10 Grisly Horror Movies With Surprisingly Beautiful Music Scores

Composers: Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn

Listen To: "Boyd's Journey" and "Trek to the Cave"

Ravenous is a classic. It's one of the most underrated, genre-defining movies out there with a soundtrack to match its insane personality.

Frontier life is harsh, but having to contend with wintery storms, starvation and cannibals nipping at your heels makes it unbearable. So goes the plight of Boyd (Guy Pierce before he was a name) and his reluctant will to live in a war (and world) he'd rather not be a part of.

Michael Nyman has a body of work that's covered numerous genres over many a decade (and can even be heard in an arthouse porn) but Ravenous, to this writer, is his most defining composition. Working with Damon Albarn (yes, the very same musician of Blur and who would form The Gorillaz years later), the two cooked up a hearty, healthy soundtrack that is almost incomparable to any horror film before or even after it.

Playing to the same twisted sensibilities of the multi-structured storyline, the tracks vary from hokey and playful to downright terrifying. As the movie becomes more serious in its approach to cannibalism (because it should always be seen as a joke?), a handful of later tracks become downright unsettling.

The enigmatic finale is preluded by a wonderfully disturbing song entitled "Saveoursoulissa". The near eleven-minute song is a morbid slow burn that eventually turns into a ruthless interchange of chanting and harsh tribal beats that'll leave unprepared listeners a bit shaken once the last cry is belted out.

But for all those that need a little spice to their meal, there are always moments like "Boyd's Journey" and "Trek to the Cave" which are not only lively, unique and enduring, but the latter is downright awe-inspiring--even for those unaccustomed to the horror territory... that is until it's climax takes a sudden, string-gouging decline into musical havoc.

Do yourself a favor and take a bite out of Ravenous.