Halloween is fast approaching, and people everywhere are getting in a spooky mood. From watching horror movies like the upcoming Halloween Kills and revisiting classics like The Exorcist to going out shopping for costumes, everyone has a unique way of enjoying the Halloween season.
Music is another way of setting a spooky mood; fortunately, several choices fit the spooky season perfectly. These music videos rank as some of the best, and they relate to Halloween almost perfectly. Besides being incredibly catchy and entertaining, they can also be creepy and even disturbing and make great companions for any Halloween occasion.
This Is Halloween - Brojen Peach
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a staple of the spooky season. The beloved movie tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of the easter-egg filled Halloween Town, who stumbles upon Christmas Town and becomes obsessed with celebrating the holiday.
The opening song from the movie, the spooky hymn "This Is Halloween," has been covered multiple times. Broken Peach's rendition of the song is the perfect mix of sweet and creepy, with the band in skull makeup performing the song in a forest. It's a brilliant adaptation of the song, and a very fitting video for any Halloween event.
The Time Warp - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Speaking of beloved cult classics, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is another solid choice for any Halloween party. The movie follows an unassuming couple, Brad and Janet, who find themselves in Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle and fall prey to his seductions.
Rocky Horror is one of the most famous musicals to feature and celebrate diversity. It features a colorful and eccentric cast of characters who get to shine in one of the show's most iconic numbers, "The Time Warp." The song would be the perfect way to animate any Halloween party. After all, it's just a jump to the left and then a step to the right.
Disturbia - Rihanna
It's been years since Rihanna released new music, and her fans are starving for some content. In the meantime, they can go back and revisit her old hits, the music that first made her a star such as "Disturbia," an electropop song taken out from her hit album Good Girl Gone Bad.
The song deals with themes of anxiety and confusion and features an appropriately creepy music video set inside a surrealistic, circus-like asylum. In one memorable shot, Rihanna uses lenses that make it look as if her eyes rolled to the back of her head, giving the video the eeriness necessary to become a Halloween standard. The song was also featured alongside the 2007 Shia LaBeouf vehicle of the same name.
Bury A Friend - Billie Eilish
It wouldn't be a stretch to call Billie Eilish one of the most successful singers of the new millennium. The singer is already a seven-time Grammy Award-winner with a hit record and multiple Top 10 singles at just nineteen. She's also one of the most distinctive artists around, with a unique visual and sonic tone.
Eilish's best attributes are in full display in her music video for "bury a friend." She sings from the POV of a monster, asking the listener, "why aren't you scared of me?" The video's visuals are perfectly in tune with the lyrics, featuring scenes of people sticking needles on Eilish's back, Eilish hiding under someone's bed and watching a man sleep, and walking down and eventually floating in a dark corridor.
Heads Will Roll - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Queen of Hearts is one of pop culture's most underrated villains. Her trademark phrase "off with their head!" was further popularized by Disney's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and was the basis for the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2009 hit "Heads Will Roll."
The song is famous for its lyrics, involving several repetitions of the phrases "off with your head" and "dance till your dead." The video features the band singing before an audience while a werewolf dances towards the stage, which is reminiscent of Michael Jackson. Eventually, the werewolf kills the audience and the band, but Karen O keeps singing. That's commitment!
Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
She Wants Revenge's chilling song, "Tear You Apart" features prominently during the introduction of Lady Gaga's Countess, one of the best female characters in American Horror Story. The lyrics tell a story of young love, where the boy desires the girl to the point where he wants to "tear (her) apart."
The music video, directed by Hollywood's ultimate outsider Joaquin Phoenix, plays like a silent movie and follows a young couple attending a school dance. Things quickly go south when she reveals a secret, and he's unable to cope with it. The story is simple but incredibly unnerving, and it goes perfectly with lead singer Justin Warfield's distinctively eerie voice.
Everybody (Backstreet's Back) - Backstreet Boys
The Backstreet Boys are one of the most iconic music acts of the 90s. Thanks to hits like "I Want it That Way" and "As Long as You Love Me," the band became idols for millions of teenagers. One of their first hits, the impossibly catchy "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" also became a Halloween staple thanks to its now-iconic music video.
The six-minute clip features the band becoming stranded in a seemingly haunted castle. Each member plays a classic movie monster, filling the video with an inescapable sense of camp and Halloween fun. Nowadays, the clip is fondly remembered for its dynamism and choreography, and it remains a staple in most Halloween party playlists.
Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
Kennedy William Gordy, better-known as Rockwell, is a musician, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence during the early 80s. His most successful single, "Somebody's Watching Single," remains a classic tune for the Halloween season.
The song, which features Micahel Jackson in the chorus, talks about a man who feels seen and followed by an unseen character. The video features Rockwell being haunted by a series of monsters and ghouls while inside a house. Thanks to its ridiculously catchy hook and a hilariously creepy video that captures the best of the 80s aesthetic, "Somebody's Watching Me" is the perfect choice to animate a Halloween get-together.
Ghostbusters - Ray Parker
Ghostbusters is a classic that still holds up to this day. The film follows a group of parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. Ghostbusters remains one of the most influential movies ever and is a staple of many people's Halloween celebrations.
The iconic tune of the film, sung by Ray Parker Jr., matches the film's popularity. The video features plenty of celebrity cameos, including Danny DeVito, Carly Simon, and the Ghostbusters themselves, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis.
Thriller - Michael Jackson
The indisputable song for Halloween remains Michael Jackson's "Thriller." The tune, which premiered in 1984 as the seventh and final single for Jackson's album of the same name, earned the singer a Grammy Award for Best Video Album.
"Thriller" redefined the concept of the music video, turning it into an event in and of itself. The thirteen-minute short features iconic shots of Jackson dancing with a horde of the undead and a spoken sequence by horror legend Vincent Price. "Thriller" remains influential to this day as an ever-present representation of the very spirit of Halloween.