Forums Horror Movie Talk
Horror Film Scores: Composers VS Artists

Have you ever sat back and thought about the reasons why we are scared by horror, dragged into uncontrollable sadness in dramas and made to go through gut hurting laughter during comedies. Is it the actors playing there roll correctly and pulling off a very realistic look of fear and death, the special effects teams mixing the fake blood to look just the right color and constency for when it squirts out of that fleshy new cut, The work of the art directors to get the set looking as moody as posble or is it the sound effects and muc?

Back in the day we would have muc composers who would write, record and fit the muc to all of our films with the help from the director to get the perfect compotion of muc and sound effects for the final cut. But now in our current generation we have a whole mixture of mucal talent around the world with genres ranging from punk to dance, metal to folk, blues to acid house and all the crossover genres in between.

There seems to be (at least for me) a very large difference in the muc for film in the new generation of horrors and it has had me questioning if this new use of old and modern tracks in film is lacking the scare and thrill factor that the old clascs used to have on you. There is numerous films that are coming out these days where you can go out and buy there soundtracks after the dvd releases and listen to a compilation of the movies muc tracks but are they scary? do they do the movies any good or just the bands that they are adverting, sure I am all up for the advertisement of bands but if i wanted to find a new one i would read muc zines and go to gigs. If i'm watching a horror film i want suspense, creepy muc, organs that keep you on the edge of your seat.

Some of you may be thinking (if you managed to t through and read this far) there is still horrors that mix both the old and new together and blend it very well in which there is a very good few in which do that, But are composers dying out when it comes to this and having to go to new media forms to get work.

My final concluon is (in my eyes) That we need to have more muc composers back in the horror movie buness to bring back the clasc scores like Hans J. Salter's muc for 'the creature from the black lagoon', John Barry's muc for King Kong, Lalo Schifrin's Amityville Horror, John Carpenter's Halloween.

I will admit that i cant beat a good punk or metal track in a horror film as I am a huge fan of my muc and the meanings behind a lot of the songs that i listen to, But there is something much more fitting in horror with having a composer working with an orchestra to work with the film and do a whole segment of muc that fits the film with perfection and keeps you filled with the thrill, excitement and suspense of a mass murderer chang his victim. But most of all what is it that you yourself enjoy? as with or without you thinking about it, the muc creates most of the mood for any film!

composers for me

anyone know why the poll aint working? Wont even load a vote from me?

I tried to vote and it didn't work for me either but I agree, most of the time bands in films kinda make it cheesy but then you have films like SCREAM (The Original) and they use muc from bands mixed with a horror muc score perfectly.

I think the muc score in INDIOUS is the best to come out in a horror film in a super long time. Not only did Bishara do the muc but he played the Lipstick Demon in the film as well.

Recently I finished a short film with a friend/fellow Bidite and we created our own muc score. Not only was it fun to create the muc score but it was really rewarding as well.

I voted for Mixed because whether to compose a muc score or use a band really depends on the type of film and the moment in that film.