Theme Song Of Our Lives

Recently Fearnet published a list of their top 10 horror movie musical themes- usually shown during the opening credits, these are generally grim and creepy. They're meant to be unsettling, kind of getting the audience in the mood for some scary stuff about to happen. Among their ten were a few of my own favorites- the Candyman theme, titled "It Was Always You, Helen". Kind of a creepy yet sad theme, it's supposed to capture the sadness and sense of loss that defined the Candyman character- kind of a guy who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances, and tries to make the best of it. He'd rather become a monster, it seems, and live on in remembrance of the woman he loved and lost than face fading away into just a memory. The theme itself is reminiscent of a music box, bringing to mind nostalgia and a sense of things preserved and kept hidden away.

Also making the cut (pun intended) was the Hellraiser theme- this time, the focus is on secrets, the things we don't show to the world. And this really is the driving theme behind the monsters and their purpose, although perhaps the real monsters are the characters- those people so desperate to cure their jaded sensuality that they would welcome the Cenobites with open arms. The Cenobites, of course, cannot and do not harm people without deep dark desires- in one of the movies they completely bypass the person who actually opened their doorway and instead target the person whose desire actually brought them. This really was the underlying horror of this movie. The short story this is based on actually goes a step further- one of the first people to solve the puzzle to bring the Cenobites spends months studying and unraveling the mysteries that surround this puzzle box, and even sets up a kind of twisted altar to welcome them, collecting sacrifices for these beings. Again, who's the monster here?

There was, of course, the Reanimator theme- almost a march, but kind of sinister- things are slightly off here, perhaps expressing the noble ends of science being corrupted- the plot of this movie centers around a medical student who becomes obsessed with his own genius, and the method he devises for chemically reanimating the recent dead. Of course, brain damage sets in very rapidly after a person dies, as the body and nervous system are first damaged as the brain sucks oxygen from the extremities in order to keep itself alive. The brain is always the last thing to die, and once the oxygen runs out, the higher brain functions slowly deteriorate. (I think it's considerably less time than the 6 or so minutes they harp on in the movie, but I'm not sure). At any rate, the result becomes something much like the idea behind Frankenstein- creating life where there should be no life.

This seems to be a common theme of horror films. and perhaps reflects an underlying human condition. We spend most of our time living in a predictable, sane world. Horror comes from the unknown- the things we can imagine and don't see are what frightens us- not what is there, but what could be there. Horror involves a normal situation turned strange- the rules we live by and that govern our universe no longer apply, and everything becomes strange and alien. I've long thought that a part of this is healthy- exploring the things that scare us- what we can name, categorize and understand ceases to frighten us. What we can't name, can't account for or understand- these things frighten us more than the threat of death or suffering. But really, this is just the tip of the iceberg- I've always thought that what scares us is not the movie- that we know even when the monster jumps out at us and we jump, really we're safe in the theater, perhaps reaching out to grab the arm of a significant other, or sitting in our living room, knowing that once the movie's over, it's back to the real world.

Life is, to a large extent, predictable. It's when we move from predictability to unpredictability and strangeness that we really get scared. Maybe that's why we all need a good comfortable scare now and again- it keeps us on our feet, makes us grateful to be safe and alive, and puts us in touch with the unknown that seems to lurk on the outskirts of our awareness.

I think H.P. Lovecraft is one of the great horror icons because of this reason- he created a world where our lives are essentially meaningless- there is no good or evil, just power and hunger. Hunger is the driving force behind his gods- Cthulhu doesn't care about us, doesn't love us, we aren't his special creation- we're cattle, useful only as a diversion or food. What we thought we knew isn't true, life actually is meaningless, and our paranoia is perfectly justified. We may not be the center of the universe, but at least we can become aware of our place within the greater sphere of things. I doubt that outer-space immortal squid-bat-humanoid beings lived on the planet, and are entombed deep in the ocean- but given our limited knowledge of the afterlife, and so much we don't know, who can say? It seems possible that whatever higher powers there are are more or less neutral- it's your life, you do what you want with it.

At any rate, enough rambling on for tonight. Tomorrow starts another work week, with a whole lot of not much contained in it. I'll be humming horror themes all week- whatever gets you through the day.