What makes a film score frightening? Expert explains the techniques that build tension and make us jump
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Thursday, October 26, 2023
Beyond any blood-curdling screams or pounding heartbeats, there’s sure to be another sound that sticks in your memory – the score.
Key Points:
- Beyond any blood-curdling screams or pounding heartbeats, there’s sure to be another sound that sticks in your memory – the score.
- Perhaps that’s the shrieking strings of Psycho (1960), or the pulsing piano melody and ominous bass of the Halloween franchise (1971-2022).
- Maybe it’s the eclectic score for Suspiria (1997) – which combined instruments including synthesizers, Greek bouzouki, Indian tabla and whispering voices.
The science of a scary score
- It shuns melody for repeated high-register violin pitches and builds by gradually adding strings to expand the dissonant underlying chord.
- Take Inception (2010), for example, with its recurring guitar motif and building, dissonant, string stabs.
Researching scary scores
- These drones convey space and ambiguity, given the void between them and any high melodic fragments.
- The high string lines in soundtracks to film such as Psycho acoustically imitate the “roughness” or harsh qualities of screams.
- Whispered or shouting voices often feature in horror scores, as do sounds emulating the human heartbeat.
- This can be heard in Oppenheimer’s use of ticking sounds from the Geiger counter, a device used to detect radiation.
- Such reactions are one key reason why we keep returning to scary films and clearly demonstrate the emotional impact of film music.
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David Ireland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.