Sweet Dreams of Marilyn Manson

I have never been a fan of Marilyn Manson but I will admit to liking a few of his songs… mostly his cover songs. The one song that I really enjoyed would be the cover to the awesome song by Eurythmics called “Sweet Dreams.” That version of the song has been used countless times in several horror movies as well as thrillers. But, I think the only reason why this song makes it into the horror realm is because of Manson’s appearance and show and the way the song sounds… which is fine, but many times it just seems out of place. However, there are two movies that use this song to their advantage and they are House on Haunted Hill and Trick ‘r Treat.

 

Let’s first look at House on Haunted Hill: the song was used when Mr. Price was shredding Evelyn’s guest list to make his own and then that fades into a montage of all the black Sedan’s with everybody inside looking over their invitations. In real-time, this song doesn’t make sense but I think it foreshadows what will happen. The song itself, from how I interpreted it, is a grim look into the dream world and how anything is possible… even the most twisted and sickest of things. It is possible that you can compare the dream realm with the Vannicutt’s institute in which they are both surreal and they both had psychotic things happen inside of them. That may be looking too deep into the song and the premise of the movie but it a plausible argument, who am I to disagree?

 

Not let’s look at the scene from Trick ‘r Treat when the attractive young girls tear their skin off revealing that they are werewolves only to devour the men that they lured into their little campfire. Much like the way House on Haunted Hill used “Sweet Dreams,” Trick ‘r Treat enhanced that dream element to the song. Once the opening of the song starts playing you already know shit is coming to a boil and then when the transformations start all you, as an audience, can do is watch in awe and if you were really there, all you can say is: ‘it’s only a dream.’ You never see it coming and this is exactly what the song says… anything, no mater how horrifying or crazy it seems, can happen in dreamland

All in all, I am not complaining about the song or even some of the movies that have used the song, I just did a little post on the two movie that actually used the song to their advantage rather than using it because it sounds cool. It does get a bit tiring to hear this song in either trailers or other movies but I can manage that. I think I even heard the song in the trailer for Dark Asylum, which is too funny. It just proves that with a little imagination you can really make this song scary.