Watch & Learn: Lessons From Rotor’s Five Favourite Spooky Music Videos

This Halloween season, discover how to release visuals that resonate!

As the crispy days of October roll in, Halloween decorations emerge from basements, and the scent of pumpkin spice invades every café, one truth remains eternal: spooky season is content gold.

Fear is one of humanity’s most primal emotions, and for reasons only our DNA can explain, we love being scared silly. Horror has been a cinematic staple since the earliest days of film, and it’s no surprise that music videos – from glossy pop hits to indie gems – borrow freely from the eerie, bizarre and macabre genre.

For independent musicians, sticking to trends in seasonality isn’t just about appealing to the masses; it’s a lesson plan. Tapping into these cultural waves keeps your content timely, shareable, and relevant. A well-timed Halloween release can catch the seasonal algorithm boost and help you reach new listeners. 

Draw your attention here, goblins and ghouls, for our top five favourite spooky-themed music videos, and learn how you can apply these lessons to your own visual content.

"Disturbia"– Rihanna

📽️ Directed by Anthony Mandler

Rihanna’s “Disturbia” doesn’t need vampires or chainsaw-wielding maniacs to unsettle you. Instead, it bombards the viewer with a stream of uncanny images: white contact lenses, tarantulas, disappearing limbs, and a zombie shuffle that looks to be straight out of the John Landis-directed music video for “Thriller.” It’s chaotic, surreal, and strangely irresistible. 

💡THE LESSON: You don’t need a massive budget to create whatever kind of Halloween-type atmosphere you’re going for. If you’re leaning more traditional, think cobwebs, flickering candles, unsettling shadows, or ghostly overlays. Here, costumes and makeup are your secret weapon: they can transform even a DIY set into a spine-tingling affair. Getting spooky isn’t always about blood, guts, and gore – it’s about contrast, tension, and mood.

"Witchy" – KAYTRANADA ft. Childish Gambino

📽️ Directed by Bethany Vargas

By name and nature, “Witchy” turns a recording studio into a supernatural lair, blending tailored Gucci getups with spellbinding choreography. The sorceress at the center slowly pulls Gambino and KAYTRANADA under her influence, until the studio itself feels infinite and otherworldly. 

💡THE LESSON:  Lean into the throws of encapsulating and enchanting worldbuilding. Even a familiar setting (your bedroom, rehearsal space, backyard) can morph into something magical with all the right lighting and angles. When it comes to the edit, you can really have fun and perfect that unsettling feeling. Play around with disorientation; use shaky cuts, mirrors, and distorted visuals to keep your fans guessing. Close-up shots can help create a sense of unease and suspense. If you’re brave, throw in a jump scare (or two).

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"Taste" – Sabrina Carpenter

📽️ Directed by Dave Meyers

Equal parts campy horror and dark rom-com, “Taste” (featuring 21st century scream queen, Jenna Ortega) is a gory love triangle gone left. Die-hard fans know that camp has a special place in horror aesthetics, and Sabrina Carpenter’s third single off Short n’ Sweet nods to one of the genre's most iconic influences: Death Becomes Her. Weapons are strapped, limbs fly, electrocutions abound, and yet, it all lands a bit closer to a fun-filled, cartoonish parody than a genuine fright fest. So, envision the Tarantino-directed flick, but with a wink. 

💡THE LESSON: When it comes to Halloween-based content, you don’t have to be deadly serious. Camp, parody, and dark humour can be just as effective. All in all, the key is aligning your aesthetic with your vision. Whether you’re gritty, tongue-in-cheek, dreamy, or nightmarish, tailor the spook factor to your style. That authenticity is what fans connect with.

"Frankenstein" – Rina Sawayama

📽️ Directed by Jak Payne

Step inside Rina Sawayama’s Halloween house party — and feast your eyes upon anything but ordinary. The heightened affair quickly descends into chaos, as her leather-clad monster alter ego takes over. With a mix of stylish visuals, references and psychological tension, it’s both unsettling and wildly fun, bringing a modern-day relevance to the classic, original story. Of the video, Sawayama said: “This track revolves around the idea of someone putting me back on my feet when I’m broken. I am in pieces, before being recomposed by a person who reassembles the parts. It is a very human and realistic experience, of reconstruction, of creating a new me.” 

💡THE LESSON: Gather your friends, grab your camera, and craft your own ghastly get-together with natural scenes and a few clever twists. To captivate viewers and ensure audience retention, as well as shareability, you want to craft a compelling narrative that has a clear, eerie plot. Choose costumes that reflect classic horror themes, or use detailed makeup and special effects for some added realism. A haunted mansion is nice, but you don’t need a Hollywood set to make something memorable. Sometimes raw energy, charisma and personal connection resonate deeper than polished perfection.

"Kids" – MGMT

📽️ Directed by Ray Tintori

Equal parts surreal and disturbing, MGMT’s “Kids” shows a toddler tormented by monsters (fear not: behind-the-scenes footage proved the child was having fun). Unbeknownst to his mother, the creatures surround the child’s crib and flex their claws, before appearing as monsters on what should be a familiar afternoon stroll. The visual mixture of live action and animation (featuring the band’s lead singer, Andrew VanWyngarden, shapeshifting into a giant, ghastly creature) largely explores themes of fear, innocence, and transformation. 

💡THE LESSON: Storytelling matters. Even the simplest narrative – a child seeing the world full of ghastly creatures – becomes unforgettable when paired with unique visuals. If you can combine mediums (animation, puppetry, stop-motion, and more), all the better. Spooky content is most powerful when it taps into universal feelings that lie outside of seasonality: fear, wonder, or childhood imagination.

The Final Cut

From Rihanna’s surreal aesthetics to Sabrina Carpenter’s campy gore, seasonality should be your creative amplifier: the music stays the same, but how it’s framed can double the impact. Remember: you don’t need a film crew or endless hours in an editing suite to capture the moment. With Rotor Videos, you can experiment, edit, and release visuals that resonate – turning every season (spooky or otherwise) into a chance to engage fans and reach new listeners.

Aaand… *POOF!* You’re all caught up with this month’s post from the Rotor Blog! We hope you picked up a few frighteningly creative ideas to fuel your next music video. We’ll see you next month with more insights that keep your visuals as strong as your sound.

Oh – and, Happy Halloween!

Until November,
The Rotor Videos Team