Then we move forward into the future, where he has taken a job at a school in Seattle and is trying to put his life back together. Keeping these tricks in mind, filmmakers can harness sound as a powerful tool to create chilling movies that sustain suspense and incite terror.John Russell (played by George C Scott) is a New York-based composer who, in the opening moments of the film, watches his wife and child being killed in a car accident. Sound shouldn’t just exist as secondary components in a scene, but help to add texture to the film’s artistry. All it takes are brief, simple notes to hint at danger: the deep, rumbling growls of an alien or discordant chords signal a looming fatal encounter with a psychotic murderer. Introducing the sudden slam of kitchen cabinets or faint children’s laughter in an empty house are ways to turn the everyday into the unnerving.Ĭomposers and sound designers rely on a mix of technical mastery and psychology to create an atmosphere of perpetual danger through a creative use of audio. This is most evident when movies take a familiar setting and add subtle, but jarring disruptions. Though horror movie soundtracks share technical elements to produce reliable scares, evoking fear through audio is most effective when it plays off of audience expectations to establish the tone of a scene. Photo from Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Synthesizers were the instrument of choice for the horror and sci-fi genres. Budget concerns were one of the motivations for the use of synths like the Moog modular, but their unique blend of natural and artificial sounds parallel the disturbing scenes, leading to some of the most recognizable themes even beyond the horror genre. Synthesizers were a staple in 70’s and 80’s slasher soundtracks, such as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) and George Romero’s Day of the Dead (1985). Musicians took advantage of music technology to create haunting scores and atmospheric sound effects. Photo by Rythik / UnsplashĪ rise in the popularity of electronic instruments catapulted horror from the silent to modern era, allowing more experimentation with sound design and music. Infrasounds can be caused by natural phenomena such as howling wind and thunderstorms. ![]() A common technique composers use is to insert these sounds throughout a score, further aggravating the viewers’ feelings of disorientation. Because of the way human brains are evolutionarily wired, we’re conditioned to associate them with impending danger. Source: WikipediaĪs found in a 2011 study by University of California, infrasounds are sounds that are characterized by their low frequency (below 20 Hz) and can be caused by natural disasters and severe weather conditions like thunderstorms and earthquakes. The iconic shower scene is complemented by shrill, piercing strings, mirroring the victim’s screams and slashing of the killer’s knife. These are known as “non-linear” sounds, evident in the score of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho (1960). Some of the earliest, notable examples of this are early movies like The Terror (1938) and Dracula (1931). To amp up the tension, composers often introduce sounds that disrupt viewers’ psychological state. ![]() Filmmakers know there’s something about certain notes and noises that evoke a sense of dread that’s hard to shake off. ![]() Horror films are great at using sound to compound the anxiety you feel as you witness events unfold onscreen a film’s score may feature a persistent low hum which only makes the creaking stairs and hushed whispers across a room more unsettling. ![]() While your eyes might be reacting to visual terror, the thrill of watching a scary movie is intensified by deviously manipulated sound and musical elements.
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