WHY RE-SCORE “THE BLOB” REMAKE?
Continuing with creating complete alternate film scores to my favored past horror films, I bring you “Horror Re-Scored: Vol. 4”. The film chosen was “The Blob” - The 1988 remake. While it is one of the best remakes of a classic sci-fi film (much like The Thing), the score was an element that I had a love-hate relationship with and wanted to revisit the movie with an original score that could have been.
The original score was composed by Michael Hoenig. He had score previous horror films in the 1980s and this seemed like a great outing for him. That said, I enjoyed the ambient dound design and suspenseful creepy stuff he came up with but the action stuff was grating to the ears. The orchestral parts were substituted mostly with synth horns and strings at the time, and at that time, synth orchestral brass and strings (when it came to short, staccatos and runs were like nails and achalkboard for me.
Additionally, the music related to Shawnee Smith's character and onscsreen appearances by the Blob were all lifted from Capricorn One. Needless to say a few years later when I got the soundtrack to Capricorn One I realized it sounded awfully familiar and then put two and two together. The Blob had been temp scored with Capricorn One.
Despite my opinion of the original score, for its day, it was a valiant effort in exploring processed sounds & sound design while pushing the limits of synths to sound like an orchestra. With that, I have great respect. The final result, I just could never fully enjoy. I really enjoy the movie and wished it could have been one I was able to have scored professionally (I was a teenager in 8th grade at the time). But now I have lived my dream and created a score for one of my favorite genre films growing up.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
In all my albums I strive to create a sonic palette within which to formulate my ideas. This palette keeps a necessary cohesiveness to the soundscape and helps to create an overall unique signature soundscape that is specific to the story the music is supporting. Also, I try to create and maintain a musical architecture to which the musical development must adhere to in order to properly evolve.
I like having a Main Title sequence to start a movie off with musically as it's the chance for a composer to introduce the overall roadmap for the score to come. It is designed to set the stage of events to come both narratively and musically. All the major thematic material - motifs, themes and signature sounds - would get introduced during the Main Title cue.
The structure of the opening title mimics the events to come while introducing all the major musical themes and motifs that will represent the threat of a creature crashing to Earth, sneaking around the town and ultimately threatening the citizens, all the while, military intervention fails to stop the threat.
Among all the mystrious lurking, hunting, chases and kills, I wanted to focus more on the dramatic and emotional aspect of the characters while still serving up scares and chases where necessary. Overall, the music would be from the perspective of the 2 main characters, not necessarily the onscreen action, but rather their reaction to what was happening. The lead characters share a bitter-sweet theme that becomes more heroic as they themselves transition from outcasts to heros. So the motifs for the Blob and the military intervention are representative of the two lead character's reaction to their encounters with both.
MOTIFS
The forst motif is the 7-note wide octave motif that is heard alot throughout the score. Sometimes it plays on a soft synth piano eliciting mystery around what the blob is exactly to the people who encounter it, other times is is heard as stabbing punctuations as stingers and moments during action cues. As the Blob grwos in size, the motif starts to be heard more on brass, timpani and low strings.
The second motif is the “chase / stalking” motif that is in the vane of Predator. It's made up 5 notes that are heard on low range instruments, percussion and synths that all punctuate each note (Bass Strings, Tuba, Timpani, Synth Drums & Synth). It is heard in moments when the Blob is lurking about, closing in on its prey or people are being chased by it. It also doubles as a military cadence of sorts as later in the film we learn of the Blob being a bio weapon created by the military. So the motif is sort of like a military action motif for The Bob as though the Blob is a soldier of the military that has gone awohl.
The third motif is the “danger” or “threat” motif. This is a series of chromatic rising notes that represent imminent danger to the townsfolk. Usually heard on a piano but starts to transition to tremolo strings as the Blob reaches the town and starts wreaking havoc.
Sprinkled throughout are sound design and sound effect elements to add color and texture but also serving a narrative purpose. The 1st commonly heard sound is a metal hit that echos and decays. This is meant to represent the clock is ticking - time is of the esence to get the Blob contained. The next is a “radio static” sound meant to represent the lost communication between the military and the satelite that was orbitng Earth containing the Blob. And lastly is a Conch Shell sound that gives a sort of whaling voice to the Blob.
There are other sounds like the Chimes clusters for the religious apocolypse angele presented by the Priest character. Additional gurgling, growling sounds are heard for the Blob as well.
Taking all of these ideas and assmebling them into a musical architecture that develops over the course of the film is not easy but is what i prefer to do when composing a score. The end result is always so satisfying as each cue relates to another both thematicaly and sonicaly. It goes from dark and mystrious to aggresive and primal energy by the end.
Sit back and enjoy the ride.
