A friend of mine recently saw the new Harry Potter movie, and was surprised to hear that the soundtrack featured a song by Nick Cave. Slightly grim, though I think this is actually the least horrifying song by Cave that either of us have ever heard, but it’s got me thinking—can anyone suggest any other scary/horrifying/disturbing songs that made it onto the soundtracks of a family or a kids’ movie?
Maybe a song that sounded good out of context, but really had distressing lyrics or a story behind it; or one that was used for a genuinely serious turn in the story. Or even a song written specifically for the film that ended up being creepy—like a straight-out villain song, or even a “normal” musical number, but one modern audiences would find objectionable.
I’m sleepy, and I skipped dinner, so I’m having trouble thinking of good examples to start with—actually, Disney’s “Hellfire” comes to mind, but that’s about it. Anyone else?
A very bitter and cold song… in the first Shrek movie. They used the John Cale version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” - I don’t recall how many verses were in the film, but it uses the Samson and Delilah imagery to essentially describe her breaking his will, and this interpretation follows in later verses like, “Love is not a victory march; it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah,” or “all I ever learned from love was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.”
It’s used in a very sad scene, but this is not a song that offers hope, at all.
Probably a debatable topic for another thread, but I would have a hard time calling The Deathly Hollows a family/kids movie. I think it rightly deserved the PG-13 rating it has.
I’m not sure if it’s the kind of “horrifying” that you’re looking for, but Dr. Terwilliger in Dr. Suess’s The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is the most paedoriffic antagonist to ever grace a kid’s movie.
Check out Doe-me-doe Duds, in which he prepares to greet his 500 indentured children.
