It goes almost without saying that film is by no means a solely visual medium. Even the silents were in some way accompanied by music. My very own great grandmother, for instance, played the piano during silent movies at a small theater some place in Pittsburgh. She’d also get real drunk, open up her bedroom window during the wee hours, and scream then close the window and watch to see whose lights came on.
The nut don’t fall far, do it?
Obviously sound has come a long way, so here’s a list of 7 Sadistic Soundscapes. I wanted all “S” words for the alliteration, specifically sibilance (smooth, right?) and chose “sinister.” “Spooky” was too friendly, and “sadistic” goes a little too far for some of these. Hear we go.
#7 Irréversible
Sure, by now everyone knows this pretty much comes down to that whole 28 Hz thing, but still, worth pointing out. I don’t remember feeling nauseated or anything, but it does make me antsy. Oddly enough, it’s even worse knowing it’s there.
#6 Berberian Sound Studio
Here’s a movie that flew well under the radar which is a damn shame. Toby Jones plays a sound engineer working on what turns out to be a giallo film (he was under the impression it was a movie about horses). There’s a film-within-a-film subplot, and lots of footage of Foley artists at work. The movie is as much about sound as it is about story, and the sound design supports this with all its crunching, squelching, largely “wet” sounding effects.
#5 Eraserhead
Squishy, squealy, crunchy, grindy, and stuff that makes me wonder “What the fuck was that?”
#4 Psycho
It’s mostly score here, plus, y’know, the but that score is Bernard Hermann. There’s also a great discussion in 78/52 about stabby noises and casaba melons.
#3 Suspiria (1977)
Goblin, am I right? I’ve seen reviews calling Suspiria’s soundtrack their masterpiece. But along with the musical score is the voice use. Off-kilter lullabies, whispers of “witch,” these help fuel the unease that there’s something more sinister around even when it’s not on screen (and surely a forerunner to Friday The 13th). Incidentally, there are lotsa cool Suspiria posters. I used this one cuz I gots a t-shirt of it.
#2 The Birds
I mean, ain’t a lot new here, but it was just about unheard of at the time of its release. There’s no traditional score here as such. The bird sounds were both real and created on a thing called a Mixtur-Trautonium. The first Trautonium was manufactured by Telefunken, the good folks who brought us the Telefunken U47. But I digress. There’s only a couple instances of music: Tippi Hedron playing piano, and kids singing at school. In my head I always hear shock chords when Jessica Tandy finds the farmer, but no, it’s completely silent which is just eerie.
#1 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I really struggled with this one. Ultimately, part of what makes The Birds sound design unnerving is its sheer novelty which, while effective, also makes it intriguing. There is nothing intriguing about the auditory assault Texas Chainsaw inflicts. Every single thing about the film literally screams brutality, from the inside of the van in the Texas heat to the closing chainsaw dance to almost all the underlying sounds. Close your eyes during the dinner scene, and it’s still tough to sit through. The best word I can think of encapsulate Hooper’s use of screams, synths, and strings is sadistic. It’s one of the few examples I can think of where I’d describe even the film’s sound as grimy.
And that’s today’s soundscape. So listen up (heh). As per protocol, head down to the Comments and, well, sound off about what movies upset or traumatized your tympanic membranes.
Just as creepy as the kids singing in school of The Birds is Argento’s Deep Red’s childish song: once you see the movie you can never ever forget it! And then there’s the two-note soundtrack of Jaws, literally the OST of all of my summer vacations, when I carefully scan the water surface looking for fins… even in the swimming pool!
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I was gonna put Jaws on the list, and I actually did manage to forget about Deep Red
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I’m generally a mostly visual guy – probably due to my the way my brain works so I’ve never really been too much into audio. I do love early Carpenter scores though. And that thing they did in 28Days Later blew my mind.
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I’ve forgotten what they did in 28 Days Later
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Eraserhead and The Birds are both great at getting you to feel uneasy with audio, plus I love the movies. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is just brutality through and through, it doesn’t pull you in it jumps out and assaults your senses. Great piece of work but definitely a shock to the system.
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I think it was John Landis who said something along the lines of watching Hitchcock, you feel like you’re in the hands of a master, but watching Tobe Hooper you feel like your in the hands of a maniac
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They both have a certain appeal.. depends on your mood!
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