ABSTRACT
In this chapter four contemporary horror films such as Fallen (1998), Final Destination (2000), 1408 (2007) and Deliver us from Evil (2014) are used to demonstrate how pre-recorded songs create a leitmotif which symbolises imminent death and horror. The chapter addresses the ways in which preconceived musical and lyrical contexts can act to unsettle the audience when the songs are re-contextualised in a horror film. The characters within these films fear death as they do not know how they will die, when they will die and what will happen to them after they die. This fear of the unknown linked to death is something that the characters and audience share. The songs in these horror films are not the standard composed scores you will find in films directed by Alfred Hitchcock (composed by Bernard Herrmann) or the perhaps obvious choice of heavy metal music that provokes and reinforces themes of fear and demonic happenings, as in Hellraiser.
