Our pick of the scariest film scores ever for Halloween .

The soundtrack of a film is vital to creating atmosphere, and, more importantly now that it’s Halloween (despite what your Instagram feed told you over the weekend), fear. Whether it’s warbling synths in Mr John Carpenter’s score for Halloween, or Mr John Williams’ genius two-note piano motif in Jaws, music and trepidation are indelibly linked. This month sees the release of Mr Thom Yorke’s soundtrack for the reimagining of cult masterpiece Suspiria. To celebrate, we take a trip through the cinematic archives to bring you the soundtracks that really put the frighteners on us.

Directed by Mr Alfred Hitchcock Music by Mr Bernard Herrmann

American composer Mr Bernard Herrmann’s score is a nerve-wracking listen, which is exactly what you want from music for a film called Psycho. The film came out in 1960 and it was game-changing. The main character is killed one-third of the way through, switching the focus of the narrative from the victim to the murderer. As Norman Bates pulls back the shower curtain and goes at Marion Crane in that scene, the music mimics the downward slashes of the knife. What made the scene so effective and memorable was the fact that – unusually so for a thriller at this time – the score only utilised the string section of the orchestra.

Directed by Mr Steven Spielberg Music by Mr John Williams

Set on Amity Island, a fictional resort town in New England where the balmy days of summer are suddenly shattered by a gargantuan great white shark attacking beachgoers, Jaws was a watershed moment in cinema. It was ground-breaking in that it contorted ideas of summer and holidays, never again to be seen as a time of simple pleasures and calm. The film’s killer wasn’t a person but a shark, which was bolstered and immortalised by Mr John Williams’ simple two-note repetition (“dun-dunn”, “dun-dunn”), mimicking both a heartbeat and the footsteps of a stalker hunting their prey. Cinema and summer holidays were changed forever on the basis of two simple notes. Mr John Williams, now 86, went on to score all manner of blockbusters – from Star Wars to Jurassic Park.

Directed by Mr William Friedkin Music by Mr Jack Nitzsche

When 12-year-old Regan starts acting particularly out-of-character after using a ouija board – levitating and speaking in tongues, for example – Lieutenant Kinderman is brought in to investigate, alongside Father Karras. It is deemed an exorcism is needed. The film was famous for its “cursed set” when the toddler son of one of the actors was hit by a motorbike and hospitalised. The music came late in development, and almost by accident. Director Mr William Friedkin scrapped the original score by Mr Lalo Schifrin and while at a meeting with Atlantic Records stumbled across Mr Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. The piano section of “Part One” became the title track. Mr Jack Nitzsche was responsible for getting all the sounds right for the film – from the howls of Regan during the exorcism scene, to his own experimental piece of music “Crystal Glass And Voices”. The result is a haunting, visceral soundscape unlike any other.

Directed by Mr Dario Argento Music by Goblin and Mr Dario Argento

This November sees a remake of Suspiria hit cinemas by director Mr Luca Guadagnino, the filmmaker also behind Call Me By Your Name. In the meantime, why not revisit the original? The film follows a student at a haunted dance academy in Berlin – leading to predictably eerie goings-on. The remake is scored by Radiohead’s Mr Thom Yorke and features his vocals – but the original was quite different. Italian prog-rock band Goblin scored the film’s soundtrack with a particularly demonic sequence that unnerved and unsettled viewers with its use of synth. It has since been called a masterpiece.

Directed by Mr David Lynch Music by Mr David Lynch, Mr Fats Waller and Mr Peter Ivers

Mr David Lynch’s first feature-length film was particularly surreal, even for him, involving the main character Henry discovering that his wife has given birth to a half-lizard, half-rabbit chimera that he must care for. As if that wasn’t enough, the film involves a lady who lives inside a radiator, a man who lives inside a planet fiddling with levers, and Henry’s body-horror baby made up of what appears to be roadkill. There are technically four pieces to the soundtrack, “Side A” (20 minutes long), “Side B” (18 minutes) then “In Heaven” (one minute 38 seconds) and “Pete’s Boogie” (three minutes 58 seconds). They are industrial, ratchety tracks, filled with insistent noise and haunting organ music. Fitting, then, for the film’s setting, which seems to be an industrial wasteland.

Directed by Mr John Carpenter Music by Mr John Carpenter

On Halloween 1978, a 21-year-old Michael Myers manages to escape from a prison van, steals a car, and returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, a place where aged six he brutally killed his 17-year-old sister. Myers stalks Laurie Strode and friends, picking them off one by one. It was the film that made the name of Ms Jamie Lee Curtis, and spawned a franchise for Michael. Unbelievably, it took director Mr John Carpenter just three days to come up with the soundtrack. A creepy mix of piano and synth, it perfectly encapsulates small-town suburban claustrophobia. Yet another sequel to the original film, starring Ms Jamie Lee Curtis once more, is in cinemas now.