue from TORA! TORA! TORA! is absolutely terrifying.
posted 04-05-2000 07:13 PM PT (US)

JJH Oscar® Winner	perhaps the Emperors' Theme? how about Boba Fett's ? NP -- The Ninth Gate, which features some fairly ominous music.
posted 04-05-2000 07:31 PM PT (US)

PeterD Oscar® Winner	I'd add pretty much all of Dimitri Tiomkin's score for "The Thing" (1951).
posted 04-05-2000 10:36 PM PT (US)

SBD Oscar® Winner	Goldsmith's theme to THE SWARM.
posted 04-06-2000 05:58 AM PT (US)

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	I've always been put in a scary place by Bernard Herrmann's main title to Journey to the Center of the Earth. And then there's that creepy lizard music that plays near the end of the movie, Bwoooooo-doop... BWOOOOOOOO-doop. - The ID monster sound effect from Forbidden Planet creeps me to this day. - "The Bees Arrive" from The Swarm - The dragon theme/motif from Dragonslayer - The bear theme/motif from The Edge (I love the way it is used in "The Deadfall" cue) - The bump-bump bump-bump sound whenever the Terminator was onscreen in the original Terminator
posted 04-06-2000 06:30 AM PT (US)

Timmer Oscar® Winner	Your H'ness, I still think the 'Leviathan' cue from Hellbound to be the most scary 'sound' I have ever heard on an album!!
posted 04-06-2000 07:22 AM PT (US)

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	Does anyone remember an old Hammer film called The Creeping Unknown? It was directed by Val Guest and was about an astronuat that returned to earth and was slowily consumed by a space organism. The dark theme from that movie (don't remember who did the music) was REALLY threatening. It was cleverly based on the odd heartbeat of the growing creature.
posted 04-06-2000 07:31 AM PT (US)

Howard L Oscar® Winner	Pardon me while I try to get up after fainting. Somebody else remembers The Creeping Unknown? I must have seen this a zillion times on Chiller Theatre (WPIX-TV, NYC) as a kid. Never really understood what went on but can remember some pretty scary images. And that it starred Brian Donleavy (sp.?).
posted 04-06-2000 07:39 AM PT (US)

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	Yes Howard, I remember the movie. In fact I have it on tape somewhere along with "X The Unknown", a similar noirish British horror film.
posted 04-06-2000 08:09 AM PT (US)

Howard L Oscar® Winner	Okay, while we're at British horror how about Village Of the Damned? But that wasn't B-type noir like X & Creeping. Those last 2 are right up there with The Cape Canaveral Monsters and other low-budgeters that never seem to be heard from again. [This message has been edited by Howard L (edited 06 April 2000).]
posted 04-06-2000 09:30 AM PT (US)

Will Oscar® Winner	How about some of the cues from Sleepy Hollow? Kinda threatening... better watch out for your head! NP The Thomas Crown Affair
posted 04-06-2000 09:37 AM PT (US)

Audacity Oscar® Winner	I always thought that James Newton Howard's music from Flatliners was some pretty scary stuff. Especially the main title. I agree with JJH about Boba Fett's theme. It was such a simple little motif but very threatening. Audacity Rules of Engagement (Mark Isham)****1/2
posted 04-06-2000 09:59 AM PT (US)

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	Actually Howard, I never saw Village of the Damned or it's sequel. I remember those scary kids with the white eyes (pretty freaky for those days) but my Mom never let us watch it. I think one of the most intriguing British sci fi/horrors ever is 5 Million Years to Earth (AKA Quatermass and the Pit). No threatening themes to speak of except for some pretty weird electronic sound effects.
posted 04-06-2000 11:46 AM PT (US)

MWRuger Oscar® Winner	Five Million Years to Earth gave me nightmares for a week. Very frightning. They never showed the hideous dwarves that supposedly haunted Hobb's End, but you saw the local bobbies react. Excellant. By the way, there was a symphonic score for this film but it was not used. Tristam Cory did the score and it is available at SuperCollector's as QUATERMASS FILM MUSIC COLLECTION (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT / QUATERMASS 2 / QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT) It also has the electronic score. Howard/Hal, remember the Crawling Eye or Attack of the Monoliths?
posted 04-06-2000 12:07 PM PT (US)

Marian Schedenig Oscar® Winner	Speaking of frigthening scenes, the best I've seen so far is at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). (SPOILERS!) At the end, when we don't know what Sutherland is up to, and suddenly he starts screaming like the aliens do. I was so shocked, I really felt like Luke Skywalker when he's told that Vader is his father. I nearly cried "Noooooo". Can't remember the music, though. NP: "Empire Strikes Back" has just stopped.
posted 04-06-2000 12:26 PM PT (US)

Lancelot Oscar® Winner	Wojciech Kilar's "Vampire Hunters" is kind of threatening in a Bolero-kind of way....
posted 04-06-2000 12:32 PM PT (US)

Howard L Oscar® Winner	"Howard/Hal, remember the Crawling Eye or Attack of the Monoliths?" I've only seen teensy-weensy snippets of Monolith Monsters, but Crawling Eye--now THAT'S a true Chiller Theatre classic. Was I glad that they rescued Forrest Tucker just in time. WHEW! Scariest part was when that dead frozen French guy walks in with the alien glare and all. I remember Tucker was in another of those ones that had all these giant insects running loose in the jungle or whatnot. Thanks to that one I got the creeps as a kid whenever I peered into the rhododendron bushes at night. The view matched the celluloid shot TOO perfectly. One thing about them B-movies in the 40s & 50s was that they had a lot of good music. [This message has been edited by Howard L (edited 06 April 2000).]
posted 04-06-2000 12:42 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	Howard L, I never saw THE CREEPING UNKNOWN, but I DEFINITELY remember that "Chiller Theater" logo. "CHIIIIIIIIIII-LLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRR" (plus electronic thingies, oh God that was scarier than half the stuff they actually broadcast.) (That six-fingered hand, snatching up the letters and retreating into the pit! Does anyone have this finest of TV logos on tape?)
posted 04-06-2000 12:44 PM PT (US)

Howard L Oscar® Winner	You probably also remember Creature Features on what was then WNEW-TV channel 5. But that Chiller logo was unforgettable alright. In my mind's eye I can almost see the logo used a few years prior as well, not to mention that weirdo host "Zacherly" that popped in for a spell. Sheesh, this is nuts; I think of Chiller Theatre and Frankenstein's Daughter is practically synonymous with the show. Betcha all the Clevelanders who grew up with "The Ghoul" and his monster show can remember all this obscure stuff, too. [This message has been edited by Howard L (edited 06 April 2000).]
posted 04-06-2000 12:53 PM PT (US)

HAL 2000 Oscar® Winner	I most certainly do remember those. The Crawling eye scared the crap out of me when the the door of the lodge broke open and the big eye was staring in. Funny, there was a short snippet of The Crawling Eye in Small Soldiers when the one eyed Gorgonite is watching TV and one of the other Gorgonites asks "A relative of yours?" I'm not sure if Attack of the Monoliths is the same as The Monolith Monsters. I'm thinking about a 50's B where some strange rocks from outer space tore across the countryside whenever it rained. The would grow up and up and then "Broooom!" fall over and all the shreds would grow and do the same thing. Cool special effects. Was that Hans J. Salter who did the music?
posted 04-06-2000 01:18 PM PT (US)

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