Summerween 2026
My Mixtape’s A Masterpiece is a weekly feature in which a guest compiles a playlist around some theme. This week, Alejandra Gonzalez assembles 12 songs to resurrect scary season during the summer. Read Alejandra’s thoughts on each song and listen along to the Spotify playlist on top and/or the YouTube playlist at the bottom of the post.
Slashers at summer camp, creepy road trips, haunted small towns…Halloween may get all the credit, but summer has always been one of horror's best settings. Summerween is the perfect excuse to embrace the spooky season a few months early, and here are some of my favorite songs to help do just that!
1. "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult
One of my favorite songs of all time, this really feels like riding on the back of a motorcycle into a summer sunset with a man in leather who is 100% bad news. The Reaper imagery only makes that visual feel even spookier. Blue Öyster Cult has always flirted with horror, whether it's giant monsters (“Godzilla”) or imagery depicting hell (“Burnin' for You”), so it feels only right to have them kick off this playlist.
2. "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads
This song is way too fun and upbeat to be associated with any season besides the one we’re in, which is exactly why it fits so well. It always makes me think of slashers, and slashers are honestly more summer-coded than Halloween-coded to me. Might be FRIDAY THE 13TH, SLEEPAWAY CAMP, or approximately every cursed summer campground in horror history making me feel that way!
3. "Every Breath You Take" by The Police
With all the reggae and new wave influences floating around their music, The Police dominate my summertime playlists. And of course, this song can’t be defended as anything besides really, really creepy. Someone quietly and relentlessly watching your every move? Full body chills!
4. "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
CCR sounds just like 85% humidity and airboats. I mean, they’re literally classified as Swamp Rock on Google. There's something SO Southern about their music that makes me think of backroads and creatures lurking in the mist. The creatures at hand in this particular song will always be werewolves, thanks to AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. I can’t imagine Summerween without this song.
5. "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears
Walk with me here. Horror had a period there where it became so obsessed with '80s nostalgia that synth-pop is basically horror-adjacent in my brain. Stranger Things, SUMMER OF ‘84, kids on bikes! This song sounds like the last perfect day of summer right before that transition into fall.
6. "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
See: Stranger Things.
7. "Summer Breeze" by Type O Negative
The original is one of my favorite summer songs ever written. Type O Negative somehow took that same song and made it sound like it was being covered by the Vampire Lestat or something. It’s SO heavy and atmospheric. Also, I know it's featured in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, so…duh.
8. "School's Out" by Alice Cooper
Basically horror rock royalty, there was no way Alice Cooper was safe from being featured in this playlist. There may not be a more apt song than "School's Out,” which just captures all the mischief and tomfoolery that can come with the summer, especially as kids.
9. "Ghost Town" by The Specials
The more I write here, the more I notice how certain genres only feel right in certain seasons. Ska is one of those. It’s probably illegal to listen to The Specials in the winter. Featured in SHAUN OF THE DEAD, it’s such a fun addition here! For some reason, to me, zombie movies always feel like summer movies. Streets are saying it's because everyone is always sweaty from being chased. The science is unclear.
10. "I'm Gonna Haunt You" by Fabienne DelSol
Apparently, there's an entire subgenre called Spooky Surf, which I guess is Ska adjacent with lyrics that are just a little more on the nose. I found this song recently, and it really makes me feel like I’m on a haunted beach. It's cute, creepy, and a little campy.
11. "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas
This absolute banger of a song will forever remind me of Supernatural. Something about driving across America in an old Impala while hunting demons. It’s got summer written all over it! I also actually watched all of Supernatural in one summer, so the association can’t be undone, I fear.
12. "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany
Unlike "Every Breath You Take," which is creepy because someone is watching you, THIS song is creepy because you're finally alone with them. It showed up in the adaptation of MY BEST FRIEND’S EXORCISM and also Stranger Things, so it’s brimming with that summertime horror nostalgia I mentioned earlier. I absolutely love when a piece of media takes an otherwise fun, innocent song and gives it a completely chilling new context.
Stepping back, I can see that most of the songs on this playlist do just that. Actually, I think that’s exactly how I would describe the very nature of Summerween.
Here’s to a spooky summer!
