The Horror of Repeating
There was a Chinese torture method in which continuous cold water was slowly dripped onto a captive’s head or scalp for a prolonged period. As you’d imagine, what at first might start as refreshing would turn to unsettling, then eventually substantial fear and anguish.
Repetition can be horrific.
I’m currently working on writing the score for a horror feature film. There are many tools in the horror music toolbox when it comes to how to musically evoke suspense and fright, but today I want to talk about what I think is the simplest and most effective, and one I keep coming back to (haha): Repetition.
I’ll say that again: repetition.
Many people would say that what makes something scary is that something is “unknown,” that that would also relate to scary music as well: unknown sounds are scarier then sounds that are familiar.
While this concept of the unknown can be useful for film scoring, I find that sometimes something familiar and looping it so many times that it becomes unsettling can be just as powerful.
Musical repetition can come in a number of forms, but is particularly unsettling the more simple it is. A melody could be repeated, but I find that a single note or rhythm is usually all that you need.
I want to highlight some great examples of minimal, repetitive musical cues doing so much to bring suspense, fear, and propulsion to films.
Dun, Dun… in Jaws (1975)
To begin, let’s start with an iconic example from the quintessential American film composer John Williams and his pairing with the quintessential American film director Steven Spielberg: it’s Jaws!
Parodied hundreds of times at this point but what is simply a two note looped theme (eventually really 3 notes), Jaw’s main theme is at this point eternal. You know it immediately when you hear it and understand instinctively the feelings it’s bringing forth. In the film, it’s use signifies the giant shark is about to attack, but since 1975 it’s been recycled into any number of suspenseful moments throughout film and television.
Three notes can do a lot. It helps that they are in a relative lower pitch (usually indicating something darker & scarier due to its prominent overtone pitch blending), a half-step apart (giving us a feeling of tenseness since the pitches are so close together), and repeat with hastening speed (giving us a feeling that something is getting closer).
Spielberg originally thought the score idea was a joke, but sometimes it’s good to lean into the simple.
Two Notes in Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Actually, the Jaws theme isn’t really 2 notes, there’s a lot more going on in the theme. But this iconic scene from Stanley Kubrick’s last film Eyes Wide Shut uses a Ligeti composition that is literally two notes.
Just like a movie wanting a resolution, certain music asks for resolution. A piece like this never really gives it to you and that ends up being extremely unsettling. Drawing out this immensely suspenseful scene… Will he remove his mask?
Kubrick also uses Ligeti all over his film 2001: A Space Odysee, which is debatably more unsettling, but there’s a bit more going on in those pieces compared to this one.
Slow Build in The Favourite (2018)
What’s more simple than two notes? Let’s try try one.
In Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2018 film The Favourite, various pre-recorded music is used instead of the film having a unique score, very Kubrickian. (I wrote about how Lanthimos only recently used a composer for scoring his film Poor Things in a previous post.)
One of the film’s great needle drops is an amazing slow burn of a piece called “Didascalies” by modern classical composer Luc Ferrari. For the first half of the entire composition, it’s mostly one single note, played on various different instruments, repeating and slowly growing in complexity.
While one might tire of the purposefully redundant composition in a concert hall or on Spotify, in a film its utilization is completely the opposite, pulling you in with interest as it goes.
Unfortunately, a clip of the song’s full use isn’t floating around on YouTube, so I’ve linked the trailer, where it’s use starting at around 1:10 does provide some tension, but I urge you to seek out the full movie.
Oil Rig Music in There Will Be Blood (2007)
Admittedly, I never got into Radiohead, but bandmember Jonny Greenwood is my favorite working film composer today.
There Will Be Blood, the mesmerizing, mythic oil film from Paul Thomas Anderson has one of my favorite film scores ever. Much of the score isn’t actually score at all, in the traditional sense, and is actually repurposed Greenwood music. Some cues are concert commissions, some from other films, and some were composed specifically for this one. There’s a great podcast episode here that I highly recommend if you’re interested in learning about this further.
The cue I want to highlight was not original score but was composed for another film prior, 2003’s experimental documentary bodysong. The track entitled “Convergence,” which is literally 2 looped percussion hits being played all at different times, on different instruments, until they literally converge is used in There Will Be Blood to great effect.
The scene is tense, chaotic, emotional, and even sounds like an oil rig! The cue starts at around 2:14, but it’s lovely the way it suddenly enters the scene: I’d watch the whole clip. Ideally, you just watch the whole movie.
The Heartbeat Drum Machine in For Roger (2020)
Back in 2020, I scored a feature horror film directed by Aaron Bartuska called For Roger. (The full movie is rentable here). Reminiscent of movies like Halloween, we wanted this home invasion chase scene near the film’s climax to feel suspenseful and heightened.
As you can hear from the clip provided, a lot of my score uses repeating motifs. At first a ticking, then a simple repeated bass note, then later a kick drum that mimics a heartbeat getting faster and faster.
It’s been fun to explore where these simple yet effective horror scoring techniques can be implemented. I’m having fun continuing to do it on the movie I’m working on currently as well.
What are some of your favorite horror score moments that include repetition?
will dinola (he/him) is a film composer, musician, and writer currently working in new york city
he is interested in people’s passions and pushing the art of film scoring to new horizons
he writes about his experience in a newsletter called “do”
