Horror Movie (song)

"Horror Movie" was the second single from the Skyhooks album Living in the Seventies and was their first number-one single in Australia, staying there for two weeks in March 1975.

The single was greatly helped along by the band's appearance on the then-new ABC pop music TV show Countdown.

Along with "Women in Uniform", "Horror Movie" is widely recognised as one of the Skyhooks' signature tracks. The song itself, written by bass player Greg Macainish, is about how the world has taken a turn for the worse with all of the chaos in society, to the point where watching the nightly TV news is like watching a horror movie.

This song remains popular as a Halloween song in both the United States and Canada. It appears on the compilation album Elvira Presents Haunted Hits.

Legacy
In 1998 Australia Post issued a special edition set of twelve stamps celebrating the early years of Australian rock and roll, featuring Australian hit songs of the late 1950s, the 1960s and the early 1970s. "'Each of them said something about us, and told the rest of the world this is what popular culture sounds like, and it has an Australian accent.'" One of the stamps featured was the "Horror Movie" stamp.

Popular references
Australian Federal Minister for trade Craig Emerson did an impromptu improvisation of the song when answering a question about the mood in Whyalla, singing "No Whyalla wipe-out there on my TV...shocking me right out of my brain" mocking the claim by the opposition leader that Whyalla would be "wiped off the map" due to the carbon tax.

The track was also used during the ending credits of the 2012 film The ABCs of Death, and was incorrectly titled, "Horror Story".