'Pet Sematary' Soundtrack From 'Helllraiser' Composer Christopher Young Now Available To Stream

Pet Sematary is now playing everywhere, and with it comes a spooky, atmospheric score from Christopher Young. That name will likely sound familiar to horror fans – he composed the music for Hellraiser, along with Sinister, Drag Me to Hell and more. Sometimes, horror movie scores can be a touch generic, relying heavily on loud stings. But Young's Pet Sematary soundtrack bucks that trend, creating a haunting, unsettling soundscape that immediately gives you the creeps. And yes, the soundtrack features a cover of the Ramones Pet Sematary song, because how could it not? Stream the Pet Sematary soundtrack below.

Above, you can stream the spooktacular new Pet Sematary soundtrack. There's nothing better than horror film music that enhances a film's atmosphere without clobbering you over the head, and that's exactly what this score does. Young uses unique techniques to create a genuinely unsettling score that sticks with you long after the movie has ended. "While Church doesn't have a theme as such, I did give him these sonic blobs' that represent it," Young said in an interview. "There's bass bending, like a vomiting bass section sound. It's there somewhat consistently with the cat once it goes evil. Also there's this manipulated cello modified scream that comes from cello, and it has this horrid kind of 'waaaahhh' like a cat scream."

Young also employs haunting vocal selections layered under the music. "I focused on vocal clusters that could be pitched, hummed, or whispered that could communicate the sense of varying levels of uneasiness to outright terror," he said. "I've been a big fan of that cluster stuff that always works well in horror movies. There are some moments that are exclusively voices and that's kind of fun and twisted. I love using the stereo spectrum to have things move around in a way that one could never be done with live musicians, which makes these moments even more effective in the score."

One musical element the original Pet Sematary movie is known for is its theme song, performed by the Ramones. When I caught Pet Sematary at SXSW, I spent the entire film wondering if the Ramones song, or at least a cover of it, would appear in some form. Sure enough, it comes blasting over the end credits, performed by the band Starcrawler.

When I spoke to Pet Sematary directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch, they told me the song almost didn't make it into the movie, but they added it at the very last minute, literally the same week the film premiered at SXSW.

In addition to the soundtrack above, check out a behind-the-scenes featurette on the film below.