I was looking at Netflix over the past week and I saw a movie that I have not seen in forever: Insidious: Chapter 2. I love horror movies and the Insidious series is, in my opinion, one of the better modern horror films. Not only did it have a chilling story and ghosts, but it also had a memorable soundtrack that only added to the entire film's unsettling tone and chills. As I was watching it again, I also began thinking about the broad expanse that is horror and the what it takes to be a good horror soundtrack, and then, movie.
Horror, as a whole, is a very picky and interesting thing. As one of my favorite genres, I understand the background of horror and why it is the way it is. Yet horror movies have taken a turn for the worse in the past few years as there have been loads of them with little to no quality behind them. It has become hard for horror fans to enjoy the movies since they do not seem to show any attempt to be unique and take horror to the next level. Horror has always been controlled by the average person, taking their deepest fears and turning them into a situation on the big screen. Movies with aliens in the vastness of space, demons, possessed dolls. Many horror movies take these broad fears to bring in viewers. Insidious: Chapter 2 takes everyone's curiosity and fear of ghosts and shows a classic example of what horror should normally be. Movies, as a whole, have always been about unifying people and making people from different backgrounds and worlds come together into one. As you look at the world, you can see what brings people together: disaster and fear. Seeing others in despair and trouble causes even the most harsh and uncaring individuals to help. So it only makes sense that a genre such as horror, which focuses on pitting characters against the common person's biggest fears, works well at doing so.
Insidious: Chapter 2 (Original Motion Picture Score) takes a more traditional approach to horror soundtracks. Since the soundtracks for horror come from many different genres of music, it becomes refreshing to see a soundtrack return to a base of orchestral instruments. This reminds me of older movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Psycho. The soundtrack is composed by Joseph Bishara, known for his experimentation within his musical pieces, utilizing strange chords and synthetic effects to make the music more unsettling shows one of main traditions of horror soundtracks: experimentation.
Just look at a song like "Insidious Ch. 2". It takes the beautiful sound of string instruments and puts them together to make a much more scary noise, with the quiet bass being used to lull you in like a whisper over your shoulder. It takes you into the darkness, called the Further in the movie, and makes you anxious and worried about whatever jumpscare may come next. I do not know what is coming, but it sure knows that I am, so it just waits for me to continue the movie. It begs me to listen even though I know what's coming, just as I cannot look away from the screen when I know the monster is about to jump out.
So Bishara knows how to take something beautiful and make it the complete opposite, connecting with the fans of traditional horror and even some musicians. Every time I listen to a songs like "Ghost photographs", "time to forget", "empty home" I find that I go into a trance-like state. The songs are beautiful in their own right and while some would disagree definitely take some finesse to create. The sounds are very subtle and are that way intentionally so. These songs still have an underlying sound of horror and despair, but they are so smooth and calming that you, as a viewer, lower your guard for just a few moments and become unprepared for the next minute or two.
They are there to bring viewers in and keep them listening and watching the movie. This is where the idea that horror has been shaped by the average person comes into play. Most people fear ominous music and over time people have shown a sense of security around music that seems calm and subtle. In "Don't You Dare" the song tries to bring the viewer into a calming (if you can even call it that) state which is turned around at 0:26 by the entrance and build up violins and piano to bring back the ominous feeling and at 0:57 and 1:50 throw the viewer right back into the hell they know they are there for.
Horror is something that is supposed to scare and so what would a horror movie be without some jump scares to take the viewers and give them all heart attacks at the most inopportune times. These have always been part of horror and you can almost see at least one jump scare in every horror movie seen. Take "only Ghosts left" which begins very strangely with unnerving chords and notes. It just screams that something bad is going to happen and then at 0:45 the song takes a complete turn and becomes very calming and fades out, but it is not finished. At 1:08 a cacophony of sounds hits me and I can feel my heart start beating within my chest.
Other songs like "this is My room" do not care to make you feel safe or calm at any point. The song is truly focused on making you unsettled and on edge. It wants you to react to it and become paranoid for the next 10 min in anticipation of a jump scare. It also causes you to wonder what could develop next? What could possibly be worse?
Beyond being scared or terrified, there is only one thing I find worse: not knowing what is out there. "are you Here" is a perfect example of this sort of mystery that has come back time and time again in horror. Horror utilizes this because culture and human nature as a whole wants to fill in the pieces of something not understood. Through the ominous sounds present throughout the entire song the listener can still hear some kind of searching or emptiness within it. The song uses this emptiness to pull in the viewer and get them thinking without them even knowing, it works with the scene to have the viewer begin wondering. They do not know what is there or if anything is there and hence the title of the song itself. They fear what they do not know or understand (like many people) and want to make sure they know what is attacking them. They just want to know why like so many other people in the world.
The way this soundtrack, and any good horror movie soundtrack, succeeds is if it takes a seat in the background and puts ideas in the subconscious of the viewer and pits their imagination against them. They never know what is coming and it causes the fear to be universal. Everyone watching the movie feels the same and looks over the music in the background of the tense scenes. As I mentioned earlier, horror is something that brings people together. As a group of people watching the same thing, we all feel the same thing and fear the same thing. It is this ability to bring all types of people together that really says something about culture and horror movies (heck, all movies) as being something larger than a two hour span of jump scares, suspense, and mystery.
Insidious: Chapter 2 (Original Motion Picture Score) is a great example of a horror soundtrack and works well with the movie itself to instill fear in the viewer. It does exactly what the best horror movies of the past have done: experiment. It takes the traditions and ideals of traditional horror and slightly tweaks them in an attempt to give the viewer a new experience that really gives me an uneasy feeling every time I watch it. I know that when I watch this movie, the story can bring me in and raise my heartbeat and the soundtrack can make me feel cautious and unsafe. Bishara has created many horror soundtracks before and it does not feel like he let any horror fans down in the making of this one either. But anyways, next time you hear something in the darkness, listen to the background music.
0 comments:
Post a Comment