Want to Make Your Haunted House Scarier? Add Music

Chris Thomas‘obsession started five years ago when he went to theLos Angeles Haunted Hayride. He was new in town, looking for something to do, so hechecked out all the local spookfests — and there are a lot of them. The Hayride, he thought, “was just unbelievable. I loved it. I just had one beef with it: they had this minute-and-20-second-long synth-y loop, playing over and over and over through the park. They had a hotline that I called, and I said, ‘Hey, love your attraction, but it was undercut instantly by this terrible music.’ And I get this call a couple weeks later from the owner of the park, saying, ‘Hey, are you the guy who called and complained about the music?'”

“When everyone’s hitting the beach, I hole up in a little room and write music for three months. It’s the best.” — Chris Thomas, composer

Thomas happens to be a composer for film and TV, and he got a gig writing music for the Hayride — possibly the first original score for any haunted attraction. And he’s beendoing it ever since. For the Hayride’s journey through Hell on a flatbed truck, Thomas’ score acts like an invisible choreographer, setting off the scares. Twisted calliope music releases monsters from their cages, shredding guitars send demons streaking towards you, and an ominous swell of strings raises towering crows on stilts that swoop low, flapping their wings just above your head.

Hear Chris Thomas’ music below.

No pipe organs or screaming cats here; Thomas wants to bring the sophistication of horror movies into live-action haunted houses. “One of my closest mentors and my composition teacher [at University of Southern California] was Chris Young, who did theNightmare on Elm Streetmovies,Hellraiser,Drag Me to Hell— he’s the king of Hollywood horror. He happened to be assigned to me when I was studying film music. We ended up being a great match.”

In recent years, Thomas has seen requests roll in from all over the country for original soundtracks. But it’s not just business for the composer: he attends as many as ten Southern California haunts a week every October. Last year, he taught a composition seminar at theWest Coast Haunters Convention. There, he met a 14-year-old named Sam who had taken over the family driveway to run his own haunt full-time. Thomas was so charmed that he offered to write the kid a score, pro bono. “I just absolutely love to be doing this,” he says. “The moment summer hits, while everyone’s out hitting the beach, I hole up in this dark little room here and just sit up writing scary music for three months. And that’s the best.”

(Originally aired October 24, 2014)

Visit a haunted house scored by Chris Thomas:

• Knott’s Scary Farm(Buena Park, CA)
• Chambers of the Mausoleum(Glendale, CA)
• Preston Castle (Ione, CA)
• Drunken Devil (Los Angeles, CA)
• Los Angeles Haunted Hayride(Los Angeles, CA)
• Scarywood Theme Park(Athol, ID)
• New York Haunted Hayride (New York, NY)
• Nightmare NYC(New York, NY)
• Manormortis(London, UK)
• Screamland (Margate, UK)
• Evermore Pumpkin Fest(Pleasant Grove, UT)
• Haunted Nile(Seattle, WA)

Playlist: Chris Thomas’ Spooky Compositions