While fronting Oingo Boingo in the 1980s, the only party Danny Elfman was affiliated with was the Dead Man’s. But in the 21st century, the composer responsible for adding instrumental chills to Beetlejuice, Tales From The Crypt, and Army Of Darkness has been chilled into political action by a pair of presidential elections. In 2008, he took to the Huffington Post to blog about “our greatest fear,” former vice presidential candidate/forever seer-of-Russia-from-her-house Sarah Palin. And just this past Sunday, the United States’ top importer of creepy choral vocals was confronted with yet another horrifying specter crawling its way toward the seat of power: Donald Trump, who spent his off-mic time during the second presidential debate lurking around the stage, playing an unnerving game of “I’m not touching you” with opponent Hillary Clinton. (Considering the rest of his week, that’s a game Trump could stand to play a little more frequently.)
Danny Elfman’s “TRUMP STALKS HILLARY” from Funny Or Die
As Elfman told Funny Or Die, “Watching Trump lurching behind Hillary during the debate felt a bit like a zombie movie, like at any moment he was going to attack her, rip off her head, and eat her brains.” So Elfman responded the best way he knew how: By composing a score that recasts the debate as a scary movie. Do the screeching strings, percussive thumps, and (naturally) ghostly voices turn the metaphorical horror show into a literal one? To paraphrase one of the things that goes bump in Danny Elfman’s nights: You betcha.