Songs I Love From Movies I Watched During Scary Movie Month

 by Adam Riske

Some spooky tunes to blast during your Halloween parties.

Song: “Cat’s Eye”
From: Cat’s Eye
Artist: Ray Stephens

A few songs on this year’s playlist (including this one) came up as “No Result” when I tried to look them up on the Shazam app. That’s how obscure I roll. Cat’s Eye is a horror anthology with all good segments and is slowly becoming an October staple for me. I love it and the film capping off with this anthem over the end credits is a great sendoff. I like how the song starts off with musical meows immediately followed by Ray Stephens COMMITTING. The inclusion of this song is also an apology to one of the kids in my family who asked me if I preferred dogs or cats, and I said dogs without hesitating and then they were like “So you hate cats?” and I said “I don’t hate them. I’m just not a cat guy” which only made things worse.

Song: “The Monster Squad Rap”
From: The Monster Squad
Artist: The Monster Squad



I recently rented a theater for my friends and I to watch The Monster Squad & Killer Klowns from Outer Space (I’m not bragging, it’s context for the next sentence). When we walked into the theater to watch my Blu-ray (see…. I wasn’t bragging) the menu screen was up, and this song was playing in theater quality sound. It made me walk into the theater with dare I say swagger which I have in short supply outside of October. I was thinking “Man, this song rules…is it better than 'Rock Until You Drop?'” I love the keyboards; I love that the lyrics read like a to-do list & I love that ‘80s rap mostly sounded like The Super Bowl Shuffle.

Song: “Fall”
From: Phantoms
Artist: Attention Earth

This is a cover of “I Fall to Pieces” by Patsy Cline that I just like in a Sirius XM Lithium kind of way. It plays over the end credits of Phantoms, which is not a good movie but not a terrible movie like I heard it was the past 26 years (this was a first-time watch for me). I was pleasantly surprised that Ben Affleck (SPOILER) survives and isn’t killed off after 30 minutes as his “and” credit would suggest. I can’t tell if I like the harmonica in this song. It either takes things up a notch and/or nearly ruins the song.

Song: “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”
From: Shaun of the Dead
Artist: Ash



My rewatch of Shaun of the Dead this month made me really appreciate the soundtrack. I especially liked “Mister Mental” by The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen, “The Gonk” by Herbert Chappell and this song which reminds me of a Tokyo Police Club tune. That will make sense to maybe one person reading this. I’m not that adventurous about music but I rest my hat in knowing who Tokyo Police Club is. Is Chris Martin from Coldplay singing the title? It sounds like him. I could probably Google it, but I don’t care that much. Never mind, I do care. I checked and it’s him.

Song: “Blood on White Satin”
From: Smile 2
Artist: Skye Riley (Naomi Scott)



The biggest surprise of October for me is how great Smile 2 is. I love pretty much everything about it. It’s intense, it’s extremely well-made, it has a terrific lead performance by Naomi Scott and it has a banger soundtrack. The movie is about a cursed pop star and guess what? Most of the pop songs, including this one, are terrific.

Song: “Death of Me”
From: Smile 2

Artist: Skye Riley (Naomi Scott)



More Skye Riley! This song plays over the end credits and between how good the movie and the music were, I was ready to run through a wall in excitement as I left the theater.

Song: “New Brain”
From: Smile 2
Artist: Skye Riley (Naomi Scott)



Eh, what the hell…why not one more Skye Riley track? I think I understand now how Josh Hartnett’s daughter in Trap felt about Lady Raven.

Song: “The Way of All Flesh”
From: Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
Artist: Jim Manzie



The Music Box of Horrors (a 24-hour annual horror movie marathon in Chicago) was held last weekend and I’m bummed this is the first year since 2006 (not counting 2020 when the fest was shut down due to COVID-19) that I missed it. It was especially tough because they played one of my favorite horror movies (Tales from the Darkside) on 35mm. The problem was it played at 3:55am! I’m too old to be up that late so I watched the movie again from home and noticed 10 seconds of this song that plays on Christian Slater’s stereo during the “Lot 249” segment. It’s pure late '80s-early '90s cheese and I love it thus its inclusion here. LIKE FIRE & ICE!

Song: “Win in the End”
From: Teen Wolf
Artist: Mark Safan



For a movie as light as Teen Wolf, it didn’t need a song that goes this hard. This should be in a Rocky movie. Or Vision Quest at least. Why are the basketball players so sweaty in Teen Wolf? Michael J. Fox looks like he’s more on drugs in this movie than he did in Bright Lights, Big City and I would know because I’ve seen the latter more times than anyone else in the world. BTW…thank you Rosalie for buying me the BLBC soundtrack on vinyl recently! You’re a 10/10 friend.

Song: “Don’t Wanna Be Yours”
From: Trap
Artist: Lady Raven (Saleka)



I couldn’t leave Lady Raven off my list! This is my favorite of her songs from Trap (one of my favorite movies of the year and one that was even better on re-watch). This song is crispy.