Welcome back, my fellow creatives!

The ominous clouds and cold of Fall settle in. Time for comforting blankets and cider alongside some spooky stories, be they in book or film.

Now some time back I wrote about the score for the 2018 film Suspiria. Today, I’d like to explore the score for the original film which came out in 1977. Now I have not yet seen the Dario Argento film, but when a film is Dario Argento, you know it’s going to be INTENSE.

So why am I writing about a score for a movie I have not yet seen?

A couple of reasons. One, I enjoyed the 2018 film and score both, so I wanted to hear what the original score is like. Two, Bo intrigued me when he said the band Goblin was known for its soundtrack work for both Argento and George Romero. If a band can add to the horror and mayhem of a movie like Dawn of the Dead, then I HAVE to give them a try. So, I located the Prog Rock version of the album and let it guide me through sleeping farmland to retrieve my children.

The theme starts innocently enough: a music box. Ah, a sound of sweetness, of dancing–fitting for a story that takes place in a ballet academy.

But then then comes a voice with a mandolin, unearthly dragging through somewhere beneath the ground. The drums pound beneath us, demanding we summon this timeless enchantment to the surface. And when the synthetic version of the music box’s melody hits at 3:20, you know you’re no longer in the here and now. You are Elsewhere, an Elsewhere reality cannot touch.

“Markos” is another glorious soundtrack combining synthesizers and choir voices alongside the guitar and dreams. The organ at 2:15 is a nice touch. 🙂 It’s a track that’s a little bombastic, doesn’t have to be taken too seriously, yet there is still the underlying menace of the situation beating through the song thanks to the choir’s staccato refrain.

“Sighs” makes it clear that you are not alone. The guitar–or maybe a mandolin–gives this sense of traveling through time, carried along by the music, hurried by the drums and what sound like synthetic voices. But that just adds to the unearthly air of it all, the mystery that is this Elsewhere.

Let’s look at one more. “Witch” is particularly outlandish because it starts with chaotic percussion mixed with synthetic wails; all is unnatural and ready to attack. But once the guitar makes itself known around the 1:10, the drums are tamed–still aggressive, but there’s a rhythm to them you can follow as the unnatural synth cries out to you. This is another track with a touch of bombastic menace to it, especially with the discordant organ kicks in. It’s almost like a duel with a monster in the mist with no certain escape.

As a writer, when music helps us picture our story, we really don’t need to see the story that music was originally for. Sure, I may attempt the Argento film one day, but for now, I love seeing new possibilities and situations for my characters in Line the Stars. After all, the cosmos has many places where light does not reach. The twins will encounter things strange and terrible, monsters bold and odd. What better way to transport one’s imagination past reality than with the music of an unnatural Elsewhere?

Coming up, we’ll explore the importance of book cover design as well as the creation of monsters. I’ve got another podcast and interview coming up as well, plus some thoughts on developing environments. Stay tuned!

Read on, share on, and write on, my friends!