Okay, this is just cool.
We never really noticed it before, but some of the most memorable themes in horror films and TV shows are — not surprisingly — composed and performed in a minor key. As the guys over at THe A.V. Club reminded us, it was NIgel Tufnel of SPinal Tap who called minor “the saddest key.”
So imagine what it would sound like it the themes from, say, The Exorcist and The X-Files, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Saw, and even Halloween — maybe the most boring and yet ominous score in horror-dom — would sound if played in a major key. Would it really matter?
Boy, does it matter. Only one of these manages to sound even remotely spooky anymore, and a couple of the others would barely quality for 1970’s sitcom.
How weird. Nigel Tufnel was right. Check it out:
