It is that time of year again—spooky season. This is when more people are likely to watch horror films back to back. In fact, these movies dominate conversations on social media for the whole month of October.
While it might seem unlikely, the Pop Icon Taylor Swift can actually have a place in spooky season as well. There are a few horror films out there that make us think of the prolific songster.
Even if the songs themselves don’t hold the same vibe as the films, they might contain a lyric or two that makes us think of these big scares. Come on a journey with us through horrors, blood, and catchy tunes.
Without further ado, here are our picks for 15 Horror Films as Taylor Swift Songs.
1. Halloween – Right Where You Left Me
For a movie about a man obsessed with his sister, Right Where You Left Me is a song that thematically matches that energy. After all, Taylor Swift sings about how sometimes a devastating breakup can make your life stagnate.
Who is Michael Myers, if not someone whose life never left that moment in time when he killed his sister as a child? As a grown man, he escapes the sanitorium where he was kept most of his life to seek out his remaining family members.
Halloween fully encompasses this song because Michael Myers is abandoned by the ones supposed to love him, causing him to spend the rest of his existence wanting to do nothing more than seek revenge.
2. Scream – I Can See You
While Taylor Swift’s vault song, I Can See You, is very lighthearted about a crush, it still manages to make us think of the cult classic slasher Scream. After all, Ghostface is all about watching people—most specifically Sidney Prescott—without being seen.
Think about it: This movie franchise wouldn’t work if the masked killer in each film didn’t have a bit of an obsession with someone. So, taking this song to an extreme level, we come face to face with Ghostface’s motivations—no matter the film from the franchise.
Is there a more iconic line than “Hello, Sidney?” Is there a more iconic feeling than getting a call from an unknown number, feeling like you’re being watched?
3. Caddo Lake – No Body, No Crime
The newest horror film on this list, Caddo Lake, tells the totally twisted tale of a town plagued by a problem most of the residents aren’t even aware of. Little wormholes through time can trap particular people, causing confusion for them and frustration for their loved ones left behind.
No Body, No Crime is about a person thinking their best friend has been murdered by her husband and then seeking justice by doing the same to the husband. While this film doesn’t exactly follow that narrative, there is a vibe about missing people that fits well enough to remind us of this song.
What really brings this song to mind is Dylan O’Brien’s character disappearing from his timeline, unaware that he has a daughter, which causes his girlfriend to think he abandoned her.
4. The Conjuring – Look What You Made Me Do
Remember how we mentioned that some of these films would simply connect to a song based on a single lyric? The Conjuring is one such film.
While Ed and Lorraine Warren are investigating the strange happenings at the home in question, for the first film in the franchise, one of the ghosts states, “Look what she made me do.” This particular ghost mutters this phrase multiple times, which gets stuck in our heads.
This alone will make any Taylor Swift fan start belting out the lyrics to Look What You Made Me Do. Ultimately, it’s a very thin connection, but one strong enough to evoke the feeling with just one line.
5. Insidious – Seven
Some of Taylor Swift’s songs unintentionally give off an air of spookiness. Such is the case with Seven, which talks about childhood and innocence but has a few moments where listeners are reminded that sometimes childhood is traumatizing.
The lyrics, “And I’ve been meaning to tell you/I think your house is haunted,” come to mind as we watch the events of Insidious unfold. Here, we have a young child who’s come in contact with a horrible entity, causing him to astral project himself to a place called The Further while his body appears to be in a coma.
Dalton reminds us of this song because, at first glance, it feels as though it is his family’s home that is haunted, not him. Then, the next moments of the song, when connected to his film, make us think about how Dalton has to fight to return to his family where he belongs instead of staying with the demonic spirits and letting them take over.
6. Carrie – Who’s Afraid of Little Ole Me
If there was ever a horror film to fit the vibe of Taylor Swift’s declaration that she shouldn’t be underestimated in Who’s Afraid of Little Ole Me, it would be Carrie.
Think about it: The story of Carrie is about a girl who is bullied to the point of enacting a violent revenge plot on her bullies. Her classmates look at her and see only someone meek and mild, very similar to how some of Swift’s adversaries see her.
In the end, neither Carrie nor Taylor Swift should be taken at face value. And you definitely don’t want to be on the bad side of either woman.
7. Misery – The Tortured Poets Department
Once again, this one is more tongue-in-cheek than actually meeting the song at the vibe it presents at face value. After all, the film Misery is all about a deranged fan kidnapping and holding her favorite author hostage while torturing him in an effort to force his hand.
The Tortured Poets Department is a song in which Taylor Swift reflects on her time with an ex who thought he was all that because he did things non-scholarly people didn’t. It’s a great tune and has memorable lyrics that actually tie in pretty well with Annie Wilkes’s unstable psyche.
Overall, this song and film match-up is centered on creative types and how either they (the song) or someone else (the movie) make things unbearable and show up on the twisted side of normal behavior.
8. The Cabin in the Woods – Are We Out of the Woods
If comparing Are We Out of the Woods to The Cabin in the Woods seems a bit on the nose, it’s because it is. Sure, both have woods in the title, but the comparison goes beyond that.
The song relays a message of perseverance through tough times, aka the woods of life, while the movie is about literal horrors being perpetrated at a home in the middle of a dark, scary wood.
No one wants to be caught in the woods with a killer, let alone our own thoughts. This is why these two pair perfectly together. You can very easily imagine each character trapped in the cabin thinking the lyric: “Are we out of the woods yet?”
9. Violent Night – Tis the Damn Season
At first glance, people might think that this match-up is merely because of the titles alone. However, Violent Night fits the vibe of Tis the Damn Season almost perfectly.
Sure, it’s not about past loves coming back together during a holiday visit back to their hometown. However, the film does involve a family that has come together at their compound for the holidays only to be held hostage and subjected to violent acts.
We can’t help thinking of this song anytime we watch this Christmas horror film because the family gathered together gives off a nostalgic vibe. If the film had used this song from Swift, we wouldn’t have been surprised in the least.
10. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – Death by a Thousand Cuts
Every Taylor Swift fan knows how to sing Death by a Thousand Cuts at the top of their lungs whenever they are brokenhearted or sad. So, naturally, it becomes a bit funny when paired with the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, one of the goriest slasher films in horror.
There is just something silly about thinking of this song as we watch the group of friends run for their lives from the horrors of Leatherface. We imagine the titular line as we watch the killer use a chainsaw on each of them in turn, making the movie less scary and more entertaining.
At the end of the day, this list is meant to be fun and this particular entry is proof positive of that.
11. A Quiet Place – You Need to Calm Down
One of the most unique horror films to date has to be A Quiet Place because of the premise that the entity trying to kill them can’t sense them if it can’t hear them. Therefore, the vibe and lyrics of You Need to Calm Down are a perfect match for this silent adventure.
Sure, the most obvious connection comes from the lyrics, “You need to calm down/You’re being too loud.” However, the song overall could easily be about the Abbott family and their current predicament.
After all, the song is about the singer wanting someone who doesn’t know them or respect them to back off. That could easily translate to an unwanted entity trying to destroy the Abbotts, and so they are forced to live in silence while the entity gets to be as loud as it wants.
12. I Know What You Did Last Summer – I Bet You Think About Me
A group of kids kill someone and hide the body only to be reminded of it a year later? I Know What You Did Last Summer is easy to tie in with another one of Taylor Swift’s vault songs based on the very nature that someone is always thinking of this crime.
I Bet You Think About Me is from the singer’s perspective about an ex who’s moved on but acts like they haven’t. And what is this iconic 90s horror film, if not something similar?
The man stalking and hunting down each of these teens hasn’t stopped thinking about what they did for a whole year. And instead of being normal about it, you know, by reporting it, he takes his obsession to another level and starts killing them.
13. The Silence of the Lambs – …Ready For It?
For The Silence of the Lambs, we make the connection to Taylor Swift based on a few lyrics instead of the song as a whole. After all, at face value, people might not understand the connection between Hannibal, Clarice, and …Ready For It?.
The opening line of the song states, “Knew he was a killer first time that I saw him.” Any casual fan of horror will know that Clarice spoke to Hannibal from his jail cell, having already been convicted of murder.
Another lyric that comes to mind while watching this film is, “I-I-I see where this is gonna go.” Beyond that, the song isn’t really tied to the story of this film, but we felt it connects strongly enough with just these two lines we’ll let it count.
14. Final Destination – The Story of Us
At the heart of the first two Final Destination films are Alex Browning and Clear Rivers, who find love after narrowly surviving a plane crash while they are in high school. These two know they are living on borrowed time during the first film as they watch the other survivors die off one by one.
Then, somewhere between the end of the first and the start of the second, Alex’s life ends, leaving Clear alone and out of her mind. This is where the song The Story of Us fits in perfectly.
Swift’s song is clearly about the end of a relationship that the singer wasn’t ready to say goodbye to. In relation to the film, we can hear this song as we watch Alex and Clear get closer while also knowing their love only has one ending—tragedy.
15. Saw – Dancing with Our Hands Tied
A movie about people being captured, tied up, and forced to play a sinister game that only ends in death? There is only one song from Taylor Swift that could fit the bill, Dancing with Our Hands Tied.
Again, this song is lighthearted, fun, and filled with love. However, the lyrics still relate to the Saw franchise, earning this match-up a spot on our list.
Sure, we all love the romantic visuals of two people in love dancing together as if there is nothing else in the world they can do. However, when we consider Jigsaw and his devious plot, the song becomes a bit darker, which makes us love it for another reason.
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What Taylor Swift songs and horror films would you pair up? Which ones were your favorite on our list? Sound off in the comments below.
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Mads Misasi
Mads is a part-time entertainment journalist and full-time marketing content creator. They love reading the latest in Queer novels -- especially romance ones and watching the latest dramas, sci-fi/fantasy, Star Wars, and romcom films/TV shows. You can join the conversation by following them on Twitter: @dorothynyc89.
