Total Eclipse of the Heart: The Horror History of An Iconic Pop Song
Chad Collins
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Music has always been instrumental to the success of the horror genre. From the inimitable scores of John Carpenter, Bernard Herrmann, and Mike Oldfield (though he is reportedly disappointed with how his work was used in The Exorcist) among many others, there are instrumental pieces that are as much the movies themselves as, well, the movie. Carpenter’s dissonant 5/4 theme for Halloween isn’t just the franchise’s signature piece; it is the franchise itself. Yet, for as noteworthy as these works are, there’s another, less appreciated component of music the horror genre: the use of licensed tunes.
The Conjuring made eerie, terrifying use of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk” and last year’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City displayed giddy self-awareness with Jennifer Paige’s “Crush.” Genre staple The Shining is as much known for Al Bowlly vocals during “Midnight, the Stars and You” as it is bloody elevators and axes through bathroom doors. Less acclaimed though no less impactful is the use of Bonnie Tyler’s goth-punk sensibilities, notably her gritty, gravelly, lovelorn vocals on “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” has been licensed frequently, including stints in both Bandits and an episode of Modern Family. Though objectively, its best uses have been in two slashers that couldn’t be more distinct: Urban Legend and The Strangers: Prey at Night. In Jamie Blanks’ Urban Legend, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” grounds what is arguably the movie’s most effective scene (and we’ll be seeing that again).
Urban Legend
Pendleton University student Michelle Mancini (Natasha Gregson Wagner) is driving during a rainstorm when she stops for gas, just as Tyler’s Number 1 hit starts playing on the radio. Chucky the Killer Doll himself (Brad Dourif) tries to warn Michelle about something, though she evades capture and speeds away in her car. Sucks because, well, there’s a killer hiding in her backseat. Barreling down the road and blasting the lyrics—“Turn around, bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart”—Michelle is startled by a figure in the backseat. Swiftly, she is decapitated, shattered glass on the road, Tyler’s distant vocals slowly fading away.
There’s nothing sensational, so to speak, about Blanks’ use of the song. But 24 years after release, it’s a classic sequence within the subgenre. Though the movie itself is a conspicuous Scream riff (though a very good one), its Tyler-set opening is devilishly playful and nostalgically fun. It’s hard to think of backseats, or Tyler’s classic, the same way again.
The Strangers: Prey at Night
Twenty years later, workmanlike creator Johannes Roberts did what he does best. What he lacks in considerable vision, he more than makes up for in guileless innovation and quality returns. 47 Meters Down and the aforementioned Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City aren’t classics, but they’re fun for what they are. With his sequel to Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers, though, he and Bertino devised a visceral, bloody way to make use of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” While the entire soundtrack is sensational—the final scene, though incredulously crafted, works because of Air Supply—it’s the scene set to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” that elevates the entire enterprise.
Power is restored to the trailer park’s pool just as Lewis Pullman’s Luke is attacked by Pin-Up Girl (Lea Enslin). He successfully kills her, though as soon as he does, Damian Maffei’s masked killer appears with an axe. The entire sequence is set to Tyler’s song, with it blaring over the pool’s speakers as Luke and his assailant wrestle around the floor. Soon, they’re thrown into the pool, fighting over a knife, with Roberts shifting the diegetic sound in and out of focus as Luke and the killer shift between under the water and its surface. It’s a gangbusters scene, with Roberts topping an already exceptionally deployed licensed soundtrack encompassing Carpenter’s own score to The Fog and murder by way of Kim Wilde.
Vampires In Love?
Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is, without a doubt, the slasher genre’s pop-rock anthem, a fact further confirmed by its inception. Writer Jim Steinman originally wrote the song for a Nosferatu musical. A self-described “fever song,” it recounts a person totally (hence the title) eclipsed by love, and in its original form, according to Playbill, it was titled “Vampires in Love.” Which is to say, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” is a horror-tinged power ballad, a song both born of the genre and right at home in it.
While other genres dabble in juxtaposition or finding the perfect song to augment a scene, licensed music is at home in the horror genre. The disparity between familiar music and ungodly horror remains unmatched, and perhaps chief among them is Tyler and Steinman’s own vampiric love song. “Total Eclipse of the Heart” didn’t just eclipse the singles chart; it eclipsed an entire genre.
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