I had the pleasure recently of editing a trailer (in my day job as editor / animator) for a fantastic Blu Ray / LP forthcoming from one of my favourite bands ,The Damned.

It's a record of their gig at the Palladium from 2019, A Night of 1000 Vampires, and mixed a terrific set byThe Damned with a horror circus and some Hammer glamour.. as Graham Humphreys had done the poster, I was lucky enough to go to the aftershow party and spend the evening with Caroline Munro and Pauline Peart... what a night!  It is a fantastic gig, Dave Vanian has never sounded better and you can buy various versions, Blu Ray, CD and LP here.  But it got me thinking how tied up popular music is with horror.   The Damned themselves, memorably appeared in The Young Ones, singing 'Nasty' and appeared alongside  The Cramps (The Surfin' Dead!) on the soundtrack to Return of the Living Dead (one of Graham's great 1980s posters). The Damned also have the great track 13th Floor Vendetta, which has more than a few nods to Dr. Phibes.  Last night, I saw Bauhaus at the Brixton Academy, and they memorably appeared in The Hunger performing the goth anthem, Bela Lugosi's Dead.  

Souxie and the Banshees memorably closed out the latest Stranger Things series with the classic 'Spellbound', the Scream series wouldn't be the same without Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand' and The Ramones did not want to be buried in a Pet Cemetary. John Carpenter sneaked in The Blue Oyster Cult's 'Don't Fear the Reaper' into Halloween (and their icon into Prince of Darkness) and used The Chordettes 'Mr Sandman' to great effect in Halloween II.  Alice Cooper, who memorably killed someone with a half bicycle in Prince of Darkness, gave us '(He's Back) The Man Behind The Mask' (and others) for Friday 13th Part VI, Motorhead covered the Ozzy Osbourne track Hellraiser for Hellraiser III and Rob Zombie's Living Dead Girl opened Bride of Chucky.  By the mid eighties Argento's films were splattered with gore and some rock music, tbh much of it not really suitable.  Phenomena features tracks my Motorhead and Iron Maiden, but in all honesty, I'd rather listen to Simonetti's excellent score.  The Demons soundtrack probably worked better, with Motey Crue and Billy Idol blending into the fun splattery spectacle.  

More recently, Jordan Peele used Luniz "I got 5 on it' and The Beach Boys 'Good Vibrations' in Us, the old time classic by Kitty Wells 'Open up Your Heart' was used in The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and The Pixies Where Is My Mind? popped up in Malignant ...  And look, I haven't even mentioned Tubular Bells!