FromJohn CarpentertoMarco Beltrami, there are many known male composers that have created tension in their projects. The piano riffs ofHalloweenare rhythmic and ominous. It hints at the slow but persistent approach of Michael Myers, butcher knife gripped in a hand eager to slice. InScream, as Ghostface hunts down a victim, the orchestral score booms in intensity. These are wildly different approaches with the same goal: to terrorize the audience.
For sure, scary movies wouldn’t be the same without its soundtrack. But here are seven female composers that deserve recognition among horror fans. Like their male counterparts, they have attributed their talents to well-known projects, from theFinal Destinationfranchise, to some unexpected entries, like the radioactive crackling of theChernobylminiseries. Which soundtrack will make it onto your spooky playlist?
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Shirley Walker — Final Destination (1-3)
Instead of a visible monster,deathitself is a character that is essentially unseen. Whether it’s a premonition of a plane crash, highway pile up, or amusement park disaster, just because some survive once, doesn’t mean they stay lucky. Death is full of very dark humor and has a preference for elaborate Mouse Trap-like kills. A small crack in a mug full of vodka could leave a trail on the floor that a sudden fire will hungrily catch onto. To anchor these set pieces of morbid thrills, composerShirley Walkerdid the score for the first three in theFinal Destinationseries before her sudden passing. Her score is haunting, as patient as death is.
In speaking withRyan Keaveney, Walker discussed many stories from her career, touching upon the theme that plays during the opening credits for the firstFinal Destination. “What a treat for me to get to write a piece that calls you into the movie and lets you know something bad is going to happen from the get go,” she said. “I think I spent the most time coming up with the dark theme and counter melody for the opening, which carries throughout the score.” In a look behind the scenes of the third film onScoring Sessions, to help her along with the thrills and chills, Walker conducted an orchestra with the aid of a “Gross-O-Meter” nearby to rely upon when needed.
Mica Levi — Under the Skin
Around the same timeScarlett Johannssonwas teaming up forThe Avengers, she was playing a very different role compared to Black Widow. Instead of saving the world, she was causing chaos. After assimilating the body of a young woman, an alien life form travels around Scotland. Her goal is to seduce men that blindly take her up on getting a ride, before she brings them into a dark void that consumes their meat, leaving behind skin. The score byMica Levisounds unearthly and foreign thanks to the composer’s experimental approach. Perfect for a character who becomes confused with their initial objective. This was Levi’s first opportunity scoring, and they truly showed what a horror soundscape could be.
DirectorJonathan Glazerposed questions to Levi in order to help them create the unique score. “Imagine somebody just chucked 20 bottles down a hill,” was one. “What does it sound like to be on fire?” was another. The use of cymbals and figuring out themes to be included were additional elements to Levi’s composition. Five themes were composed for the arc of Johannsson’s alien, with Levi highlighting each as, “her makeup, the cosmos, the aliens, her job music, and her feelings.”
Sonya Belousova — M.F.A.
Natalia Leitedirects this story about a date night gone wrong and a sexual assault that goes unpunished. Noelle (Francesca Eastwood) is an arts student who wants something more to be done. And when others prove useless, she begins her own form of vigilante justice. Along with co-composerGiona Ostinelli,Sonya Belousovasets a mood that escalates with their score forM.F.A.It’s not overwhelming, it’s almost quiet. Something terrible has happened to Noelle, and she has become obsessed with doing something horrible again and again to those she believes deserve it.
OnBehind the Audio, Belousova explained a key ingredient on the soundtrack. “Noelle is changing, and so one word present throughout the whole score is ‘change.’ You can find it almost in every cue, you don’t always hear it, but you subconsciously feel it. Another element is breathing. We recorded short breaths, long breaths, anxious breaths, violent breaths, relaxed breaths, you name it!” The soundtrack amplifies the state of mind of Noelle’s character. At one point, when trying to detail what happened to her to someone who should be listening, it’s clear they aren’t. Noelle realizes the lack of consequences that will come, and any noise slips away as the score builds like her frustration.
Brittany Allen — What Keeps You Alive
ComposerBrittany Allen, who also plays one of the leads inWhat Keeps You Alive, is not too imposing. That works well with the premise where two young women head to a cabin for a romantic getaway. The romance disintegrates with one unexpected moment of violence. Allen’s Jules survives the encounter from Jackie (Hannah Anderson), but it is just the start to the game of cat-and-mouse that they play.
While talking toEWabout her acting process, Allen also talks about the process she put herself through to create the soundtrack. “So with scoring, I would watch a scene a number of times, and I would sit with what it was, really feel into it and let it affect me. And then I would sit at the piano and I would just play, and trust my hands.” The final product is grounded like the realism on display between the film’s two lovers-turned-enemies.
A great example of dread heard throughout the limited series is “Bridge of Death.” It plays on the night of the infamous explosion.Miles away, families gather outside to watch the inferno being put out. In a slow motion sequence, children play in the falling ash and their parents smile, unaware of the toxic danger. These civilians are marked, if not for immediate death, then for the agonizing long-term health effects.
OnPop Disciple,Hildur Guðnadóttirspoke about how she traveled to a decommissioned power plant in Lithuani, to collect sounds from the vast space. “Instead of going inside and slamming doors and banging on things, I found it much more interesting to just open my ears,” she explained. “It was almost like being on a nuclear treasure hunt. I just opened up all of my senses and just searched.” After the recordings were captured, the meticulous process didn’t end there. She then picked apart the hours of noises, locating the best of the bunch: “I found these tiny sounds that were in almost inaudible registers and then brought them down to audible registers to be able to work with them.”
Laura Karpman — Lovecraft Country
Traveling across 1950s Jim Crow America, Atticus (Jonathan Majors), Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance), and friend Letitia (Jurnee Smollett) deal with monsters pulled from the pages of H. P. Lovecraft inLovecraft Country. But while tentacled monstrosities are terrible the racism and bigotry they face is even deadlier with no fictional lore to hide behind.Laura Karpmanteamed up withRaphael Saadiqto tackle the soundtrack for this HBO series.
FromAmerican Songwriter, Karpman got the opportunity to make something as distinct as the show’s (and original novel byMatt Ruff) push to focus on Black characters as the main cast. “The Ardham theme, out of all of them, is the real representation of that idea of gothic R&B, where you’ve got like a really groovy vibe that’s kind of likeTwilight Zone, that’s kind of like characters-with-attitude, and that there’s a classicism to it, which I added in with the orchestra.”
Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch — Censor
The past comes back to haunt, in more ways than one. Enid (Niamh Algar) is a dedicated film censor, passionate in harshly regulating extreme content in movies during the “Video Nasty” movement of 1980s United Kingdom. This moral panic was to protect children who could find these “video nasties” within their parents’ belongings. After viewing a film to censor, Enid links it to the disappearance of her sister and reality blurs with the dark fiction she has been consuming. TheCensorsoundtrack works wonders in returning audiences to the time period, withEmilie Levienaise-Farrouchrecreating the synth sounds of horror cinema’s past.
In an interview withBAFTA Guru, directorPrano Bailey-BondandLevienaise-Farrouch talked about taking inspiration from John Carpenter’s “eerie” and “ambient” synths inThe Fog, to the pulse-pounding threats ofGoblininDeep Red. Levienaise-Farrouch touched upon how her score took on a more intimate nature rather than just setting a tone. To achieve a “high pitch, really pure tone,” for the soundtrack, she used a Japanese instrument, plucking it with a bow for the desired effect. She wanted to blur the lines of where the music was coming from, initially thought to be from the viewing room of Enid’s work, before representing her inner self.
