BDR’s Top 5 Horror Movie Music Videos
A long-lost art form; the music video was the reason you stayed up all night watching MTV. Some of the videos on this list would only be played around Halloween time. In some cases, the videos were only on copies of the VHS of the movie in question. Each of these videos are directly tied to a horror movie, which was the main criteria for this particular exercise.
For example, I wanted to add Thriller to this list because it’s THE BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME however it’s not from a movie so I couldn’t include it. Let’s begin!
5. “Fright Night” – J. Geils Band from Fright Night
One of the better vampire movies from the 80’s, Fright Night had a lot going for it. Awkward 80’s fashion, one of the most annoying yet oddly endearing best friends ever, and some surprisingly decent makeup work (the werewolf sequence is great). Roddy McDowell as Peter Vincent is one of my favorite vampire hunters in all of film, and Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed gives one of the best line deliveries of all time that Ceej and I still quote to this day.
Side note: Evil Ed went on to become a porn star in films such as: Guys Who Crave Big Cocks, Mechanics bi Day, Lube Job bi Night and Cock Pit. I wonder if he’s ever seen Happy Scrappy Hero Pup?
In between all of this the studio figures what better way to sell the soundtrack and the movie than to have the J. Geils Band rock out with their song: Fright Night (Hey, it’s the name of the movie!) It’s actually catchy as fuck. If you’re a fan of Fright Night then you should pick up some sweet merch such as a shirt or hoodie by clicking on the image below!
4. “Are You Ready For Freddy” – The Fat Boys from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
Of course The Fat Boys would be on this list. How could I not include the stars of the comedy classic Disorderlies? The reason this song is one of the best of all time is for the simple fact that Robert Englund raps on it. He would have made a killer addition to Wu-Tang. The laughs don’t stop as the band tries to spend the night in Prince Markie Dee’s “Uncle Frederick’s” house to earn his inheritance. Of course it sounds like an easy way to make some fat stacks of cash, however Freddy shows up and when he’s not slashing at them with his claws, he’s throwing down dope rhymes such as:
You see my name is Freddy and I’m here to say
I’ll wrap you up and take you all away!
So if you feel like you’re tired and ready for bed
Don’t fall asleep or you’ll wake up dead!
It’s also strange that the fattest of boys reference kills/characters from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 but not A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 as this song was included on latter’s soundtrack. It all smells like a cash grab instead of art to me but once again: ROBERT ENGLUND RAPS A VERSE ON THIS.
3. “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)” – Alice Cooper from Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives
One of the only legitimate music videos for the Friday the 13th series, Alice Cooper does his best to make Jason rock. If I’m going to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of Alice Cooper except for his stints in Wayne’s World and Freddy’s Dead, but the fact is this is one of the few music videos involving Jason which means it had to make this list. It also helps that the music video is ridiculous and has Alice be the one “behind the mask”. He makes the least scary slasher of all time. It’s also filled with staples from metal videos in the 80s: women in cages, scary chairs of doom, and leather codpieces. All of that being said, this track is catchy as hell.
2. “Hellraiser” – Motörhead from Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth
Of course Pinhead would love Motörhead. This track comes from Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth which is, unfortunately not the best entry in the series. However, it did give us the CD Cenobite and Camera Cenobite and I still think those are rad designs if only because I have bad taste. Clive Barker directed this video and it has Lemmy playing poker with Pinhead. Forget the Lament Configuration, the movies should have been all about Pinhead killing poker players across the country. I kind of wish Clive was testing the waters with that idea and it just didn’t float. If that’s not the best thing ever, I don’t know what is. RIP Lemmy.
1. “Dream Warriors” – Dokken from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Hell yeah, another entry from the Nightmare series! Not only is Dream Warriors the best Nightmare movie, this video is one of the best music videos for a horror movie. It not only tells a cohesive story (Kristen being menaced by Freddy before Dokken drives him off with the power of rock and high-pitched singing) it had a ton of new footage shot for the video that helped it seem like it directly fit in to the movie. Most music videos just had “best of” clips (see the Alice Cooper video above) but this had Patricia Arquette reprising her role as Kristen and Robert Englund as Freddy that ends with Freddy waking up holding a doll (yes, Freddy sleeps with a doll, so what?) exclaiming: “What a nightmare! Who were those guys?”
HONORABLE MENTIONS
I picked the top 5 due to the fact that they were all from some of my favorite horror movies as a kid. That being said, the ones below should NEVER be discounted. I just couldn’t justify them in being in the top 5. In the case of Fresh Prince, I wanted to put it in the top 5 but it technically wasn’t an official song as The Fat Boys song ended up being picked over his.
“Ghostbusters” – Ray Parker Jr from Ghostbusters
Huey Lewis rip off be damned. This is still one catchy song and who doesn’t love random celebrity cameos?
“Ghostbusters” – Run DMC from Ghostbusters II
Not as good as the Huey Lewis rip off but it’s Run DMC. ‘Nuff said.
“A Nightmare on My Street” – D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
Remember when Will Smith was a rapper? I do. This song was supposed to be on the soundtrack for A Nightmare on Elm Street 4 but the studio decided against it and then sued them for copyright infringement and made them destroy a music video for the song. Their loss. This is much better than the Fat Boys song that ended up on the soundtrack in my opinion.
“I’m Awake Now” – Goo Goo Dolls from Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
Yet another entry from the Nightmare series. The movie that was supposed to be an amazing send off for my favorite slasher ended up being a giant joke instead. It didn’t help that they decided to use the Goo Goo Dolls for their big “hit”. I hate this band. So much. This is a terrible video for a terrible band. Was it all a dream? Who cares. CUT YOUR HAIR HIPPY.
“What If?” – Creed from the movie Scream 3
The band that dickheads from the late 90’s early 00’s loved! I don’t know anyone who enjoys Scream 3. It’s a tad better than Scream 4 but that’s like saying Revenge of the Nerds 3 is a tad better than Revenge of the Nerds 4. We all know the original movies in both series are the MVP. At least we get a cameo appearance from David Arquette. Too bad the band members don’t actually die though.
“Deepest Bluest” – LL Cool J from the movie Deep Blue Sea
The best line in the whole song is one that still gets said in my household even today. “My hat is like a shark’s fin…” Yep. A ridiculous song for a ridiculous movie.
We hope you had fun reading this as much as we had fun coming up with our list. If you enjoyed this article please make sure to share it with your friends via Facebook or Twitter!
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