Halloween is just around the corner, which gives us all the more reason to listen to some of our favorite spooky tunes. Here are some songs from the 90s that still give us a scare.
“Burn” by The Cure
“Burn” is an epic song that was written by The Cure for the 1994 film The Crow. The movie itself follows a story of vengeance. Basically, the plot of the film is that a gang murders a rock musician, Eric Draven, played by actor Brandon Lee. The power of a mystical crow resurrects him, and he seeks payback against those who wronged him and his fiancée. The crazy thing about this movie is that The Crow was actually Brandon Lee’s last film; he died during filming. The movie grossed almost $100 million and was even rebooted in 2024, in a version that stars Bill Skarsgård as Eric.
“Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie
“Living Dead Girl” appears on Rob Zombie’s Hellbilly Deluxe album. This song is pretty much Halloween-themed; it even references several classic horror films.
Cyclone Jack
Hallucinating hack
Thinks Donna Reed
Eats dollar bills
Goldfoot’s machine
Creates another fiend
So beautiful
They’ll make you kill.
“This Is Halloween” by Danny Elfman
“This Is Halloween” always feels nostalgic around this time of year. Appearing in the 1993 film Night Before Christmas, “This Is Halloween” was written by Danny Elfman. The song plays an essential role in the film. It serves as an introduction piece for the characters and the movie’s setting.
“Zombie” by The Cranberries
If you know it, you probably know that “Zombie” isn’t actually a scary song for the reasons that seem obvious. “Zombie” was written about The Troubles, a period in Irish history when unionists and nationalists were fighting over Ireland’s independence. This led to a series of bombings, including one that occurred in an English town in March of 1993 that killed two children. Delores O’Riordan was compelled to write this song after that event.
“…There were a lot of bombs going off in London and I remember this one time a child was killed when a bomb was put in a rubbish bin – that’s why there’s that line in the song, ‘A child is slowly taken’,” she told Songwriting Magazine. “We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing…”
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