Horror movies that use 'Dies Irae' as theme music
Has anyone ever counted the number of supernatural or macabre films that use all or part of the medieval plainsong known as the Dies Irae for atmospheric theme music? I find it fascinating the hold this piece has on filmmakers' imaginations.
In order, the titles I'm aware of, are:
Carl Dreyer's 1943 Danish film Day of Wrath, based on a play that was itself based on a true event in Norwegian history, of a young pastor's wife blamed for the death of her husband, and executed as a witch. This Dreyer film uses the tune as title music and has two scenes where the boys' choir is rehearsing it and then singing it while an old woman is being burned at the stake; a truly horrifying scene. It comes again at the end, in a muted, faraway performance. This is the first use of the piece I know of.
It is used as title music and throughout for the 1958 Return of Dracula, though played much faster than usual. Arranger Gerald Fried obviously felt it was appropriate to the spooky story being told. It is also used to good effect in The Screaming Skull, another low budget horror movie from 1958.
It appears almost subliminally in the final credit music of the 1960 Horror Hotel/City of the Dead, which deals with witches surviving into the Twentieth century.
The final, and best known use that I know of ,is in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining from 1980, where it is used very slowly and ominously as the opening title theme.
Anyone else know of other movies where it is used? What do you think about this music and the strange attraction it has for the listener? I suspect it's a combination of the solemn associations of the medieval Catholic funeral mass origins of the piece, combined with its ominous sound and the association with frightening movie subject matter. Dreyer's use of it is probably authentic, in that he shows the young wife of the pastor unnerved by hearing the boy choir rehearsing the number, and asking why the choir master wants them to learn that particular piece. She is appalled to learn that they will be performing it as part of the witch's execution. It is quite shocking to hear the high, sweet voices of young boys singing this song of doom, while an old woman burns at the stake, circa 1600 in Denmark. The ghastliness is further emphasized by having the execution take place on a beautiful day in spring or early summer, outside the church, with the respectable people of the town looking on approvingly, and the unnamed historian of the events writing admiringly of what a fine execution it was.
And when he crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him