scary music

[Warrior Poet]

It's actually kinda hit or miss. A fair amount of the tracks are more romantic rather than horrifying, although they're kinda melancholically so. And for the love of God, don't play that Annie Lennox song during a game session!

Ah, thanks for setting me straight. It had been a long time since I'd seen the movie, and I thought it had some creepy music, but then, often the music you hear during a film doesn't actually make it onto the soundtrack :\ and I recall laughing out loud fairly often during that particular movie, which is maybe an indicator that the content wasn't as creepy (music included) as it might have been. I think Annie Lennox is cool, but, yeah, now that I recall it, her tune on that one doesn't lend itself to spooky atmosphere.

Joshua Dyal (and the others) know the scoop! They are wise in the ways of chilling haunted sanitarium tunes!

Warrior Poet

 

[kenobi65]

"It's a Small World After All."

On a continuous loop.

With the treble turned up.

Guaranteed insanity within 4d6 minutes.

 

[Ulrick]

"It's a Small World After All."

On a continuous loop.

With the treble turned up.

Guaranteed insanity within 4d6 minutes.

Worst ride at Disney Land EVAR!!!

I friend of mine went through it TWICE because when they got through the 1st time, there was a downpour with hail outside.
---

Anyway, I usually play the Diablo IIsoundtrack.
Some music from Bram Stoker's Dracula works well.
The Thing that Should Not Be from Metallica's S&M album probably would work too.

If things get really crazy in the Sanitarium (bloody fights with eye-gouging fun), play some Rammstein.
Wollt ihr das bett en flammen sehen???!!!

 

[d20fool]

Spooky Greats

I'm surprised some of these haven't been mentioned:

"Prince of Darkness" soundtrack, hard to find (I played my tape to death, and had to get a CD from Europe many years ago) but one of the creepiest soundtracks ever.

Goblin is a European hard rock group that apparently has a few soundtracks under their belt. The one I've heard and loved was for "Suspira" (a 1979 film Dario Argento film.) Very creepy while not being ambient. The heirs apparent of this effort is daemonia at http://www.daemonia.it (which isn't as good, BTW)

Tangerine Dream has a couple of super creepy albums I stumbled upon. Atem and it's sister album Zeit. I cannot recommend these highly enough for creepy atmosphere.

As for Session 9, that movie was so much creepier than Gothika for 10 times less money. Where kind I find the soundtrack?

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Penderecki is instrumental, a modern classical composer. Try his Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima.

Definitely creepy. You can hear it here.

 

[Testament]

If you can find it, the 8MM soundtrack is good as well. Discordant and spine-chilling music.

 

[Cinderfall]

Check this site out.

I did a little bit of lookin' after reading this thread and I found this website. It's called www.darkmusicdomain.com. Did a bit of digging through their "clips" section and found 13 albums I thought would make excellent mood music. Naturally its all dark (i.e. the domain name) and I think may fit the bill. There's gothrock stuff on there but I'm referring to the ambience stuff like Arcana: the New Light and any of the Leviathan albums. Some would work for generic creepiness and some is more cthuluish. There's more but I will let those interested do their own digging. I personally bought eight albums. Prices aren't too bad neither. Good luck!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Very good suggestions here. Let me add the soundtrack to Ravenous.

You can't just put it in the player and play it through. It's got a lot of tracks that are clearly too Old West American to work in a D&D game. If you're willing to pick and choose, however, or even burn your own campaign soundtracks, there are three or four pieces on there that are absolutely horrific. They're moody, they're creepy, and they're just discordant enough to completely convey the "Something is really, really wrong here" vibe.