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THE SOUND OF HORROR


"What scares me is what scares you. We’re all afraid of the same things. That’s why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you’ll know what frightens me - John Carpenter

 

Person in a hoodie holding an axe near a door.

 The Shining (1980)

 

The human affinity to get spooked is undeniable. We all love cozying up in the dark, popcorn in hand, and stepping into the world of a horror film. But terrifying people through stories has been an age-old pastime that artists and creators have taken on since the advent of film, namely the mid-1890s with George Mellies' 3-minute horror Le Manoir du Diable, translating into The House of the Devil, popularly believed to be the first ever horror movie made.

The key for any horror film is to immerse the audience in vivid supernatural or natural fears. It webs together basic human anxieties and visceral emotions, tapping into our primal fight or flight response. Visuals play an important part in horror, especially when it is done simply. But the sound design is equally important. The scratching of the violins before the startling jumpscare or the ominous unpleasant tones that tear through a cinema audience are examples of how the art of scare can get amplified with the right sound and has  undeniably evolved alongside technological advances in and around music. 

As inklings of horror first trickled into an audience, the composers used strong elements of orchestral compositions and conventional instruments to score the film. Classical and Operatic music were the go-to for filmmakers, with the classic Frankenstein (1931) theme and Dracula (1931), which featured Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake'. The adventurous composers in the West also worked with electronic instruments such as the Ondes-Martenot (1928), used heavily by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Trautonium (1930), and the versatile Theremin that was first used cinematically by Dmitri Shostakovich in the 1931 Soviet film called Odna (Alone) and became incredibly popular, even appearing in the orchestral scores for Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller Spellbound (1945). 

 

 Salvador Dalí's scenography for Spellbound,1945

Salvador Dalí's scenography for Spellbound,1945

 

Moving towards the mid-20th century, composers such as Bernard Hermann changed the scope of what the genre could achieve. This was when it was apparent - a horror film is elevated by an excellent score. Known as the 'Master of Suspense,' he scored several movies and shows, specifically consulting on the sound design for Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) with Oskar Sala, where they used a Trautonium to create a synthesized soundscape that mimicked the intense bird shrieks and wing flaps. 


As the 1970s were ushered in, horror became more extreme and the scores followed. That’s where the quintessential instrument of horror, the synthesizer, comes in. The harrowing synth lines are a true partner in crime to the guts & gore of cinema and became a staple for the art of striking fear through an audience, a relationship that is strong to this day.



AGE OF THE SYNTHESIZER 


Doctor Robert Moog with his revolutionary invention (1967)

Doctor Robert Moog with his revolutionary invention (1967)

 

"From early on, when synthesizers were first introduced into music, I liked the idea that you could get a big sound with them - electronic, but like an orchestra. And I could play it all by myself. That was exciting." - John Carpenter 

In the mid-1960s, an American electrical engineer unveiled an invention that was going to revolutionize sound. Doctor Robert Moog, invented the first commercially available synthesizer, 'The Moog', smaller, cheaper, and far more efficient than all the older custom-built models. With the advice and feedback of an early customer Keith Merson (from prog-rock ensemble Emerson, Lake & Palmer), they paved the way for the Minimoog, a three-oscillator synthesizer that launched in 1970. Portable, readily available, and cost-effective, these synths were first used popularly by touring rock bands before they fell into the hands of film composers and lower-budget film scores.


A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

 

Rapidly finding its way in the Rock circuit, pioneers of electronic music Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause set up a booth at the Monterey Pop Festival (1967) to showcase the magic of the Moog. They quickly found themselves in demand for studio session work and provided all the synth elements to the score for the psychedelic masterpiece Performance (1970), starring the enigmatic Mick Jagger. Robert Moog's associate David Borden was also commissioned to record the score for William Friedkin's successful The Exorcist (1973). The impact of this sound echoes through the film soundtracks of the 70s and led to an electronic explosion that pulsated through the genre.

Screen grab from the movie The Exorcist (1973)

The Exorcist (1973)


The hollowness of an electric organ, the warmer tones of the Minimoog, and layered stacks of the ARP inspired an Italian band, Goblin, who became a staple for electronic music scores in the mid-70s. Most famous for their circling melodies and the unsettling score built for Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), the band melded folk instruments from around the globe into the synthesizer, creating a creeping uncomfortable atmosphere amongst the audience.


The affordable synths and rise in slasher films were the perfect match made in heaven. With lower budgets and the inability to afford an orchestra, filmmaker John Carpenter took matters into his own hands and wrote the iconic theme for his classic hit, Halloween (1978). Even though he could not read or write music, his natural musicality allowed him to create one of the biggest indie hits that combined menacing framing and one of the most jitter-inducing soundtracks created. The perfect combination for horror.


Carpenter's work was novel and inspired a new generation of composers such as Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave to name a few. They had written an innovative score for Phantasm (1978), infusing prog-rock, repetitive melodies, and elements of disco and drew on avant-garde electronics, starting a whole new fusion within Horror.

 

Screen grab from the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)


From Tim Krog's underrated score in The Boogeyman (1980) to the infamous prickly synths and drenched percussion by Charles Bernstein in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the usage of the sound in the 80s changed to more lush melancholic synth arrangements within film scores. This however didn't diminish the eeriness of a synth, whose sound signified madness, encroaching terror, and the tense sighting of the psychopath. The Sampler did become the new hit device to use in sound & music design in the 80s, but the synthesizer had never fully left the realm of film scores and remains Horror's unsung hero.


THE HORROR OF THE  21ST CENTURY


As the 90s and 2000s rolled in, horror films were taking a new turn. As the more mind-bending stories got, composers went back to the basics of subtlety, allowing the scores to linger in the background without taking focus away from the scene.


For the movie Silence of the Lambs (1991), composer Howard Shore wrote a score that was inconspicuous but was as impactful as the story. Performed by the talented Munich Symphony Orchestra, Shore mostly made use of the largely orchestral sound to denote the character Clarice's internal struggles, and went back to the synthesizer for minor cues, creating a dreadful atmosphere in the final confrontation scene. 


Once the art of horror became much more serious than just a couple of scares, the film scores had to blend into each scene seamlessly. With this minor change, the blatantly eerie synthesizer took a back step and was predominantly used only for emphasis within scenes and outside the world of film. Albums like the otherworldly Persuasion System by Com Truise, Ruinism by Lapalux with its swirling synths, and the LCD Soundsystem's classic Electric Lady Sessions, are a true testament that most experimental musicians and composers still resonated with the bright and lush synthesizer, honing the craft to create otherworldly soundscapes within the space of electronic music.


The absence of the atmospheric macabre and lure of the synths in horror was evident and in the early 2010s, there was a huge revival of the synthesizer in films such as It Follows (2014), where composer Rich Vreeland made use of the sound in the 80's to create an absolute sense of dread within the entire film. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, the composers behind the hit series Stranger Things (2016), also paid homage to the electronic sound pioneers, especially with the bass synths and arpeggios that run through the theme score. Composer, Jonathan Snipes, also scored Starry Eyes (2014)  in a similar manner, where the music and the storyline meet to plunge the viewer into an abyss of paranoia, bringing back the sonic fear tactics used back in the day.

Screen grab from the movie It Follows (2014)

 It Follows (2014)


The low drones of dissonance with eerie whispers of the synthesiser, are like the whispers from the darkest corners of our minds. The genre of Horror reminds us that the language of fear is universal, and the synthesizer speaks it fluently, etching its sinister notes into the very essence of horror cinema. With Hallow's Eve upon us, it's time to dim the lights, put on your favorite Horror flick, and let the otherworldly spine-tingling melodies envelop you once more.



Words by Elizabeth Arthur