‘Call of the Void’ Composer Clayton Worbeck Talks Throwing Out the Rulebook for This Horror Score
How can you escape your own senses? That’s the central question in Gravitas Ventures’ latest folk horror, Call of the Void.
The official synopsis reads:
After the tragic death of her brother, Moray retreats to a remote mountain cabin to try and escape her work, her family, and her old life. However, her quiet retreat is quickly diverted by a college band moving into the unit next door and a suspicious professor studying a local phenomenon involving a mysterious hum. She discovers that the hum is a gateway to something otherworldly, unnameable, and once heard, there is no return.
Serving as the film’s composer was Clayton Worbeck, who took inspiration from the film’s cosmic horror vibes. Worbeck’s horror film scores usually blur the lines between sound design and music, but because this film revolves around a mysterious hum, they were almost intertwined. The forest setting also impacted his work. Worbeck explained, “The sound design of the forest environment has sonic priority for most of the film, so I played off of that by using acoustic instrumental textures to lead into the music cues.”
He talks more about his work on Call of the Void in the below interview.
Dread Central: You have worked with Call of the Void director James B. Cox before on another feature, Hacked, in 2016. Has Call of the Void been a long time coming, and did you always know you would work on it? If so, had you been mentally thinking about the film’s sounds for a while?
Clayton Worbeck: A few years after Hacked, James approached me about another project while also mentioning Call of the Void in passing. It stood out to me and I had ideas at the time, but it wasn’t until that other project stalled out and Call of the Void went into pre-production that I really had the chance to explore those sounds.
DC: How was your collaboration with James different on Call of the Void than your first film with him?
CW: We developed a great rapport on Hacked and carried that forward. I was also the music supervisor on Hacked and again on Call of the Void. I would say the biggest difference was where I spent the majority of my energy/time. With Hacked, I was attached during post-production. The score was more of the focus as it was lengthy, required more revisions, and ate up a lot more hours than the music supervision role. Whereas on Call of the Void, I started working as the music supervisor in pre-production and was needed in that role right through until the movie was finished.
DC: Did you take inspiration from any other horror film scores before starting work on Call of the Void?
CW: I really tried not to. Instead, I took inspiration from the H.P. Lovecraft vibes the film has baked into it, plus discussions James and I had about what he was listening to when he wrote the script. And unlike most of the horror movies I’ve previously worked on, there was no temp music, which made it easier to go for something more original.
DC: Call of the Void revolves around a mysterious hum that is a gateway to something unworldly. Because sounds are so important in this story, did you work very closely with the sound design team? If so, can you talk about that collaboration?
CW: My composing style for horror usually blurs the line between sound design and music, so it was important to me to figure out who would be responsible for what. To clarify this, we had a few sound design/composer spot sessions to determine which scenes the sound design team would take on and which ones I would be responsible for.
DC: Call of the Void is described as a “folk horror tale”. In your opinion, do you think this subgenre sounds different than, let’s say, a slasher or body horror film?
CW: If you look at the most revered films in those genres and compare their sound mixes, there are obvious sonic differences. I think the “folk horror” genre is more likely to have acoustic instrumentation, but I don’t think that’s a requirement. One of the coolest things about composing for horror is that there really are no set rules as to how things ‘should’ sound, as long as you are composing music that enhances the story.
DC: How did you approach jump scares in Call of the Void?
CW: There aren’t many in this film, but the goal was to make sure there’s a stark contrast between the sound mix right before the jump and right after.
DC: Was there ever a time in Call of the Void where less was more?
CW: Definitely. This score ended up being very sparse and selective, but it didn’t start out that way. I wrote themes/motifs for Moray (the main character) and for the band, but we cut those because of how the acoustic diegetic music ended up being placed in the final version. Cutting these extraneous themes also allowed the score to evolve into something akin to one big theme for the cosmic horror itself. You get a short, but intense taste of that in the opening of the film, but then the score doesn’t return until almost halfway through, when we start to see the effects of the otherworldly entity. After that, the score becomes more and more prevalent until it eventually takes over the sound mix entirely at the end of the film.
DC: A lot of the film takes place in the woods. How much did the setting impact your sound?
CW: It made a huge impact. The sound design of the forest environment has sonic priority for most of the film, so I played off of that by using acoustic instrumental textures to lead into the music cues.
DC: What was the hardest scene for you to score? Why?
CW: The nearly six-minute montage at the end of the film was originally meant to have no score at all. But that approach really fell flat once the final cut was assembled. I needed to compose something special to elevate that lengthy sequence, as it was completely void of any sound, including dialogue. This was especially challenging because at that point, I had composed over 90% of the score and had to write a cue that was by far the most important and longest in the film. Composing this cue was a lot more work than originally planned, but totally worth the effort as it really hammers home the colossal shift that has just occurred in the film.
Call of the Void is available now on VOD.
Categorized: Interviews
