The clear moment of shift for ‘Tiptoe Through The Tulips’ is its inclusion in a memorably chilling scene from 2010 supernatural-horror Insidious. How did the song switch from charming to terrifying? When Tiny Tim covered the song in 1968 on his ukulele, mimicking the sickly-sweet style of the 20s with his falsetto voice, he was admittedly seen as something of a comedic novelty, but audiences found him charming and endearing. The original 1929 version, made popular by jazz crooner Nick Lucas, sat atop the charts for ten weeks as nothing more than a charming love song. Interestingly it was never meant to be heard this way. His cover of the 1929 hit ‘ Tiptoe Through The Tulips ’ has become a go-to “creepy” song, soundtracking countless posts on unsolved mysteries, unexplained occurrences, ghost-hunting or even horror makeup tutorials. Perhaps this is because often once a song is well placed in a horror film it transforms forever – the flip from harmless to terrifying can be as simple as one good scene.Ĭhances are if you’ve been anywhere near TikTok in the last few years, you’ll be familiar with Tiny Tim.

What’s harder to predict are the pre-existing musical elements that weren’t originally written for horror, never conceived to be scary, which nonetheless become unnerving cultural touchstones. We think of terrifying, influential scores like Psycho or even modern twists like Midsommar with its sense of unease amplified by its seemingly upbeat score.

When we think of music in horror there are plenty of touchstones stabs of strings, ominously building drones, sing-song voices and maniacal laughter.

Make It Music by Everly Lucas