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Originally Posted by Rik  As I've mentioned elsewhere, for my final assignment in my Music Technology course I have to conduct a study about a specialist subject of my choice involving music. I've chosen to do mine about the importance and relevance that music has in horror films.
So, what are your thoughts on this subject?
Would John Carpenters Halloween have worked without his excellent score?
Do films like the The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity prove you don't need music to create a suspenseful atmosphere?
I've already started collecting my research resources and would like to include the opinions of fans like myself, preferably from both sides of the argument so any help with this will be most appreciated.
I will be using screenshots of this thread as part of my final piece of work so if anyone would prefer not to be included then please still post your comments and I will ensure that your name is blanked out of the pics, thanks in advance Rik |
I think you just have to look at the way the scores to Jaws and Psycho are part of pop culture, to get your answer.
As an effective score allows the director of a horror film to get an audience on the edge of their seats without even showing his "monster".
As for Halloween, one of it's producers, Irwin Yablans has talked about seeing an early cut without the score and feeling it wasn't scary at all.
Yet he then goes on to say when he watched the finished film with an audience, some people were covering their ears because of the creepy score.
Another good example is Suspiria, which is one of the most unique looking films of the genre, yet it's score is equally celebrated among it's fans.
And on a personal note, I once attended a screening of Night of the Living Dead. (Which I had already seen many times before on TV and video) And the one thing I took away from it, was the score. Which I never thought was particular effective before hand, yet I ended up buying 3 or 4 DVDs of the film until I found a copy with the original score in place.