Music Scream-Worthy Soundtracks
posted by October 31 at 12:14 PM
onI’m an unapologetic fan of horror films, and by extension, the role that music plays in scaring people senseless. Audible ingredients are obviously important to movies of any genre, but when it comes to building and maintaining suspense, disorienting or disturbing an audience, or just generally creating uncomfortable ambience, a carefully crafted score or soundtrack is a critical tool for a horror film director.
The first time I remember being fundamentally spooked by a soundtrack was when I heard the ghostly strains of theremin that color the score to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1945 psychological thriller, Spellbound. The theremin (pictured below) went on to become the basis for many frightful features, including The Thing From Another World and The Day the Earth Stood Still, the latter of which was composed by Bernard Herrmann.
Herrmann ended up being Hitchcock’s most prominent collaborator and the man responsible for The Trouble With Harry, The Birds, Vertigo, and most notably, the stabbing violins of Psycho. Hitchcock was well aware of the gravity sound added to his work, and always gave Herrmann elaborate directions.
Unsurprisingly, late ’70s and early ’80s slasher films were infected by the same plastic sound that was infiltrating pop music at that time: the synthesizer. While this made for more than a few thoroughly unscary, dated-sounding scores, it was this simple, effective element that made Halloween one of the most disturbing movies of that era. In an effort to stay within the confines of his paltry budget, director John Carpenter composed Michael Myers’ tinny, relentless theme music himself.
More recently, I was impressed by the score for 28 Days Later, composed by Canadian avant garde art punks Godspeed! You Black Emperor, a beautifully paced and intricately constructed post-apocolyptic soundtrack. Despite what I enjoy in non-cinematic contexts, I find it completely distracting when directors recruit industrial rock artists like Trent Reznor (Seven) or Marilyn Manson (the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre) to create a what amounts to a music video soundtrack.
Sometimes the sheer absence of sound or the misappropriation of a formerly benign song as the backdrop for something henious is the most effective device of all. David Lynch used Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams” with chilling results in Blue Velvet, as did Stanley Kubrick with “Singing in the Rain” in themerciless rape scene from A Clockwork Orange.
Locally, one of my favorite connoisseurs of disturbing music is KEXP’s Greg Vandy. Every Halloween, he does a special edition of his Roadhouse show using gothic alt-country and vintage Americana as the foundation. You can listen to this year’s edition here (just click on “most recent show”).
Comments
A Clockwork Orange's rape scene used "Singing In The Rain", not "In Dreams".
Right, accidentally left that out, thanks Fnarf. Fixed now.
ditto FNARF's comment.
it should be noted that the clockwork orange rape scene took the longest to shoot (three or four days) of the entire film and was largely improvised.
kubrick got the rights to singin' in the rain for a ridiculously low sum (something like $10k, which is unheard of today).
i always get confused between 28 days and 28 days later. which is the really creepy one with sandra bullock?
The goblins soundtrack for George Romeros 'Dawn of the dead' and those Agento films like 'Susperia' those synthesizers and howling ghosts effects freak me out
Don't forget the best use of the theremin ever: Scooby Doo.
Actually, that's Goblin, not the Goblins.
C Average playing a live soundtrack to F.W. Murnau's silent film classic "Nosferatu" on Halloween at the EMP a couple years ago was quite epic and very EVIL.
C Average playing a live soundtrack to F.W. Murnau's silent film classic "Nosferatu" on Halloween at the EMP a couple years ago was quite epic and very EVIL.
Ditto to #5. Suspiria is a bad movie, but the soundtrack is creepy as fuck.
Who could ever forget the soundtrack to the original 'Omen'? Choruses in Latin, for what have to be the freakiest church hymnals ever recorded.
Um, Old Testament church hymnals to be more specific.
That excerpt of " East Hastings" by GSYBE was awesome and made 28 Days Later so good. Too bad they couldn't include it on released soundtrack lp. i mean cd.
The goblins soundtack stuff is wonderful in a creepy prog rock kinda way.
Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai can get hairy and heavy as well.
Too many good soundtracks to choose from!
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