The Ultimate Halloween Horror Sound Effects Guide (includes 13 Terrifying SFX Libraries)

Posted September 29, 2017 by Asbjoern Andersen in New sound effects libraries

Halloween is just around the corner, so we’ve dimmed the lights and compiled this Ultimate Guide to Halloween Sound Effects for you.

First off, we take a look at 13 horror sound libraries that will terrify your listeners, share the inside-story behind the sound for a number of scary horror movies, and guides to ways you can create your own nightmare-inducing sounds.

We’ve also hand-picked some tips for creating spooky sound effects + found some interesting behind-the-scenes videos on horror/gore sound design (and what makes for a scary sound in the first place):

Popular Horror Sound Effects Right Now:

Here are 3 horror sound effects libraries that are popular right now:

Animal Sound Effects Collections Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV Play Track 2096 sounds included, 78 mins total $153

⏰ For a very limited time:
Add this library to the cart and enter ah4launch in the cart coupon field – to sprinkle an extra launch discount, on top of the current discount!

Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV is a sound library containing animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 294 files. The sounds were recorded in zoos, and wildlife centers.

The asset list includes but is not limited to: hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. The content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, an Avisoft CMPA and a Sennheiser 8050 for center plus two Sennheiser MKH8040 for stereo image.

The resulting ultrasonic spectrum is rich and allows for truly extreme manipulation of the content.

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Bundles Mattia Cellotto – Complete Bundle Play Track 13100+ sounds included
Rated 5.00 out of 5
$1,162

Mattia Cellotto’s extraordinary sound libraries are some of the most popular releases in independent sound effects – and here’s your chance to get them all at a nice discount. Here’s what’s you get:

NEW: ANIMAL HYPERREALISM IV contains animal vocalisations – from hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, to brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. Features 2000 individual sounds in 294 files.

CATACLYSM is a collection more than 1400 sounds in 400+ files of recorded, synthesized and designed sounds created to support important destructive moments and add a stronger sense of extreme consequence to any sound.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL I is a library containing themed animal vocalisations & sounds, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1300 individual sounds in 290 files.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL II is a library containing themed animal sounds & vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 283 files.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL III is a library containing sounds themed animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1700 individual sounds in 279 files.

METAMORPHOSIS is a huge collection of recorded source, synthesized material and hybrid sounds – more than 2300 sounds total.

GLACIER ICE is a library containing over 300 high quality sounds of ice cracking, breaking, shattering in various sizes of blocks – recorded entirely in the Italian Alps over the course of two winters.

POLARITY delivers more than 950 sounds of electricity, science and technology – captured in several locations around the world, from electricity museums to science labs.

ULTRASONIC DRY ICE is a library containing over 600 sounds themed metal resonances, scrapes and all sorts of weird.

ROCKS MOMENTUM gets you more than 1100 sounds of rocks, bricks, wood logs, stones, impacting on different surfaces, rolling, being scraped one against the other and so on. The library was recorded in the Italian alps, and in Inverness, Scotland.

WATER VOLUMES delivers you over 300 sounds of natural hot-springs, bubbles, and liquids of various densities boiling under the effect of dry ice.

METAL GROANS AND SLAMS is a library for which metal was kicked, hammered, bowed and… induced to vibrate through feedback loops?! The collection features 346 unique sounds recorded through field trips in US, UK and Italy.

CRUNCH MODE & THE BORAX EXPERIMENT are also included as a bonus: Crunch Mode features 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust & frozen goods, and The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy, gooey SFX.

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Weather Sound Effects Hyper Thunder Play Track 800+ sounds included $49.50
Hyper Thunder is a colossal collection of thunder and lightning, 100% crafted from the ground up using innovative synthesized technics and props recordings. Not a single real life thunder recording was used. using synthesis and props manipulation crafted to deliver impact far beyond natural recordings. Built entirely from innovative synthesis and props recordings, this library pushes the boundaries of weather sound design—perfect for when you need the raw energy of a storm dialed up to cinematic extremes.

Featuring over 800 files, Hyper Thunder spans everything from subtle distant rumbles and rolling thunder to razor-sharp lightning strikes and earth-shaking impacts. With both designed hits and source layers, you have full control—drop in ready-to-use power or sculpt your own stormscapes using the source recordings.

Created in collaboration with Bruits.Studio’s Vincent Fliniaux and Tibo Csuko—longtime SoundMorph contributors to acclaimed libraries like Robotic Lifeforms 2 and WATER— Hyper Thunder blends technical mastery with bold creativity.

Key Features
- 800+ files of synthesized thunder and lightning
- Both designed hits and source layers for full creative control
- Covers subtle distant rumbles through to massive cinematic impacts
- Crafted 100% from synthesis for a unique, larger-than-life sound
- Perfect for film, games, trailers, and any project needing storm power
- Created in collaboration with Bruits.Studio’s Vincent Fliniaux and Tibo Csuko (Robotic Lifeforms 2, WATER)
From atmospheric detail to explosive drama, Hyper Thunder gives you thunder and lightning that are bigger, subtler, and more versatile than nature itself.
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13 Horror Sound Libraries That Will Get Under Your Skin:

It’s time to celebrate some of the horrific sound libraries that the community has released. We have zombies, beasts, gore, suspenseful ambiences, cinematic effects, and much more – so if you’re looking to send some chills down your listeners’ spines, you’ll definitely find what you’re looking for here:

Cinematic Darkness Bundle

Horror Sound Effects Cinematic Darkness – Bundle Play Track 2000+ sounds included $255

We enter the next round of absolutely striking new SFX! CINEMATIC DARKNESS is the fourth release in our grand CINEMATIC series and is absolutely no less exciting than its predecessors: dirty BLASTS, scary DRONES, digital GLITCHES, synthetic SCREAMS, disturbing STUTTERS, creepy NOISE – the list continues as we have packed more than 15 GB of high-quality SFX into this collection.

CINEMATIC DARKNESS has been co-produced with sound designer Sebastian Johnson who left his footprints in the world of sound design starting in the 90s with the first commercial library for the Waldorf Microwave and sound design for Ensoniq, Clavia, DSI, and recently for more than 40 blockbuster trailers in the last 4 years such as Gravity, World War Z, Godzilla, Maleficient, The Hobbit, Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, Pacific Rim, Resident Evil 5, Star Trek & much more!

Our new library comes all nasty, disturbing & unsettling. It’ll shake you to the core & without a doubt it will power your next project. Evil, murky, harsh, synthetic and edgy are only a few characteristics of CINEMATIC DARKNESS. You have the possibility to customize this collection to your very own needs: the CONSTRUCTION KIT offers you high-quality source recordings to be creatively processed, while the DESIGNED version comes in handy with pre-designed, “ready-to-use” sounds, ideal for time-scarce projects. CINEMATIC DARKNESS is the next generation of evil SFX – add a wicked new tone to your sound pool!

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First, we bring you the intense effects from BOOM Library's 'Cinematic Darkness Bundle'. In this collection, you'll hear hundreds of bone-chilling blockbuster quality sounds from synthetic screams and insane stutters to sinister noise and creepy drones. It was co-produced with sound designer Sebastian Johnson of World War Z and Resident Evil 5 fame, so you can be sure you're getting top-of-the-line unsettling sounds!

Six Monsters

Creature Sound Effects 6 Monsters Play Track 135 sounds included $22.40

Bring the monsters to life! Bestial roars, screams and murmurs of 6 bizarre creatures. From brutal, deep growls to sharp, ear-pearcing screeches.

Each character has several expression variations, such as “talk”, “scream”, “hit”, “attack” or “death”.

Monsters included:
Black Boss – brutal and dirty, hardcore metal-styled, saturated beast
Behemoth – deeply-growling, dark animal from shadow swamps
Ghoul – deeply-burbling, stagnant undead being
TwinHead – eerie, weird beast with multiple mutated vocal-cords
CruelGoblin – sharp, piercing, damned sabre-teeth mutant
DeadBaby – sharp, high-pitched, demonic spirit of an unlucky toddler

The SFX demo consists of several 6Monsters sounds mixed with a light spatial effect and an ambience from The Horrid library.

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If you're looking for something more organic and beastly, then 'Six Monsters' by Lukáš Tvrdoň may have what you're looking for. In this library you'll hear the growls, screams, and deaths of folkloric monsters like behemoths, ghouls, and goblins, as well as the 'TwinHead', 'Black Boss', and 'DeadBaby'. What is creepier than that? Each imagined beast also has several expressions that will raise the hair of anyone listening.

STOMPS – Creature Footsteps

Creature Sound Effects STOMPS – Creature Footsteps Play Track 8500+ sounds included
Rated 5.00 out of 5
From: $299

We’re incredibly excited to introduce the ‘STOMPS – Creature Footsteps’ sound effects library – these are footsteps like you’ve never heard them before!

STOMPS is a massive collection of more than 8,500 files to boost your creativity and help you add special footstep sounds to your new project.

The library is organized into 3 categories –
Source, Textures, Design:

In the Source category you’ll find the “best of” several hours worth of our recordings sessions, with more than 7,500 files (with lots of variations) organized into 83 folders. Every single sound is the product of a new recording.

You’ll find the sequences that include: 2 Legs WALKING, 2 Legs RUNNING, 4 Legs GALLOPING, 4 Legs TROTTING, and 4 Legs WALKING.

We used all kinds of weird props to record original, versatile sounds with lot of character, different textures, and in very different frequency ranges.

These sounds form the DNA of your future footsteps. You’ll have lots of different sound colours to play with, ranging from very small and harsh sounds to very low and bold ones, and all the ranges in between.

In the Texture category, you’ll find more than 600 sounds with different textures to help you customize your footsteps. These textures are also a very valuable sonic material that will help you construct lots of varying sound design work.

Finally, we have the Design category. Here you’ll find more than 500 processed sounds created by veteran sound designer Michel Marchant, covering a wide range of characters like Robots, Snow Creatures, Distant Dinosaurs, Rock Golems, Armies, Colossus and many, many more!

Update: Glued version also included

STOMPS now also features a special GLUED version, with the exact same content but with variation files edited together to reduce the number of single files in the collection, and making search through all sounds easier.

With “STOMPS, Creature Footsteps,” you’ll have anything you’ll need to create everything from small creature footsteps to big, out-of-this-world ones.

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Perhaps you have the beast vocalizations you need, but you want your monstrosities to sneak up on your audience or even pummel them. 'STOMPS – Creature Footsteps' by Bonson has over 8,500 sounds of footsteps for hellish monsters like Kaiju, giant crabs, T-Rex, Kronos, hellions, pirate zombies, and even androids, rock giants, sociopathic mechs, and an evil Santa. You'll hear these beasts walking, running, galloping, and trotting their way to their prey - your audience!

Infected Zone

Horror Sound Effects Infected Zone Play Track 200+ sounds included, 35 mins total $15

Get more than 200 zombie style sound effects (in 92 audio files) with Infected Zone.

You will find ambiences, drones, musical elements, cinematic impacts, zombie hordes, bites, bone breaks, zombies eating, intestine movements, blood drips, stabs, gunshots, machine guns, vocalizations and more.

These sounds are great for any kind of zombie/horror production (games, trailers, movies).

Don’t be afraid to enter the ‘INFECTED ZONE’

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For a horror collection, your library wouldn't be complete without a little undead gore. 'Infected Zone' by MatiasMacSD has over 200 sounds of zombies biting, breaking bones, eating flesh, digesting said flesh, dripping blood, and traveling in hordes. It also features sounds of self-defense with stabs, gunshots, and machine guns, as well as suspenseful ambiences, drones, musical elements, and cinematic impacts. If your project features those 'zed', this library has the horrific deaths and troubling atmospheres you need.

Just Transitions – Creepy Trailers

Horror Sound Effects Just Transitions | Creepy Trailers Play Track 270 sounds included $14

Here you find a composite collection of designed, frightening Whooshes, creepy Transitions and haunting Movements to spice up your Trailers, Cut Scenes, Games and Movies.
From ancient fantasy to futuristic horror projects, here you’ll find the appropriate sound that brings out the goose bumps.
Subtile haunting movent sounds, roomy squeaks, harsh disurbing noises, magical whooshes, soaking reversed horror, terryfying stingers, …
All sounds in this bundle were created by heavy sound design, layering and automation. Using hundreds recorded sounds of impacts, scrapes, swishes and anything else that has a unique motion envelope.
Even breaks, endings and transitions of all different kinds of music will get that extra kick with this sound library – it gets you the sounds that’ll bring out the goosebumps.

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To get your audience primed for nail-biting scenes and jump-out-of-your-chair scares, you'll need to set the mood with an intense trailer. 'Just Transitions – Creepy Trailers' by SoundBits has 270 frightening whooshes, haunting noises, unexpected stingers, and complex motions that sound like they're coming for you. Each of these intricately designed sounds will add a terrifying edge to your trailer and give your game a petrifying atmosphere.

Atmosfear

Coming from the imaginations of Glitchedtones, 'Atmosfear' has ambiences that capture the emotions of being in a dire situation. From industrial torture chambers to abandoned asylums, these detailed, droning backgrounds will find their way right into your audience's psyche, convincing them they will never escape. With edgy synthesis and traces of creepy tones, these sounds have a sense of dread that is essential for your foreboding rooms.

Scream Collection

Horror Sound Effects Scream Collection Play Track 441 sounds included $25

Introducing the Scream Collection (A Tribute To Wilhelm). This library pays homage to the infamous Wilhelm Scream first heard in the film Distant Drums as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of other films. This compilation includes 441 vocal effects ranging from startled gasps to all out screams.

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Sometimes all you need is a good, clean scream and 'Scream Collection' by Bottle Rocket FX has just that! This library gets you over 440 screams, gasps, grunts, evil laughs, and more that will awaken a feeling of powerlessness and terrified empathy in your horror soundscapes. Featuring several actors both male and female, you'll get all the variations you need to create a tortured character or an iconic soundscape.

The Undead

Creature Sound Effects The Undead Play Track 102 sounds included $30

These are no ordinary zombies, they’re not your mindless, shuffling, flesh craving human husks. An evil runs through what remains of these creatures’ bodies. Flesh has all but decayed from their bones and whatever humanity they had in life has long since departed.

This library is dedicated to the chilling vocal sounds of the zombie. It is ideal for films and games, TV or trailers and includes 102 bespokely designed zombie vocal assets, including breaths, idle grunts and groans, attacks, pains, death, war cries and more.

Whilst this library caters primarily for the more aggressive variant of the undead, it wouldn’t sound out of place when used on other terrifying abominations.

All assets are delivered in 96kHz, 24-bit stereo files and include full Soundminer metadata.

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This library presents the type of living dead that can pull the heart out of Simon Pegg's 'zombie values' with one swipe. The zombies in 'The Undead' by ShotgunMike have flesh that has rotted down to the bones so that their vocal folds are hanging by a string and their breath alone could kill you. You'll hear over 100 of their growls, bites, attacks, taunts and more, for a collection of vocalizations that is not only detailed and chilling but also paints a clear picture of what these monsters look like!

Gore Toolkit HD

Gore Sound Effects Gore Toolkit HD Play Track 798 sounds included $85

A collection of over 530 96k/24bit HD Gore sound effects that comes with an additional 262 48k/24bit sounds! Come and get your body damage galore. Punches, bone, blood, intestines, goops, splats, flesh movement, chewing, tearing, snapping, breaking, blade sounds… It’s BLOODY CARNAGE!

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For the more sadistic designers out there, 'Gore Toolkit HD' by Soundopolis has the disgusting, twitch-inducing sounds of slasher horror films. You can almost see the glimmer of light shine across the knife before it plunges into flesh, striping the walls with blood. The library is divided into 'fresh gore' and 'classic gore', so you'll get sawing, tearing, chopping, and goops, as well as B-movie-inspired smacks, splats, squirts, and oozes to give your project some cruel flair.

Asylum

Horror Sound Effects Asylum Play Track 504 sounds included $55.20

Scary horror sounds inspired by Hollywood Box office Hits – The Conjuring, The Exorcist and The Shining, we present to you the psychopath’s favorite: Asylum – Epic Stock Media’s hair-raising sound library of hollywood film scare tactics. Unchained access to some of the most cutting edge designed horror production sound effects in the world derived from stunning 192k 24bit recording sessions. Be the first to unleash our best sound library yet! Check the audio preview for spine chilling inspiration.

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On the other side of classic horror movie sounds come those inspired by the frenzied, literary horror films of the '70s. With over 500 sounds, 'Asylum' by Epic Stock Media gets you the intense sound effects that liken themselves to The Exorcist and The Shining with intense rises from all textures. It has cymbal screeches, piano hits, reversed voices, whispers, whooshes, and moments that will make you grit your teeth - so if you're in the depths of designing a horror scene, this collection will be your cherry on top!

Doom Drones

Drones & Mood Sound Effects Doom Drones Play Track 120 sounds included $99

Doom Drones contains more than 3Gb of eerie, doomful, dark, atmospheric field recordings, designed drones and backgrounds. Perfect for something in the realm of a David Lynch film, ambient music production, a horror film, or just to set the mood of a foreboding soundscape.

Each artist made 60 custom loops for a total of 120 loops. With SoundMorph focusing more on field recordings and subtle tonal design and Arovane focusing more on dynamic synthetic textures and sound design. Both perfectly suitable as layers or final assets, depending on their use, Doom Drones is a great addition for anyone wanting to enhance dark ominous moments.

All field recordings were captured with a mid/side stereo setup consisting of 2 Schoeps CMC6 bodies, Schoeps mk5 & mk8 capsules housed in a Rycote AE windshield running into a Sound Devices 722.

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SoundMorph brings you a treat from the horrific tales from Lynchian affairs. In 'Doom Drones', you'll hear textures that fill the frequency spectrum with creeping organic sounds, dark swirling tones, abstract textures, and echoing booms that seem to suggest a vicinity that encapsulates you yet has no boundaries. Each of the 120 sounds is loopable, so these sounds are not only easy to implement, they might slowly drive your audience mad!

Bowed Cymbals

Drones & Mood Sound Effects Bowed Cymbals Play Track 49 sounds included $25

Bowed cymbals are one of those sound effects that just never get old.

Perhaps it's the chilling sound of bow on bronze that puts us on the edge of our seat that we love so much. Or maybe it's the hauntingly beautiful tones that ring from a large ride cymbal with a large bow.

Add some real bronze to your project today:

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Other than a blood-curdling scream or a clean splatter, there is no sound more distinct to horror than the strange harmonics of bowed cymbal - which it doesn't hurt to have a whole library of them. Tonal Gurus brings you 49 versions of these iconic sounds in their library, 'Bowed Cymbals'. Using cymbals and bows of all shapes and sizes - including rides, hi-hats, chinas, crashes and more - this library has a performance to fit your horror story's every beat and horrifying discovery.

Dehumaniser 2

Finally, for our horror roundup, we have the most versatile do-it-yourself monster vocalization plugin around. As part of the workflow for popular games known for their beasts, like Evolve, Killer Instinct, Doom, and Audio Defence: Zombie Arena, as well as films and TV shows like The Conjuring 2 and Sleepy Hollow, 'Dehumaniser 2' by Krotos Audio is the ultimate monster creation tool. It now has hundreds of presets, middleware compatibility for live performances, and many other handy features, so nothing can get in the way of your monstrous creation!

Want even more horror sounds? Check these out:

Wild Animals Sound Effects Baby Tiger Play Track 112+ sounds included $70

This Baby Tiger SFX library delivers a great collection of Bengal baby tiger recordings from our sound recordists in Thailand, presented in 192 khz, 24-bit WAV format. It offers a wide range of vocalisations in the unique timbre of a younger animal. This maintains the classic sound and aggression of the bengal tiger, but in a ‘bite-sized’ package!

Tigers are the largest members of the cat family and are renowned for their power and strength. They live alone and aggressively scent-mark large territories to keep their rivals away. They are powerful nocturnal hunters that travel many miles to find buffalo, deer, wild pigs, and other large mammals.

These recordings are an ideal starting point for creature sound design, with a huge range of growls, cries and moans.

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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Cinematic Gore Play Track 600+ sounds included $55

If you need sounds of gore, this SFX collection is truly something special. Delivering more than 600 sounds of blood, guts, bone breaks, sword and knife stabs and cuts, splatters, spurts, flesh tears, impacts – and sawing – its gets you a brutally effective collection of sounds to work with, both raw and designed.

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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Cinematic Horror Play Track 500 sounds included From: $135

This downright terrifying collection of horror sound effects – co-produced by Hollywood horror master Richard Adrian (The Hills Have Eyes, Gothika, Thir13en Ghosts, Ghost Ship, House Of Wax, Haunted Hill, Mirrors etc) – is available in three different versions:

CINEMATIC HORROR – DESIGNED:

Want an easy, high-quality solution for horror sound effects? You have a tight schedule and need to meet a bloody deadline by tomorrow? That calls for our CINEMATIC HORROR – DESIGNED collection: a handy pack full of pre-designed, ready-to-use SFX that crawl and slither into your projects, ready to scare the audience with precision. There are booms, drones, hits, shockers, stingers, stutters, whooshes and further nightmares, including screams and screeches, distortion, whispers, echoes, metal squeaks and other haunting sounds. No need to fear short-term inquiries anymore – this library will fix your needs in an instant.

The CINEMATIC HORROR DESIGNED offers you a great selection of more than 4 GB high quality SFX, brought to you in more than 100 single files. Each file contains 4 versions to ensure flexibility and alternation. All of it recorded and produced in 96 kHz and 24-bit by horror expert Richard Adrian and our devoted sound designers. The library also comes with key word search and well-grounded Soundminer metadata.

Key features:
• Library ships in 96kHz/24bit High Definition Audio
• Extremes, hits, drones, shockers, stingers, stutters, whooshes & more
• 500+ HD SFX in 100+ files
• Effective workflow: well-grounded Soundminer Metadata

CINEMATIC HORROR – CONSTRUCTION KIT:

This frightful collection not only creeps up your spine, but clasps your whole body. Symptoms such as cold skin, anxiety, dizziness, shivering, paleness and increased heart rate may occur, indicating the degree of sonic impact this library entails. The CINEMATIC HORROR CONSTRUCTION KIT is not for the sensitive nature, but for those who dare to play the complex facets of primeval fear. If you want to create something unique – the next terrifying attack, an evil twist, a horrifying moment of pure despair – this library should be your tool kit.

A glance at the content list of the CINEMATIC HORROR CONSTRUCTION KIT suggests a dreadful future: ambients, drones (organic and synthetic), human sounds, impacts (e.g. guitar distortion, creepy clangs, smacks and thunks), metal impacts, metal squeaks and scrapes, rises, instruments (e.g. piano, violin, wine glass), metal scrapes, metal squeak, vocals and vocal choirs (breaths, laughs, exhales, screams (male and female), wood creaks, groans and more – all ready to follow your wicked phantasies and effects.

These SFX come with more than 12 GB of high-quality source recordings delivered in 96 kHz, 24-bit, giving you only the best quality for heavy editing, pitching, and FX processing while keeping a top notch level of clarity and precision. To provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible, all files contain extensive metadata. Balance and mix the sounds just as you like and expand the range of panic, fright and terror.

Key features:
• Library ships in 96kHz/24bit High Definition Audio
• Scrapes, squeaks, creaks & groans, vocals & drones and so much more!
• 270+ files, 1.200+ HD sound effects
• Effective workflow: well-grounded Soundminer Metadata

CINEMATIC HORROR – BUNDLE:

Get BOTH versions above in one, sweet, terrifying bundle. It provides an unbeatable 12 GB arsenal of horror sounds that'll be a cornerstone for anything scary in your sound effects collection.

Key features:
• Gets you both Cinematic Horror – Designed and Construction Kit
• 370+ files, 1.700+ sounds | 96kHz/24bit, WAV

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Drones & Mood Sound Effects Cloud Piano Play Track 20 sounds included, 20 mins total $10

This small, highly focused sound library features drones and textures created solely with sounds from a 1950’s Cable upright piano.

These sound effects range from low, dark, and pulsating, to high and shimmering and could easily work in sci-fi, suspense, thrillers, or fantasy. While they can sound otherworldly, the sounds are actually quite organic. The sounds were made with looped and layered tone clusters and ambience recorded inside the piano – no granularization, synthesis, or additional processing like reverb were employed.

They can be used alone or mixed with other sounds to great effect.

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Horror Sound Effects Halloween 101 Play Track 101 sounds included $25

Halloween 101 is a great collection of sounds for your spooktacular projects! Inside are eerie ambiences; ghosts and zombies; human grunts, dying, screaming, and wailing; bloody gore; blade sounds, glass breaks, squeaky floors and doors, and so much more!

Halloween 101 includes:

• Strange, haunting ambiences
• Blades – impacts, hits, chainsaw, war-hammer, battle ax
• Fighting and Gore – punches, rib cage ripping open, splats, goops
• Footsteps – glass, creaky wood
• Glass Breaks
• Human Sounds – evil laughs, screams (solo and group), grunts
• Unhuman Sounds – Groups of ghostly voices, zombies (solo and groups), speaking in tongues
• Weather – thunder & wind
• Doors – creaking, “Demons Gate”

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Environments & Ambiences Howling Winds – Interior Play Track 42 sounds included $28

Howling Winds – Interior is 1.4 GB of high-velocity air molecules in 42 separate files – recorded in 24bit/96kHz stereo – from an interior perspective. All files are UCS-compliant.

It is a collection of highly expressive, sometimes vocal, sometimes violent gusts of wind, squalls of rain and sleet – as heard from within the safety of a home.

KEY FEATURES

• Howling, moaning, whistling wind sounds
• Roofs and windows pummeled with rain and sleet
• Bad weather in an urban setting

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Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Warped Choir Play Track 247 sounds included From: $69

A filmic sound construction kit for teasers, trailers & promos

‘Warped Choir’ is the latest state-of-the-art sound effects library from U.S.O. which continues to cross the border between music and sound design.

Warped Choir provides 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.

Warped Choir contains more than 200 massive dynamic impacts, transitions, soundscapes, epic vocal rises and whooshes, all designed from scratch using a choir concert recording as the unique waveform source in the Symbolic Sound Kyma workstation (many thanks to La Coral Salvé – Laredo, Cantabria | www.coralsalve.com).

When it comes to creating new musical ideas, video and sound editors, sound designers, but also composers, can find inspiration in this intriguing must-have collection.

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Environments & Ambiences Windy Forest Play Track 22 sounds included, 87 mins total $40

Windy forest is a collection of forest ambiences with wind ranging from soft to strong. We spent two stormy days out in the deep forests of Norway and managed to capture a wide variety of wind sounds. The recordings are nearly 100% bird free so they are very usable internationally.

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View all the Horror libraries here

[tweet_box]The Ultimate Halloween Horror Sound Effects guide[/tweet_box]

Behind the horror movie sound:

We’ve shared the story behind the sound for quite a few horror movies here on A Sound Effect – you can read them below:

• Creating the dark, evil sounds of ‘Annabelle: Creation’ – with Bill R. Dean
• Creating the sound of fear for ‘It Comes at Night’ – with Damian Volpe and Robert Fernandez
• Behind the horrifying sound of ‘Alien: Covenant’ – with Oliver Tarney and Michael Fentum
• Behind the scary sounds of ‘Blair Witch’ – with Andy Hay
• How the creepy sound of ‘Lights Out’ was made – with Bill R. Dean
• Young UK filmmaker creates award-winning horror sound: Here it is – and here’s how he did it
• Creating the horrific sounds of ‘The Conjuring 2’ – with Joe Dzuban

Horror sound design guides:

If you want to learn how to create your own horror SFX, here are several reads to get you started. We’ve also hand-picked a bunch of sound design of tips further down in this guide.

• How to create horror sound effects that are truly scary (and gory!) – by Saro Sahihi
• The Guide To Sound Effects (features lots of tips for gore and horror) – compiled by David Filskov
• Creature Sound Design Insights from David Farmer, sound designer on The Hobbit & LOTR
• Sound for Scarehouses – A Q&A with Marc Straight

How to create your own horror sounds:

If you want to have a go at creating your horror sounds, here are some DIY ideas from sound designer David Filskov’s excellent Guide to Sound Effects:

Bats flying

I used an umbrella opening and closing rapidly for the sound of bats flying one time… turned out great. I think I had to filter out some of the low frequency material, though.
-Tim Clarke

A pair of leather gloves flapped about is a good substitute for wings flapping when a bat takes off.
– Garry Taylor

Blood and guts being torn out

I know how to make a nice sound of blood and guts being torn out. Just make a milk pulp, put it into your mouth, and then try to say “Ghhhh”. Mix it with the end section of any water splash sample or add a sample where you’re moving out your hand from a bucket of water.
– Adam

Gore and squidge

Wet wash leather – fantastic for gore and squidge.
– Mark Estdale

Fruits! Especially tomatoes (for splatters) and potatoes (for wet crunchy sounds). Another classic is making a goo with eggs and dip rags and paper towels into them and play.
– Gustaf Grefberg

Rat shrieks

Pitched-up chickens.
– Ben Burtt

Up-pitched kittens. Especially the screechy ones.
– Gustaf Grefberg

Stone coffin opening

Slide off the top of a toilet tank.
– Ben Burtt

Spirits screaming

Dolphin and sea-lion cries, other animal screams and human vocalizations.
– Ben Burtt

Tentacles, sliding

Get a few day’s worth of stubble on your face. Go somewhere real quiet and record running your hand and arm under your chin – it mixes in nice with the hairs on your arm. Or as I just found out, get a mouse mat with a rubberized or cloth surface and rub that under your chin :-) To further this idea maybe put some shaving gel on and take a credit card and lightly rub it across? That way you get bristly with a bit of slime.
– Dave Sullivan

Having just eaten a bowl of macaroni and cheese shells, I have to say it’s the most convincing tentacle sound I’ve ever heard. It also made the bowl harder to finish :-)
– Jay Semerad

Vocalization of monster

Metal pressed against dry ice.
– Paul Arnold

Slide a straw up or down in a McDonald’s large drink plastic lid. Try pitching it down and stretching it – and voilá! McZilla.
– Max Hodges

Bonus videos:

The (surprisingly filling) approach to horror sound design for ‘The Evil Within’:

The Evil Within – Delicious Evil (Bethesda Underground)

The Sound of Alien: Isolation:

Why do things sound scary?

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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:

A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

Bundles Mattia Cellotto – Complete Bundle Play Track 13100+ sounds included
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$1,162

Mattia Cellotto’s extraordinary sound libraries are some of the most popular releases in independent sound effects – and here’s your chance to get them all at a nice discount. Here’s what’s you get:

NEW: ANIMAL HYPERREALISM IV contains animal vocalisations – from hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, to brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. Features 2000 individual sounds in 294 files.

CATACLYSM is a collection more than 1400 sounds in 400+ files of recorded, synthesized and designed sounds created to support important destructive moments and add a stronger sense of extreme consequence to any sound.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL I is a library containing themed animal vocalisations & sounds, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1300 individual sounds in 290 files.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL II is a library containing themed animal sounds & vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 283 files.

ANIMAL HYPERREALISM VOL III is a library containing sounds themed animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 1700 individual sounds in 279 files.

METAMORPHOSIS is a huge collection of recorded source, synthesized material and hybrid sounds – more than 2300 sounds total.

GLACIER ICE is a library containing over 300 high quality sounds of ice cracking, breaking, shattering in various sizes of blocks – recorded entirely in the Italian Alps over the course of two winters.

POLARITY delivers more than 950 sounds of electricity, science and technology – captured in several locations around the world, from electricity museums to science labs.

ULTRASONIC DRY ICE is a library containing over 600 sounds themed metal resonances, scrapes and all sorts of weird.

ROCKS MOMENTUM gets you more than 1100 sounds of rocks, bricks, wood logs, stones, impacting on different surfaces, rolling, being scraped one against the other and so on. The library was recorded in the Italian alps, and in Inverness, Scotland.

WATER VOLUMES delivers you over 300 sounds of natural hot-springs, bubbles, and liquids of various densities boiling under the effect of dry ice.

METAL GROANS AND SLAMS is a library for which metal was kicked, hammered, bowed and… induced to vibrate through feedback loops?! The collection features 346 unique sounds recorded through field trips in US, UK and Italy.

CRUNCH MODE & THE BORAX EXPERIMENT are also included as a bonus: Crunch Mode features 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust & frozen goods, and The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy, gooey SFX.

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Bundles The Vault – The Ultimate RTSB Bundle Play Track 29683 sounds included, 2459 mins total $1,159

The whole 9 yards.
Comprised of 11 heavy hitting libraries, this bundle includes SEISMIC CORE, OVERKILL, 4 ELEMENTS, COLLISION, INTERACTIVE, SCI FI, GEARBOX, SORCERY, HERO, BROKEN, and MELEE. Save by bundling all ELEVEN in a single library.

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Boutique analog mechanical contraptions, steampunk gadgetry, gizmos and machines big and small.

SORCERY:
Spells, deflects, casts, blocks, beams, and more. Unrivaled wizardry at your fingertips.

BROKEN
Car crashes, explosions, crumbling buildings, earthquakes, ripping earth and metal, to debris, and more.

HERO:
HERO – Sword fights, stabbing, guillotines, impaling, battle cries, shields, drawbridges, armor, foley and more.

MELEE:
Punches, kicks, blocks, bodyfalls, grabs, slaps, bone breaks, blood splatters, and more.

SCI FI:
Spaceships, machines, mechanicals, weapons and more. Technologies exceeding your boldest visions of the future.

INTERACTIVE:
The ultimate Game UI SFX library including clicks, pops, whooshes, musical and tonal elements, and ready to use designs for every UI action and game style.

COLLISION:
The ultimate sound effects library for massive impact sounds. Stingers, crashes, hits, whooshes and fully designed impact effects.

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Harness the raw power of fire, water, earth, and air with over 3000 elemental sounds crafted for limitless creativity.

OVERKILL:
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Unleash raw sonic power with SEISMIC CORE – a meticulously crafted 1.62 GB sound library featuring 548 impact-driven sound effects across 108 files.

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Animal Sound Effects Collections Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV Play Track 2096 sounds included, 78 mins total $153

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Add this library to the cart and enter ah4launch in the cart coupon field – to sprinkle an extra launch discount, on top of the current discount!

Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV is a sound library containing animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 294 files. The sounds were recorded in zoos, and wildlife centers.

The asset list includes but is not limited to: hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. The content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, an Avisoft CMPA and a Sennheiser 8050 for center plus two Sennheiser MKH8040 for stereo image.

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Foley Sound Effects Business Navigator NV-A008 Piaggio Vespa PX150 2023 electric ride-on toy scooter motorcycle Play Track 23 sounds included, 10 mins total $45

All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II & Zoom F3 recorders. Library contains wav files of driving, foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

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Aircraft - Jet/Propeller Plane Sound Effects Planes and Helicopters Play Track 66 sounds included, 41 mins total $34

PLANES & HELICOPTERS contains flybys, takeoffs, and landings of 13 aircraft models and 5 helicopter models, including small and medium-range passenger planes, private jets, tiny planes and firefighting aircraft. Recorded as close as possible to the aircraft, in airports. You’ll find turbojet, turboprop, and propeller-powered aircrafts. You’ll also find military and civilian helicopters sound effects.
The sounds can be used for a realistic purpose but you can design spaceships or futuristic vehicles.

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Car Sound Effects Lada Riva 1980 compact car Play Track 218 sounds included, 51 mins total $65

All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is only available in UCS.

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Electricity Sound Effects Fridge Hums Complete Bundle Play Track 60 sounds included, 130 mins total $24

A comprehensive fridge hum library with 60 sounds / 2+ hours of hums, buzzes, beeps, industrial room tones, clicks, drips and more

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Helicopter Sound Effects CH-47 Chinook Helicopter Play Track 40 sounds included, 46 mins total $80
This library delivers the raw power of this legendary military transport helicopter. Originally recorded for the acclaimed Netflix series Money Heist: Part 5, this library captures every rotor, engine, and maneuver with pristine detail and fidelity—now available for your own productions.

From the thunderous rotor blades slicing through the air, to the deep roar of its twin turbines, and the massive fly-bys that shake the ground, this collection delivers 46 minutes of sounds from one of the most iconic helicopters in history.

Recorded using a multi-mic setup, every nuance has been preserved – from the hurricane-like rotor wash to the natural echoes bouncing across the runway and hangars. This library is a perfect fit for war films, military documentaries, AAA video games, or any production in need of authentic and cinematic helicopter power.

What’s inside:
- APU start ups, takeoffs, landings, and hovering sequences.
- Close and medium imposing fly-bys
- Interior and Exterior perspectives
- Fully edited and UCS-compliant metadata for fast and easy search
With CH-47 CHINOOK, you’ll have a rock-solid, versatile, and epic sound resource at your fingertips – ready to take your projects to the next level.

Note: The SoundCloud demo contains radio communiactions and some cockpit switches. These are not included.
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