Spooky Season

Since it is spooky season, (Halloween is my favorite holiday) I started thinking about some of the movies that really scared me… the ones that made me look over my shoulder, check under my bed, make sure the closet door was closed, and sleep with all the lights on. I realized as I was thinking about the movies, that the musical scores and sound effects were equally interesting. I got curious about the process of choosing certain sounds and musical scores to set the tone of a scene.

I immediately thought of Friday the 13th, that eerie and infamous “ha ha ha, chi chi chi” sound. I can recall seeing the first Friday the 13th with my brother, we both snuck in to watch it at the theatre. I also remember covering my eyes through a lot of scenes but that sound, scared the CRAP out of me. I ended up discovering that the idea behind the eerie chant was actually the idea of composer Manfredini, and was not “ha ha ha, chi chi chi”, it was “ki, ki, ki, ma, ma, ma” – after the “Kill her mommy” phrase Jason’s mom would maniacally repeat in the movie. The idea behind this sound was to give the viewer an auditory cue that the killer was around even though he couldn’t be seen.

Of course, must mention Alien – facehugger screams, alien eggs hatching, and the dripping noises of slimy, alien saliva. I remember watching that movie and thinking about how absolutely and freakishly quiet it got in scenes too – the vacuum of space and no sound was eerie to me, I hated that emptiness. It was a genius idea. I don’t really recall their being a great movie score, in a musical score kind of way, but I remember the sound effects exponentially increasing the creepy factor.

Last but certainly not least – the music theme from Halloween. What I love about it, is that when anyone hears that particular cadence of notes, they instantly think of that movie. After doing some research, I discovered that this was a really odd music time signature – 5/4 time. So in a typical 4 beat measure, there are five notes or beats being played – giving that odd and quick cadence of the song. Throw in the creepy melody, which slides into minor keys here and there and terrifying theme song achieved.

We have been talking about dabbling with the storyboard idea, telling stories and using sound to make the story come alive. While we haven’t officially made any plans, the idea of doing music and sound solely to accompany a story, intrigued us. While this is something several podcasts and YouTube channels offer, due to having a studio, we thought it would be cool to be able to create our own music and sound effects. It also sounded really fun. If we do decide to try it out, we will certainly post updates here.

In the meantime, everyone have a great Halloween and remember, you only need to be faster than the person you are with to escape a zombie apocalypse. Also, feel free to comment with your favorite scary movie, book, or storyteller. We are always up for a good scare.