Soundtrack research

For our music, we have got a fellow pupil at our sixth form to produce the score. We began by researching music used in other horror films. We discovered that the music is usually very simple (repetitive), in a minor key and either very high in pitch or very low. The music will usually be eerie, connoting a supernatural feel or even a false sense of comfort making the audience feel uneasy. An example of this would be Tiny Tim - Tiptoe Through The Tulips (used in Insidious) or Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells (used in The Exorcist).
The instruments used in horror music is usually strings or electronic synthesisers, beginnning with a simple riff and repeating, gradually gaining volume and speed to raise tension.