If horror games should be scary, then they definetly need a good soundtrack. But what makes a great horror soundtrack, beyond the obvious BRAAMs, violin effects, and perhaps a bit of sound effects?
Apparently, there are many answers to what makes a good horror game soundtrack truly unnerving; a labour of love to convey terror, dread, claustrophobia, what have you.
Here are six games that easily get the dark recipe for a good soundtrack right:
Resident Evil Requiem (2026)
The soundtrack for the ninth game in the Resident Evil franchise is also one of the most hotly debated ones, with folks arguing about originality vs objectivity.
Though the game's soundtrack for Leon's sections seem to be heavily 'inspired' from previous games, other tracks, such as save room scores and Grace's sections are much more dynamic and experimental, and fill you with a mix of awe and dread.
It is also almost impossible to dislike Through the Darkness, which comes at the end, and effortlessly blends the old-school Resident Evil ambience with a modern rhythm.
Still Wakes the Deep (2024)
One of the biggest influences in this title from The Chinese Room is H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror, and yet, there is a powerful thread of hope that runs through the soundtrack that is otherwise extremely eerie.
Perfectly complimenting the claustrophobia that you often feel while playing as electrician Cameron "Caz" McLeary aboard an oil rig in the 70s, the score also makes good use of custom-made metallic sounds to grip you as powerfully as the author's books can.
Silent Hill 2 (2001)
Konami's classic survival horror cannot be summed up as campy: its dark ambient synths form an image of what James Sunderland's journey through Silent Hill feels like, even when you aren't actively playing the game.
In a very Twin Peaks-esque manner, you also get a lot of distorted riffs and emotional layers in the score that give you such a sense of nostalgia, but also a heavy hopelessness, which are other reasons why composer Akira Yamaoka is famed to this day.
Mouthwashing (2024)
The score for this underrated PS2-style survival horror from Swedish company Wrong Organ is scary for a reason: it burrows into your head and stays there for a good while after you finish a day's worth of playing the game.
Even the more hauntingly beautiful tunes in the game feel like mercy sometimes, when you come across more unnerving ones that also add to the impact of the foley sounds to evoke a nightmare on screen and in your head. But hey, Wrong Organ did warn you; they did "hope it hurts"!
Dead Space (2008)
Composer Jason Graves lives up to his surname with the score for EA's game, which is at most times nightmare fuel for only those ears that can take the grotesque thing it is.
Mirroring Isaac Clarke's slow descent into madness aboard the USG Ishimura, the atonal score is an improvised blend of disembodied voices, pulse-pounding percussion, layered brasses, and heartbeats, leaving you wondering if it was really Isaac going crazy, or yourself.
Bloodborne (2015)
Being one of the only soulsborne games from the veteran developers at FromSoftware to have a proper live orchestra behind its score, its no wonder that Bloodborne has one of the most memorable scores in gaming.
While the soundtrack is limited to ambient music—that still hits deep—and sound effects, it is the boss battles where the orchestra rises to its full power, throwing at you unnerving choral music, a mix of instruments that keep going crescendo after crescendo, and whatever dark essences they could find to build something transcendental, strange, and terrifying.
