What Makes a Good Horror Film Soundtrack?

What makes a good horror movie soundtrack? There are so many elements of horror music that fascinate me. The relationship between the audio and the visual, the use of silence and the careful construction of suspense, make horror scores really stand out from the crowd. I’ve always been really keen to write for horror as the soundscape can be so experimental and playful. It’s one of the areas of scoring for film that really lets you get into the psyche of the audience and play with how they will perceive the film. It’s also a relationship that demands collaboration. If the two are out of sync, you could be looking at something mismatched removing the essence of the scene or the scare.

Most importantly, a score needs to be created that will ignite the fear response required of the film, but one that is accessible enough for the audience to relate to it. If something too unfamiliar was employed it has the potential of creating a disconnect with the characters, or story rather than bridging the emotional connection.  Needless to say, the relationship between horror movies and the soundtrack have become a partnership to be reckoned with, with some of the most instantly recognisable themes coming from horror movies (see John Carpenters’ Halloween, Alien, or The Exorcist to name a few). An obvious defining element of scoring for horror is the intention to elicit fear and unease, rather than accompany the narrative of the story in a complimentary fashion, by inciting a different emotional response to other types of music. This, the relationship between the horror visuals and music is paramount. 

The essence of writing music for horror is tapping into our primitive fears, using non-linear sounds to emulate distressed animal sounds for example is one way this is achieved. These types of cues can trigger our survival instincts making the viewer to be alert and increasing anxiety. By playing with our emotions and manipulating unfamiliar sounds and dissonance, it can ignite the nervous instinct to flee. It’s easily noticed how these are manipulated in soundtracks. Droning phrases, abrupt dynamic changes, dissonance and heart beats. Pulling you in and pushing you away in a sort-of terrifying dance of emotional frenzy. As John Carpenter puts it, 

‘Horror is a reaction, it's not a genre’ - John Carpenter, Interview Magazine, 2015. 

Quite ironically, one of my favourite things to research in film is the use of silence. A device used in almost every horror film (and every film, for that matter), it is the deliberate use of silence to really get the audience on their nerves. Much like in horror films where a shot lingers in a stationary frame, the very knowledge of the film you are watching will elicit an expected response. When these frames, or these musical phrases linger (or in the music’s case become static or is removed entirely) the audience is anticipating the sting, and they do the rest of the work themselves.

Ultimately, how often do you choose to sit in silence? We live in a culture where noise and distractions are so ingrained in our day to day that removing such things make for an unnerving mood. See for example the recent, A Quite Place, a film which is centred on the idea of avoiding sound and uses very limited dialogue in the film, putting a huge amount of emphasis on the music and sound design elements. 

All in all, I’ve always felt that silence is not so much the absence of sound but rather it’s own sound altogether. 

Anyway, Happy Halloween!

S