A Dark and Nightmarish Halloween Playlist: 13 Songs of Terror

I love a good, controlled scare. Fear in the protective comfort of my own home energizes me. I can ignore reality’s fears and laugh:

Oh, it’s just a movie. Or a book. Or a dog and not a serial killer in that darkened alleyway.

And October ushers in the spook. Starting on October 1st, I pop in my earbuds and begin a constant listen to my darkest playlists.

Today, I went on a rainy walk under the canopy of crimson, blood orange, and golden yellow tree leaves. A thirty-degree plummet in temperature and thick fog screamed of the season of creep. The entire month of October evokes film noir and thriller vibes. I can’t get into pumpkin spice or cute boots. However, I love sweaters and s’mores. Fireplaces and scary black cats. Give me barren cornfields, apple cider, the smell of smoke pluming from chimneys, a binge of scary movies, and a mysterious soundtrack, and I’m set.

I’ve always set my life to emotion-evoking soundtracks. I have a song mix for every occasion. While internet playlists replace my burned CDs of youth, the love I pour into creating the compilations remains much the same.

I like venturing off the popular, well-lit roads in my playlist music. My Dark and Spooky Nightmarish Playlist is sans “Thriller” or “Monster Mash” and includes only one on-the-nose Halloween tune. But, my song picks still complete the Salem, Stephen King, Vampires and Zombies tone of October.

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A link to the spookiest playlist to satisfy your October needs

1. “Possum Kingdom”—Toadies (Rubberneck, 1994)

“Behind the boathouse

I’ll show you my dark secret…

I can promise you

You’ll stay as beautiful…

Forever.”

–“Possum Kingdom,” Toadies

In the 1990s, the Toadies experienced huge success with college and alternative music listeners. Their album, Rubberneck, reads like a vampire’s love story, like a vampire’s struggle. I’m hard-pressed to pick just one Toadies song for my Dark and Spooky playlist, but “Possum Kingdom” encompasses everything I love about this gothic rock album.

2. “A Rush of Blood to the Head”—Coldplay (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002)

“I’m gonna buy this place and burn it down

I’m gonna put it six feet underground.”

—“A Rush of Blood to the Head,” Coldplay

Yes, Coldplay. Chris Martin and crew get an undeserved bad rap (Leave “Yellow” out of this conversation). They’re phenomenal musicians, but only Nickelback stands above Coldplay’s “Bands We Love to Hate” status. A Rush of Blood doesn’t have a bad track on it.

The title track oozes with quiet rage and spookiness. From the first moment I heard it, I’ve thought it should be the theme song for an edgy zombie-apocalypse film. I imagine listening to it from a tower or rooftop in the middle of a city overrun by the undead.

3. “Jackie”—Sinead O’Connor (The Lion & the Cobra, 1987)

“Jackie left on a cold dark night

Telling me he’d be home

Sailed the seas for a hundred years

Leaving me all alone.”

–“Jackie,” Sinead O’Connor

A haunting, Irish song about tragedy and lost love. O’Connor sings of a sailor’s widow who walks the shores, carving the waves with her tears. Ghostly “Jackie” creeps under my skin with its melancholic heartbreak. This tune will remain on my Halloween playlist for years to come.

4. “Pray (High Valyrian),” Matt Bellamy (For the Throne, 2019)

“We will pray

Pray with, with me.”

--“Pray,” Matt Bellamy

The lead singer of Muse, Bellamy contributed his aching, high falsetto to this track for Season 8 of Game of Thrones (GoT). “Pray” layers in the High Valyrian chants of GoT’s resident cringey witch, the Red Woman. Full confession—the White Walkers scared the hell out of me, and I loved the first three episodes of Season 8. The Night King flashes through my mind’s eye as I listen to “Pray,” and the hair on the back of my neck stands at attention.

5. “Land of a Million Drums,” Outkast (Scooby-Doo soundtrack, 2002)

“In the land of a million drums

There is always something going on, on, on, on

If you can’t locate your thought off

Might as well take your dead home”

--“Land of a Million Drums,” Outkast

Andre 3000 puts a fun spin on spooky lyrics and reps the Scoob in this track from the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie. And what says fun scares and spooky Halloween goodness better than Scooby Doobie Doo?

6. “Apocalyptical,” Puscifer (Existential Reckoning, 2020)

“They won’t believe you until it’s far too late

Be damned, dumb.”

--“Apocalyptical,” Puscifer

This single from the Tool off-shoot’s 2020 album first hit my ears after Puscifer, Tool, and A Perfect Circle lead singer, Maynard James Keenan, landed in the hospital with COVID-19. Keenan has publicly discussed the severity of his pandemic bout and his struggles with “long haul” illness. He almost didn’t make it through.

Keenan’s vocals always whisper supernatural scares into my ears. And, while somewhat on-the-nose, “Apocalyptical” proves an anthem for the pandemic and Halloween alike.

7. “Two Heads,” Coleman Hell (Coleman Hell, 2015)

“She said our love ain’t nothing but a monster

Our love ain’t nothing but a monster with two heads”

--“Two Heads,” Coleman Hell

“Two Heads,” the debut single from Canadian musician Coleman Hell, makes me want to dance. And my dancing always induces screams of terror. This track lays the banjo track down hard. Banjos will always elicit memories of Deliverance for me. I love the upbeat nature of the tune, framed by forlorn lyrics and banjos aplenty.

8. “I See Fire,” Ed Sheeran (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smog, 2013)

“Oh, misty eye of the mountain below

Keep careful watch of my brother’s souls”

--“I See Fire,” Ed Sheeran

I betray my closeted nerdy nature by including the closing credits song from The Desolation of Smog, but it’s worth the ridicule. I cannot get enough of this song. Sheeran’s vocals start against a barren wasteland, and the spook factor is high. I’ll take “I See Fire” on any foggy day where the wind whispers of a foreboding future. Halloween is the perfect time for Sheeran’s pop departure.

9. “Shadowplay,” The Killers (Sawdust, 2007)

“To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank

Waiting for you”

--“Shadowplay,” The Killers

I may lose all music appreciation credibility by stating this, but I dig The Killers version of “Shadowplay” more than the Joy Division original. The chaotic instruments and Brandon Flower’s frenzied vocals earn this a spooky staple on the Halloween playlist.

10. “Atmosphere,” Joy Division (Substance, 1988)

“Don’t walk away

In silence

See the danger

Always danger”

--“Atmosphere,” Joy Division

Before lead singer Ian Curtis’s suicide in 1980, Joy Division stood ready to take on the post-punk world. “Atmosphere” was released as an A-side single in 1978 and haunts modern listeners too. Curtis conveys haunting angst like no one else—save Leonard Cohen. In recent years, “Atmosphere” has found its way onto a Stranger Things episode because, alas, it’s a creepy tune! Perfect listening sustenance for the Halloween beginner and ghost hunters alike.

11. “A Nightmare on My Street,” DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper, 1988)

"He comes to me at night after I crawl into bed

He's burnt up like a weenie and his name is Fred!"

--"A Nightmare on My Street," DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

The only popular, mainstream track to hit my Halloween playlist, “A Nightmare on My Street” bleeds with late-1980s culture. For those too young to remember, Will Smith was once a part of a rap duo where he received second billing. And one spooky Halloween season in the late 1980s, he rapped a kitschy masterpiece. “Nightmare on My Street” samples voice clips of Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street. If I listen with friends, I laugh at the rap. But alone in my darkened room? It kinda scares me.

12. “Double Trouble,” Frog Choir and John Williams (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban soundtrack, 2004)

“Double, double toil and trouble

Something wicked this way comes”

--“Double Trouble,” Frog Choir, composed by John Williams

This eerie tune from the Harry Potter franchise includes the lyrics “something wicked this way comes”—from the opening chords, the song points toward all things Halloween. And besides, John Williams is the best film composer of the last fifty years. He deserves a shout-out on any playlist.

13. “Psycho Theme Song,” Bernard Herrmann (Psycho re-released soundtrack, 1988)

“Kill kill kill kill

Die die die die”

--Anyone who has ever put lyrics to the Psycho compositions

The terrifying, jarring chords here prove the tune’s Halloween worthiness. No one of any generation can hear these notes without seeing Anthony Perkins attacking Janet Leigh in the shower. The “Psycho” theme will forever remain associated with sheer terror and murder.

My Graveyard Smash Playlist deserves to play in haunted houses and Halloween graveyards across the world. This playlist excludes the ubiquitous pop songs played at every fraternity Halloween party as partygoers ingest hard grain alcohol and punch mixes. However, it exudes eeriness and scares. I hope you’ll enjoy these haunted tunes. Happy Halloween! Mwahahaha.