Horror Music: Uncovering the Sound of Fear

Intro

With its turning leaves and shorter, chillier days, October is the perfect month to stay inside and watch our favorite horror films.  But have you ever wondered exactly what it is that makes scary movies so... scary? Music may play a larger role than you’d think.

The musical scores accompanying horror films have been carefully cultivated to incite feelings of tension, anxiety and fear.  While specific songs of other film genres carry their own unique mood-setting effects, horror music shares similar sound characteristics and techniques that are meant to provide the audience with a sense of suspense.

How does this happen?

How the sound of fear is constructed

In a study orchestrated by Daniel Blumstein at UCLA, he found that “non-linear” sounds are effective when it comes to heightening our fears.  Everyone knows that as sound is increased, it gets louder. Non-linear sound properties use this principle with an additional operative, and there comes a “breaking point” where the sound becomes distorted.

Non-linear sounds are common among wildlife and even humans in situations of distress or fear (shrieks, squeals, etc).  Blumstein explains a career-changing experience with non-linear sound during a TED Talk in which he recalls a time picking up a baby marmot while conducting a field experiment and the screeches it produced out of fear of being captured.  This experience not only startled Daniel, but made him think about ways nature uses sounds to express fear and how it correlates to the way horror music is composed and perceived by the listener.

Blumstein teamed up with film composer Peter Kaye to study how non-linear sounds work in more detail with different film genres. In one of their findings, they noticed how the use of noise (background noise, screams, added instruments, etc.) was increased in horror films compared to dramatic films or comedies.  

In a separate finding, Blumstein and Kaye performed an experiment at UCLA with Blumstein’s colleague Greg Bryant, a professor in communication studies.  Greg, Peter and Daniel composed 10 second audio compositions that portrayed acoustic and natural sound. They exposed a control group to the various audio examples they composed and then measured participants’ excitement levels.  

After showing the group the original compositions, they then distorted them to add increased noise.  They found that participants had greater excitement levels when the distortion was used over the original recordings.  This shows us that the use of additional noise generates a more significant emotional response from the listener, and can be used as a reliable technique when scoring horror films.

Now that we’ve gone over what it takes to construct the sound of fear, we will examine the specific elements of the music from some of our favorite horror films and TV shows to find out what makes each score so spooky.  While this won’t make them less scary to watch, it will give you something interesting to contemplate this Halloween season.

Songs analyzed

1. Stranger Things Theme

2. Psycho

3. Jaws

4. Halloween Theme

5. The X Files Theme

Stranger Things Theme

The theme song from Stranger Things played by the band SURVIVE utilizes the idea of non-linear sounds to introduce the show’s supernatural storyline.  The main melody of Stranger Things is played in the key of E minor and uses a repetitive E minor triad with an added flat 6th (can also be analyzed as a Cmaj7/E, ECEGB. Songs written in minor tonalities carry a darker and more ominous feeling compared to major keys).  

SURVIVE is a heavy synth-based duo that uses various wave-based sound effects over their songs.  Even though the theme behind Stranger Things is a consonant sounding arpeggio, the distorted sound along with the added synth lines and minor tonality gives the song a more ominous feeling.

Psycho

In Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho, there is a terrifying shower scene that is accompanied by slashing violins, a piece written by composer Bernard Herrmann.  This is directly related to what Blumstein experienced when he picked up a baby marmot that began screeching and how uncomfortable it was for him to hear.

The music from the shower scene in Psycho is mostly atonal and begins with a single violin playing a high Eb note.  As the music progresses into the 2nd measure, an E natural note is simultaneously played a diminished octave below the E flat.  What progresses is a series of diminished octaves and major 7th intervals being played by the violins in a descending motif of half-step clusters.  The interval of a minor second is the most dissonant sounding interval used in music. This strong dissonance and crescendo of violins creates a one-of-a-kind frightening sound for the listener that makes the scene unforgettable.

Jaws

Another film score that utilizes the tactic of half step dissonance is from the movie Jaws.  Composer John Williams is well-known for creating brilliant scores for multiple films. Unlike some of his pieces with more ornate melodies, the bass line behind the Jaws theme is very simple.  It starts on an E note and moves up a half step to an F. The music begins slowly and gradually deploys faster rhythms between the two notes. As the music picks up in speed, Williams uses an E flat dominant 7th arpeggio.  This arpeggio creates a strong dissonance which provides the thrilling and suspenseful ambiance to the music when played above the E-F moving bass line… a force not unlike a shark just below the surface.

The Halloween Theme

John Carpenter’s iconic Halloween Theme is eerie, hypnotic, and captures the horror of the film very well.  The Halloween Theme is written in F# minor and uses similar techniques to our  previous examples (dissonance and noise). The theme contains a repetitive C#-F# note movement that completes the phrase by moving up a half step to create a minor 6th interval.  The melody descends a half step for several bars while adding a bass section and violins that are playing major seventh intervals. All this dissonance is accompanied by a kickdrum in the background that simulates a heartbeat.  This touch proved to be successful, as the theme continues to leave generations of audiences with a sense of unease.

The X Files Theme

Just like the Stranger Things theme, The X Files Theme is performed using synthesizers and contains more of a sci-fi and otherworldly element.  The song uses an ‘A’ minor arpeggio with an added flat sixth that repeats throughout the theme, which is the same technique used in Stranger Things.  The melody being played above the arpeggio is using an ‘A’ Aeolian scale, which is consonant yet dark sounding. As the song progresses, it adds a stabbing bass note that resembles the sound of a heartbeat (similar to the Halloween score).  Songs written in minor keys tend to be perceived as being darker than songs written in major keys. The minor tonality of the song takes advantage of this technique.

Conclusion

Distorted sounds, increasing noise, dissonance and minor tonalities are all techniques composers use to portray the dark and foreboding feelings that horror films give audiences.  While each score possesses a unique melody and orchestral design, remember... they all are specifically crafted to leave us feeling scared. So curl up, pop some popcorn, and let the music do its trick.  Happy Halloween!