Once again, it's that spooky time of year - and to prepare you for the scares ahead, here's 2019's Gigantic Horror Sound Effects Guide:
To help you find just the horror sounds you need, we've spent hours listening to what's out there, and have compiled this huge overview of horror SFX libraries, organized by category.
We've also highlighted the newest horror libraries out there, what's on sale and what's popular - and to get you in that scary zone, we've compiled an overview of the sound stories behind 12 blood-curdling horror movies for you. Happy listening!
Horror Sound Effects Libraries – By Category:
Ghosts & Hauntings:
Need the sounds of ghosts, spirits, demons and hauntings? These libraries are for you:
Ghosts
'Ghosts' by
Articulated Sounds gets you haunted sound effects and soundscapes, all spatialized in Ambisonics, Surround 5.1, and stereo.
Cinematic Horror
'Cinematic Horror' by
BOOM Library is a terrifying collection that was co-produced by Hollywood horror master Richard Adrian (credits:
Gothika, Ghost Ship, and House Of Wax to name a few!).
Asylum
'Asylum' by
Epic Stock Media has horror sounds inspired by Hollywood hits like
The Conjuring, The Exorcist and
The Shining to present to you a hair-raising sound library.
Tension
'Tension' by
SoundMorph is a collection of atmospheres, drones, musical sound design, dark noise, and distortion created by sound designer Charles Maynes and composer Jason Payne.
Paranormal
'Paranormal' by
Glitchedtones gets you a comprehensive collection of scary sounds, including some frightening ghostly whispers and lots more.
WAP_DIGITAL SCREAMS
'SWAP_DIGITAL SCREAMS' by
MatiasMacSD offers a different take on human screaming, with digital processing to give these an otherworldly, haunting ring.
Cinematic Darkness - Bundle
'Cinematic Darkness - Bundle' by
BOOM Library is the 4th installment in the CINEMATIC series, giving you dirty blasts, scary drones, digital glitches, synthetic screams, disturbing stutters, and creepy noise!
Bloody Nightmare
'Bloody Nightmare' by
SoundMorph is a modern horror cinematic collaboration between sound designers Gilles Prevel and Real Cardinal and SoundMorph that's aimed to cause visceral moments of terror and dread!
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Dark Drones:
If you want to create an unsettling, ominous mood and atmosphere, these drones and ambiences are designed with exactly that in mind:
Sigil - Dark Electro-Acoustic Textures
'Sigil - Dark Electro-Acoustic Textures' by
Noise Jockey Sound Design is a unique library of dark, gritty, raw, and eerie textures and tones made from one-of-a-kind handmade electro-acoustic instruments and found objects.
Warped Choir
'Warped Choir' by
Unidentified Sound Object crosses the border between music and sound design with a wide range of meticulously crafted stereo and 5.1 surround sound elements ready to be pumped in your trailer, video game or other audiovisual projects.
Dark World Vol. 1
'Dark World Vol. 1' by
Alexander Gastrell is a collection of 50 drones and moods that blur the lines between score and sound design to create tense, beautiful, and eerie moods.
Cloud Piano
'Cloud Piano' by
Cordovan Music, LLC has drones and textures created solely with a 1950s Cable upright piano for low, dark, pulsating, and high, shimmering, otherworldly, tonal sounds.
Inner Ambience
'Inner Ambience' by
Protosfx has stereo contact ambiences each with its own unique character and natural frequency modulation.
Twisted Zither
'Twisted Zither' by
RDGsoundFX features recordings of an old zither being plucked, scraped, hit, and shaken.
Doom Drones
'Doom Drones' by
SoundMorph contains eerie, atmospheric field recordings, drones, and backgrounds perfect for your David Lynch-inspired films and ambient music productions.
Bowed Cymbals
'Bowed Cymbals' by
Tonal Gurus has the hauntingly beautiful tones of a bow on bronze that will put your audience on the edge of their seats.
Industrial Terror
'Industrial Terror' by
PM:SFX is a collection of dark, distorted, rumbling, ear-piercing, evolving industrial impacts and whooshes that are designed to unsettle.
Performed Orchestral Percussion
'Performed Orchestral Percussion' by
Sound Mind – Michal Fojcik delivers a striking range of strange, scary drones and moods, all captured from orchestral instruments.
Industrial Terror
'Double Bass Sound Effects' by
Sonicsalute features a rich number of eerie, strange moods and atmospheres from a double bass.
Spring Box
'Performed Orchestral Percussion' by
hzandbits gets you shrieking, droning, scraping metallic sounds – made by bowing a steel spring bolted to an empty steel enclosure.
Metal Atmosphere
'Metal Atmosphere' by
Mindful Audio is a collection of contact microphone recordings of wire fences vibrating in the wind that range from 1 minute to over 10 minutes in length.
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Gore & Carnage:
If you’re after the sounds of gore, carnage, blood gargling and other gruesome sounds, check out these libraries:
Bones & Blood - GORE Elements
'Bones & Blood - GORE Elements' by
Articulated Sounds brings malleable horror and gore materials for sound designers with extensive organic variations.
Melee
'Melee' by
Rock The Speakerbox lets you bring your fight scenes to life with jaw-breaking action and raw, unbridled violence in 1,596 construction kit sounds and 288 designed sounds.
Gore Toolkit HD
'Gore Toolkit HD' by
Soundopolis is a collection of over 815 gore sound effects with punches, bone breaks, blood spurts, flesh movement, chewing, tearing, blade sounds, and more!
Just Gore
'Just Gore' by
SoundBits has over 820
gore-geous bone-breaking, blood-soaked, sliced and diced sound effects for your horror films, monster movies, thrillers, slashers - what have you!
Cinematic Gore
'Cinematic Gore' by
The Sound Keeper delivers more than 600 sounds of blood spurts, bones breaking, flesh tearing, stabbing, sawing, and more in a brutally effective collection.
Bloodbath
'Bloodbath' by
PM:SFX gets you 360 carefully designed gore sounds with visceral stabs, chops, blood drips, skinning, slicing, gushing, impacts - certainly lives up to its name!
Gore
'Gore' by
SoundMorph has over 825 sounds of bloody impacts, splatters, and sharp weapons created in collaboration with AAA game sound designer Michael Leaning.
Bones n’ Flesh
'Bones n' Flesh' by
JMV is a great selection of gory sounds with bones breaking, cracking and crunching, flesh ripping, different kind of stabs, and many other disgusting sounds.
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Human horror:
Want screams of terror? These libraries provide plenty of blood-curdling screaming:
Screams & Shouts 2 - Humans
'Screams & Shouts 2 - Humans' by
SoundBits brings you over 1,200 cries of pain, disturbing screams, grunts of anger, and sounds of struggle from people of all ages.
Screams & Shouts
'Screams & Shouts' by
SoundBits features 873 screams, shouts, moans, grunts, and hisses from female and male humans, zombies, monsters, and creatures.
Scream Collection
'Scream Collection' by
Bottle Rocket FX gets you a collection of 441 vocal effects, ranging from startled gasps to all-out screams.
Stethoscope
'Stethoscope' by
ShapingWaves has the gurgling and murmuring of digestion, the beating of a heart, blood rushing through vessels, and respiratory sounds from lungs.
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Foley:
If you’re after sounds of things that go bump in the night, sinister creaking and squeaking, monster footsteps and more, these libraries will help you out:
Squeaks and Creaks Two
'Squeaks and Creaks Two' by
RDGsoundFX is a big collection of squeaking and creaking sounds from metal hinges, garage doors, office chairs, rusty ladders, wooden floors, styrofoam, running shoes, and much more.
STOMPS - Creature Footsteps
'STOMPS - Creature Footsteps' by
Bonson are footsteps like you've never heard them before! With more than 8,500 files, it will boost your creativity and help you add monstrous footstep sounds to your new project.

STOMPS - Creature Footsteps
BonsonWood Creaks
'Wood Creaks' by
Jordan Fehr FX is a collection of sounds from old wood floors, boards, steps, and more, recorded in old (possibly haunted) houses in Central Ohio.
Abandoned Doors
'Abandoned Doors' by
SKYES Audio has over 1,400 sounds recorded in abandoned mansions and houses with unique sonic characteristics from within their rooms and hallways.
Unsettling Creaks and Squeaks
'Unsettling Creaks and Squeaks' by
SoundBits features over 1,000 sounds of creepy and unpleasant squeaking and creaking, and it's a great starting point for designing a vast number of different soundscapes.
Falling Objects
'Falling Objects' by
SonicSalute has drop sounds from a variety of locations including closeup interior recordings, off-screen impacts, grainy debris in large halls, and "next door" room recordings.
Old Cottages
'Old Cottages' by
Sound Mind – Michal Fojcik brings you lots of creaky wood, bolts, old doors and much more.
Castles
'Castles' by
Sound Mind – Michal Fojcik also gets you sounds of old, abandoned places - and ups the ante by including screams captured in an authentic medieval torture chamber.
Haunted Doors
'Haunted Doors' by
PM:SFX is a collection of 209 old door creaks, knob twists and turns, rattling, squeaking, opening, closing, locks, bolts, and more!

Haunted Doors - Designed and Source
PMSFXShakes and Rattles
In
'Shakes and Rattles' by
Antisample, you will find various objects being shaken in multiple ways, organized so they begin with short shakes and progress toward medium and longer shakes.
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Weather & Eerie Ambiences:
Need the sounds of dark, stormy nights, howling winds and rain pounding the windows – or simply the subtle eerie ambiences from spooky locations? Have a listen to the selection below:
Howling Winds - Interior
'Howling Winds - Interior' by
hzandbits has highly expressive, sometimes vocal and violent gusts of wind, squalls of rain, and sleet - as heard from within the safety of a home.
High Desert Thunderstorms
'High Desert Thunderstorms' by
Thomas Rex Beverly has the vast, beautiful crackling of Southwestern summer thunderstorms with physically and emotionally immersive rumbles.
Nature’s Fury: Rain, Wind, Thunder
Whether you need light rain ambiences or heavy rain with howling winds and rumbling thunder,
'Nature's Fury: Rain, Wind, Thunder' by
Soundopolis has you covered.
The Drip
'The Drip' by
SonicSalute delivers a comprehensive set of dripping sound effects captured by a variety of microphones by Telinga, Sennheiser, and Emesser.
Wind In Broadleaf Trees
'Wind In Broadleaf Trees' by
Lydtopi is a collection of soothing, tense, and dramatic broadleaf wind sounds that were recorded in a Swedish forest in October.
Eerie Forest
'Eerie Forest' by
Mindful Audio is a collection of subtle ambiences recorded at night in dense forests in the regions of Transylvania and Moldova, Romania in Spring and Autumn.
Rain Indoor Ambiences
'Rain Indoor Ambiences' by
Borg Sound contains various types and intensities of rain, from soft dripping to downpours, recorded inside two greenhouses, two cars, a privy, a shed, a boathouse, and a variety of rooms.
Wind Elements - Interior
'Wind Elements - Interior' by
hzandbits is an interior wind collection with violent blasts and howling, gentle, caressing wind, sleet and rain, the cracking and creaking of window frames and roofs, and more.
Room Tones - Industrial Building
'Room Tones - Industrial Building' by
Detunized delivers hugely atmospheric ambiences gathered in an '80s industrial building in the east of Dresden, Germany on a stormy Sunday.
The Zinc Mines
'The Zinc Mines' by
Sounds Of Norway is a collection of ambient and close-up recordings from within the various levels, drifts, shafts, and caverns of the underground zinc mines located in Grue, Norway.
Underground Parking
'Underground Parking' by
Spheric Collection features Ambisonic ambiences from an underground parking lot with sounds of cars idling and Foley of unlocking car doors.
Horror 1
'Horror 1' by
Spheric Collection has hollow winds, strange metal resonances, eerie breaths, and other spooky sounds all delivered in the Ambisonics format.
Industrial Disquiet
'Industrial Disquiet' by
Kpow Sounds has subtle backgrounds, eerie depots, and creepy reverberant ambiences to unease your audience.
The Abandoned School
'The Abandoned School' by
The Soundcatcher features 172 sounds of creaking doors, debris, impacts, and room tones from an old abandoned school.
Interesting Interiors
'Interesting Interiors' by
Sounds Sweet'man comes from sound designer Chris Sweetman's personal collection with rare recordings of the derelict Star Wars stage at Elstree, a detailed sewer recording, rain falling down an elevator shaft, and much more.
Ambisonic Surround After Dark
'Ambisonic Surround After Dark' by
2496 Sound Effects captures the sounds of the night, including a large selection of evening crickets and cicadas, from both urban and residential areas.
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Creatures & Zombies:
Want ready-made zombie and creature sounds – or are you looking for source material to design your own? Here’s a selection of libraries that’ll make your listeners shiver:
Dark Seals
'Dark Seals' by
Daan Hendriks is a unique collection of aggressive growls, funny gargles, snapping snarls, and howling wails from seals recorded in Namibia and the UK.
Animal Hyperrealism Vol I
'Animal Hyperrealism Vol I' by
Mattia Cellotto has more than 1,300 individual sounds of real to designed creatures recorded in zoos and wildlife centers.
The Undead
'The Undead' by
ShotgunMike is dedicated to the chilling vocal sounds of zombies with 102 designed vocal assets, including breaths, idle grunts and groans, attacks, deaths, war cries, and more.
Baby Tiger
'Baby Tiger' by
Krotos Audio offers a wide range of vocalizations in the unique timbre of a young tiger recorded in Thailand, which maintain the classic sound and aggression of the Bengal tiger but in a 'bite-sized' package!
Bowed Cactus
'Bowed Cactus' by
Thomas Rex Beverly is a visceral collection of cacti from the deserts of the American Southwest which were plucked and bowed like a violin.
Zombie Voices
'Zombie Voices' by
Fusehive has skin-crawling zombie sounds with stomach-churning hisses, grunts, roars, attacks, and deaths to help you create your own horde!
Dehumaniser 2
'Dehumaniser 2' by
Krotos Audio is an extremely powerful resources for creating all sorts of monster and creature sounds. It's no coincidence it's often used on the biggest horror movies out there.
Troll Monster Vocalizations
'Troll Monster Vocalizations' by
Gamemaster Audio gets you 194 monster vocals sounds, such as groans, grunts, deaths, shouts, attacks, growls, laughing and more.
AAA Game Character Demon
'AAA Game Character Demon' by
Epic Stock Media is a robust vocal sound effects bank that brings rich and dynamic game-ready voice assets with over 450 scripted lines, battle cries, and fight vocals.
Yeti Monster
'Yeti Monster' by
Articulated Sounds is an extensive collection of rare humanoid creature sounds that are expressively cinematic with over 25 different type of articulations, actions, and reactions.
Six Monsters
'Six Monsters' by
Lukás Tvrdon has bestial roars, screams, and murmurs from 6 bizarre creatures: Behemoth, Ghoul, TwinHead, CruelGoblin, and DeadBaby.
Urban Crows
'Urban Crows' by
Detunized was taken from the attic of a house surrounded by trees where crows frequently arrived in the evenings, stayed overnight, and chatted at dawn.
Rodents & Reptiles
'Rodents & Reptiles' by
Audiohero features 200 rodent and reptile sounds from mice, bats, possums, chipmunks, guinea pigs, porcupines, otters, raccoons, snakes, toads, lizards, and more!
Birds Of Prey
'Birds Of Prey' by
BOOM Library delivers an extraordinary collection of buzzards, cranes, eagles, falcons, goshawks, vultures, owls, etc., that call, chirp, shriek, caw, screech, and growl.
Wolves & Coyotes
'Wolves & Coyotes' by
Audiohero features 150 wolf and coyote sound effects with howls, roars, barks and more from single and packs of coyotes and wolves.
The Plunger
'The Plunger' by
Antisample gets you over 300 sounds of a plunger and a bucket filled with water that make all sorts of crazy sounds in two locations.
Crows
'Crows' by
SonicSalute includes 30 stereo tracks of nothing but crow sound effects with single isolated close-up calls and ambient layers of flocks and nests.
Screams & Shouts 2 - Monsters
'Screams & Shouts 2 - Monsters' by
SoundBits extends your vocal horror collection with 940 disturbing roars, shouts of pain and death, and grunts of anger from monsters and zombies.
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Magic:
Looking to unleash some powerful dark magic on (the ears of) your audience? These sound effects libraries deliver:
Sorcery
'Sorcery' by
Rock The Speakerbox lets you ignite the night with the unbridled power of fire and summon the darkest of evil with black magic and necromancy.
Magic Elements vol.1
'Magic Elements vol.1' by
Articulated Sounds is a detailed collection of organic elements, actions, characters, items, spells, and atmospheres in the realm of Magic.
MAGIC
'MAGIC' by
BOOM Library is a powerful collection of 450 ready-made, magical sounds of fire, ice, water, acid, electricity, healing, and more.
Magic and Spell Sounds
'Magic and Spell Sounds' by
Gamemaster Audio is an affordable pack of various magic spell and sorcery sounds - featuring 422 magic sounds + a selection of bonus sounds.
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Halloween Bundles:
When you need a ready-made pack of classic halloween-type sound effects, these libraries get you exactly that:
Halloween 101
'Halloween 101' by
Soundopolis is a great collection of sounds for your spooktacular projects with eerie ambiences, gore, blade sounds, screams, and much more.
Spooky Halloween Sound Effects
'Spooky Halloween Sound Effects' by
Fusehive delivers Halloween sounds such as whispers, screams, evil laughs, creaking floors, church bells, monster sounds, howling winds, and more!

Spooky Halloween Sound Effects Library
Fusehive
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Bonus: Behind the sound for 12 horror movies
To get you in that horror mood, here’s a selection of stories behind the sound for 12 blood-curdling horror movies:
Halloween:
The original Halloween is one of my favorite horror movies, and the 2018 version of Halloween (a direct sequel to the original movie) just premiered to great reviews, and is number one at the US box office right now.
This interview gets you the story on how sound supervisors Will Files and P.K. Hooker found brutal sonic inspiration in Michael Myers’ no-frills method of murder – and used that to create a soundscape that’s equally simple yet savage.
Read the in-depth interview The Haunting of Hill House:

Audience reactions to Netflix’ new horror series The Haunting of Hill House have been strong, with horror legend Stephen King hailing it as close to a work of genius.
Many reviewers are particularly praising the sound design for the series – and it’s a great pleasure to present this interview on how its powerful sound was made, as told by Emmy-award winning supervising sound editor/sound designer Trevor Gates.
Read the in-depth interview Hereditary:

Hereditary is being hailed as one of the best horror movies in recent years, and it sounds fantastic.
Here’s the in-depth story on how the sound team at Parabolic NY carefully controlled the tension in Hereditary with sound.
They also discuss the finer points of the sounds of gore, how you make a room tone sound evil – and a sinister sonic element heard throughout the film that you probably haven’t noticed.
Read the in-depth interview The Nun
The Nun is the latest installment in The Conjuring’s horror universe, and it was a huge hit at the box office.
In this exclusive interview, supervising sound editors Bill R. Dean and Ron Eng tell the story about its scary sound – covering everything from recording bells and homemade crosses, designing demon vocals, how they used the Dolby Atmos surround field, to how the jump-scare scenes never got old (especially for one re-recording mixer).
Read the in-depth interview A Quiet Place:

Sound and silence are key elements in A Quiet Place, and for sound designers Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl it was an incredibly thrilling – and challenging – project to work on. Here’s how they created the crucial sound of A Quiet Place:
Read the in-depth interview Annabelle: Creation
It’s a great pleasure to share the story behind the sound for Annabelle: Creation, which went straight to the top at the US box office.
In this in-depth interview, supervising sound editor/sound designer Bill R. Dean shares how they used sound to really ramp up the fear factor in the movie – and what it took to create that sound.
You also get an exclusive video clip with Bill R. Dean, on a rather novel sound design approach for the movie (involving light bulbs, filament and synth sounds).
Read the in-depth interview It Comes At Night

Psychological horror movie It Comes at Night is proving very popular with both critics and moviegoers – and below, supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Damian Volpe and re-recording mixer Robert Fernandez share the full story behind the film’s tense and unnerving sound:
Read the in-depth interview Alien: Covenant
Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant is the latest installment in the legendary, genre-defining sci-fi franchise.
And this interview gets you the inside-story behind the sound for the much-awaited movie, as told by Oscar-nominated supervising sound editor/sound designer Oliver Tarney and sound designer Michael Fentum.
Here, they discuss their approach to sound design on Alien: Covenant, from building on original Alien sound concepts to creating new sounds for the Neomorph, the Covenant ship, the radio transmissions from the Prometheus, and more.
Read the in-depth interview Blair Witch

The original Blair Witch Project movie made a huge splash when it premiered back in 1999, and now there’s a sequel out, simply entitled Blair Witch.
I’m very excited to be able to share the inside-story behind the sound for the new film – and without further ado, here’s the interview with Blair Witch supervising sound editor/re-recording mixer Andy Hay:
Read the in-depth interview Velvet Buzzsaw
Velvet Buzzsaw is available now on Netflix, and it brings together an interesting combination of genres.
In this new A Sound Effect interview, supervising sound editor Margit Pfeiffer, sound designer/re-recording mixer Martyn Zub, and and re-recording mixer Andy Koyama get you the story behind its sound – covering everything from blending sound and music, to using thematic wind sounds to help escalate the tension in the film. They discuss the design on specific sounds like the audio-only art exhibit, the robo-art piece called Hoboman, the Aeolian lute, and more:
Read the in-depth interview Lights Out

Lights Out by David F. Sandberg has received lots of praise for its great scares – and a truly unsettling story, too. Here, Jennifer Walden speaks with Lights Out’s award-winning sound designer and supervising sound editor Bill R. Dean. He shares the team’s approach to horror sound, how they used dynamics to create some very effective scares, the surprising sources for some of the movie’s signature sounds – and much more:
Read the in-depth interview The Conjuring 2

James Wan’s spine-chilling horror movie The Conjuring 2 went straight to number 1 at the box office. And here, supervising sound editor/sound designer Joe Dzuban shares the story behind the creative sound work, the value of temp mixes – and how the right talents (and tools) can take horror sound to the next level:
Read the in-depth interview
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