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It doesnt take a film scholar to know that sound is absolutely essential to an effective horror movie.
Hereditary, Colin Stetson
Colin Stetsons score forHereditaryis ever-present, both literally and symbolically.
What was that?Those are all contact mics that I put on the keys of specific instruments.
In one of the first major incitement scenes, theres a contrabass clarinet piece thats entirely built around it.
There were probably 12 mics alone in that one track.
Theres a number of other things orchestrating around it, but the core being the solo live-rendered clarinet piece.
I did everything on the score.
More to me they sound like they sound almost identical, actually, to recordings of swarms of bats.
Im playing with the idea of hiding in plain sight.
We were there right from the beginning, says Salisbury.
With Alex we get to feel like were part of a filmmaking team, not just composers.
So did you guys assemble a vision board filled with horrifying images on it and H.R.
Or do you work purely off the film?Ben:No.
Literally the film is your guide and Alex.
But you cant introduce that otherness too early, because then you got nowhere to go.
So then its creating a musical palette.
We didnt massively want to do an electronic score forAnnihilation.
We sort of held off.
Theres no electronics in it until you get to the alien part.
Geoff:Its basically organic instruments that are altered, like what was happening in the Shimmer.
There was this instrumentcalled the waterphone,which is acoustic, but its a bowed metal thing.
Thats what we wanted to do.
Just, how many sounds can we get out of it?
Because its such a weird instrument.
It does really low sounds and really screechy sounds, so youre lucky in that sense.
But we couldnt get that far.
What about the alien encounter?
I think in that respect we were scoring the otherness of the situation, was the overriding thing.
The alien isnt necessarily overtly frightening.
Its not a baddie in the traditional sense.
It doesnt have any feelings.
Its literally just responding to her, and so we scored it as a psychedelic dance in a way.
And its to everyones great credit that it wasnt.
It seems like a very fun challenge to do with music.Both:Absolutely.
Geoff:We both like making music that pushes buttons.
Weve been very lucky.
The strings and percussion frequently offbeat and sometimes atonal feel threatening and uncomfortable.
Friedlander talked to Vulture about what makes a great suspense score in his book.
How would you assess the role of music in a suspense cinema?
Do you consider it a foreground or a background element?Its background, but its very aggressively background.
I mean, I dont know.
Maybe it is foreground.
This background element is there to provoke and scare you in suspense films.
One of the most suspenseful films I know of is the firstAlien.
Theres hardly any music at all for long periods of time.
You dont need a lot of music and stabbings all the time.
I think its gotten a little over the top.
But, its part of the game with that kind of genre of film.
I tend to go for creating sounds for each film using found-object-key in things.
Im really proud of that track because it doesnt sound like anything Ive ever heard before.
Thats not what the audience needs to feel at this moment.
Its about leading the audience to the fear.
So you starred in this film and composed the score, which is obviously atypical.
Then essentially he just said, Okay, go.
Give it a shot.
So I sat down at the piano, and right away it came pretty naturally.
And [Colin] never changed that piece.
At the end of the day its like, How can I make the audience feel uncomfortable here?
How can I make it not super-pleasant to listen to?
How did you define the musical themes of your villain?
Shes getting ready and you are seeing her ritual and its very cool and calculated.
She is very methodical.
Shes not emotional, but theres this foreboding, persistent, she-will-not-give-up vibe.
As Im talking to you right now Im like pulsing my fists slightly to a little beat.
Thats expressing it better than my words are able to right now.
It was about creating thisTerminator-pop in vibe without it beingTerminatorat all.
I think this was a moment where bass really started to kick in and it was this unrelenting rhythm.
Its more the music that could be in the veins of all the characters.
How could you say in English?
like dont do that!
We dont need any drama.
We need something physical.
We need something abstract.
We need something that gets you by the guts.
But not from your emotion, and not from your feeling.
As long as I work, its there.
So theres always a picture running on the TV screen when Im playing something.
What does it mean for you to grab someone by the guts?
Is that creating anxiety?
Something very related to instinct, like when you are scared to death and you just want to survive.
That kind of thing.
So for you, is the music like character onscreen to you?
The music for me it was more like a stage, you know?
In a way, the characters except for Jen, of course, the heroine dont really matter.
Its all whats happening there and how bad it got.
The finale is so amazing in its execution.
Was there something unique you applied to that particular scene?
And she was always asking for more, and more violence, and more brightness, and more blood.
Thats what she said about the shooting, that she was always asking, More blood!
And she was exactly the same in the studio.
Even when I thought it was too much, she was saying it wasnt enough.
It was late at night and we were still pushing it further.
So it was really quite intense, and also something very orgasmic in a way.
Something really like, Aaaaah!
Okay, so he can go even harder.
It was very interesting.
