Musical scores in horror films
A lot of the main tension in Horror Films is built by playing a musical score along side the footage. Disturbing soundtracks (non- digetic sound in movies) are often the key in building suspense and terror, whether its the screech of violins in 'Psycho', or the deep chords in 'Jaws', they support the motion picture's aim of terrifying the audience. The music can sometimes be so terrifying in the horror genre that scientists researched reasons as to why music can be so chilling. They claim that non-linear sounds that represent the noise of familiar sounds, for instance screams, are often incorporated into the most famous scores to tap into instinctive fears.
Horror films in the 1930's like 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' used next to no music at all aside from in the title sequence. This carried forth trough the 40's and 50's, with films only using jolting sounds, however it is believed that the revolution of the musical score arrived in the 1960's due to Bernard Herrmann's famed score in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's horror 'Psycho'. The score included the ear piercing screech of violins that coincided with the stabbing of a knife in the infamous shower scene.
Bernard Herrmann
Other composers that helped shape the modern day use of musical scores are John Carpenter for 'Halloween' (1978), William Friedkin for 'The Exorcist' (1973) by using a compilation of sounds including Mike Oldfield's 'The Tubular Bells'.
The accompaniment of combination music created a whole new league of horror films, as silence became too familiar and calming. the use of scores consequent in the audience being constantly on edge. It also emphasises the use of climaxes, as the pitch and volume increase during a piece of music.
In our own movie opening we hope to include a combination of silence and understated music in order to create a tension that will withhold the suspense throughout the scene.
By Alexandra Gibson
No comments:
Post a Comment