Dissecting Horror: New Episode with Horror Composers @ 6 PM (PST)
Josh Millican
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The next installment of the “Dissecting Horror” digital panel series will take place TODAY (Tuesday, May 18th) at 6 pm PST, and will be with your favorite horror composers.
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Dissecting Horror panelists include Charlie Clouser (Spiral, Saw franchise), Mark Korven (Them, The Witch), Joseph Bishara (The Unholy, The Conjuring franchise), and Christopher Young (The Grudge, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge). I’ll be co-moderating with J. Blake Fichera.
Dissecting Horror will stream on Dread Central’s Facebook and also Twitch Channel. The panel is also available on our official YouTube channel.
Dread Central and Jordan von Netzer of Projection PR launched “Dissecting Horror” on April 15th, 2020 with a panel focused on horror film scores. Since then, they have produced panels spotlighting stunt coordinators, visual/special effects, and the creatives behind Followed, Cruiser, 12 Hour Shift, Don’t Look Back, Hunter Hunter, Willy’s Wonderland, Wrong Turn, Dreamcatcher, Making Monsters, The Banishing, Initiation, and Parallel.
ABOUT THE Dissecting Horror PANELISTS:
CHARLIE CLOUSER
Clouser is a multi-instrumentalist composer, musician, producer, programmer, and remix artist who has worked with some of the seminal recording artists of the last twenty years. With his concentration now on music for visual media, Charlie continues to impress and amaze with his singular work.
Charlie came into prominence as a member of Nine Inch Nails from 1994-2000. Before joining the band as keyboardist/programmer, he’d already built a following with his extreme synth work and remixes for Prong, Marilyn Manson, White Zombie, and others. His dense layers of chopped-up beats and grinding synth bass lines were instrumental in defining the sound of White Zombie’s double-platinum 1994 breakthrough album Astrocreep: 2000 and led to numerous collaborations with frontman Rob Zombie.
In the studio with Nine Inch Nails, Charlie co-wrote high-profile songs like “The Perfect Drug”(from the gold soundtrack to David Lynch’s Lost Highway), and “The Way Out Is Through” (from The Fragile, Spin Magazine’s 1999 Album of the Year). His intricate and singular programming style was an integral part of the band’s unique sonic vision. Along the way, he has continued to apply his talents on albums and remixes for artists like David Bowie, Snoop Dogg, Rammstein, Jamiroquai, Deftones, Killing Joke, Esthero, and Meat Beat Manifesto.
Related Article: Charlie Clouser Talks Making Horror Music for Wayward Pines, the Saw Franchise, and Nine Inch Nails
Charlie’s first film scoring effort, Saw, became an instant cult classic. His scores for the subsequent Saw series continue to define the films. Raw, grinding, propulsive, punctuated by incredible layers of sound and energy, they are classics in the horror genre. Charlie has also scored such films as Resident Evil: Extinction, Sony’sPictures’ The Stepfather, and The Collection.
In the field of television, Charlie has scored several TV shows, including the FOX event series Wayward Pines (starring Matt Dillon, Carla Gugino, and Toby Jones), CBS’s Numb3rs, NBC’s Las Vegas, and the Syfy event series Childhood’s End. He also co-wrote the main title theme for FX’s American Horror Story. In the video game space, he has scored the Activision video game Singularity, as well as licensing select music from his Saw score to Konami for Saw: II. His latest Saw installment, Spiral: From the Book of Saw will be released May 14th, 2021.
MARK KORVEN
Korven is best known for his work on the period Horror film The Witch, which won the best director award at the 2015 Sundance festival for director Robert Eggers as well as the Cannes festival hit The Lighthouse starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. He is also the inventor of the notorious horror instrument The Apprehension Engine and recently he scored the highly rated Amazon series THEM.
Mark also scored Egger’s follow-up, The Lighthouse starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. It won the Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 2019.
His scores have been nominated 14 times for Canadian film and television awards, winning several times. He has also composed feature film scores for acclaimed directors Deepa Mehta, Patricia Rozema, and Vincenzo Natale.
Mark is also a multi-instrumentalist specializing in world music. He is represented by Core Music Agency.
JOSEPH BISHARA
Bishara is a composer and music producer of a darker flavor. His scores include The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, Annabelle, Insidious, Insidious Chapter 2, Insidious Chapter 3, The Other Side of the Door, and many others. Bishara has also appeared onscreen as a creature performer; in Insidious as the Lipstick-Face Demon, The Conjuring as Bathsheba, as well as the demon in Annabelle. Music production work includes the soundtrack for the cult musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera and its successor The Devil’s Carnival, as well as programming and remix contributions for artists such as Tech N9ne, Marilyn Manson, Rasputina, Danzig, Jane’s Addiction, and Nine Inch Nails.
CHRISTOPHER YOUNG
Young is one of the foremost talents in film music today. A Golden Globe and two-time Emmy nominated composer Christopher Young has scored an impressive number of features in virtually every genre. All with strikingly original music. In October 2020, the Young scored film Sinister (Blumhouse), for director Scott Derrickson, was ranked as the scariest movie of all time. Young had a box-office hit in 2019 with Pet Sematary for Paramount Pictures. Last years’ crime/thriller The Empty Man for 20th Century Fox/Studios let Young experiment with different musical colors to create a gritty musical landscape.
Young reteamed with legendary director Sam Raimi on his 50 States Of Fright series. These along with over 160 more films embody the work of this prolific composer. Other notable credits include the spine-tingling Hellraiser, which showcased the composer’s seminal upbringing in horror; the new-techno sound of Swordfish displays his versatility; the resonant, genuine Celtic sounds of The Shipping News display his attention to detail; to the heart-pounding rhythms of Spider-Man 3 are all evidence of his willingness to experiment.
He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey (birthplace of Count Basie). Young graduated from Massachusetts Hampshire College with a BA in music. He did post-graduate work at North Texas State University before moving to Los Angeles in 1980. At the time, Young was a jazz drummer, a precursor to some of the edgier scores he would later complete. Soon, an introduction to Bernard Herrmann’s scores (Vertigo, Citizen Kane) opened up a new world for Young. He was unfamiliar with film scoring. “Here was someone doing everything I wanted to do. I fell in love with the music before I realized that it was written for movies”, said Young.
Also Read: Lakeshore Records Releasing Christopher Young’s HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER II Score on Vinyl
He proceeded to take classes at the UCLA Film School, where he studied with famed film composer David Raksin (Laura). His first music that he wrote for class received a negative response from Raksin. The young student was devastated and nearly quit. Raksin would become his greatest mentor. Young met a number of college filmmakers with whom he would later work in the business. One of these filmmakers wrote and directed the student film, The Dorm that Dripped Blood, which Young scored. It became a New Image studio release, providing Young with an early foray into Hollywood. Within a few years, his abilities thrust him to the attention of major studios and directors, including Clive Barker. His talent was recognized with a Saturn Award (given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films) for his unsettling demonic orchestral-and-choral score for Hellbound: Hellraiser II.
Though Young had built a solid reputation scoring horror and science fiction pictures, Director Jon Amiel recognized that the composer’s talent transcended genre. Amiel entrusted Young to score Warner Bros.’s dramatic thriller, Copycat. The film and score received critical acclaim and Amiel requested the composer for his follow-up film, the Bill Murray comedy, The Man Who Knew Too Little. Young proved that he could not be pigeonholed by genre. The professional kinship ensued, and they subsequently would work together on the Fox feature Entrapment and later, The Core.
During this time, Young scored MGM’s Species, which became a box-office sensation. For his work, he received a Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel nomination for his work. He was firmly established in Hollywood, and his reputation as a multi-talented composer was cemented. His next work was the resonant score for Murder in the First, completing an era marked with major turning points in Young’s career.
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Not wanting to be restricted to features, it was at this time that Young received the first of two Emmy nominations, despite scoring only four telefilms. The nominations were for the dramatic urgency of his music for the fall-of-Saigon film, Last Flight Out, and for the smoky jazz of the critically acclaimed HBO picture, Norma Jean & Marilyn.
When Academy Award-winning director Norman Jewison hired Young to score Universal Pictures; The Hurricane, Young officially entered the pantheon of A-list composers. His composition was widely praised, impressing the legendary director, who exclaimed, “I love it…he captures the power and strength of what was happening onscreen”. Later Jewison would personally recommend Young to Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson for the MGM release, Bandits.
Immediately following Bandits, Young scored the Miramax romantic drama: The Shipping News directed by Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom. Young received both a Critic’s Choice and Golden Globe nomination for this strikingly original work. Earlier in 2001, Young further displayed his versatility with the composition for Warner Bros.’ Swordfish, as he incorporated elements of DJ Paul Oakenfold’s hypnotic trance into his orchestral score.
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Young had established himself as working with the brightest and most talented directors. Sam Raimi hired Young to score his high-profile film The Gift. The relationship would continue to include additional music on Spider-Man 2, scoring The Grudge and The Grudge 2 and scoring Spider-Man 3. Young continued his successful working relationship with Raimi more recently on the thriller Drag Me to Hell.
Young has also collaborated with Oscar-winning director Curtis Hanson on Wonder Boys starring Michael Douglas and Lucky You starring Drew Barrymore. His other works include the scores for Head Above Water, Beauty Shop starring Queen Latifah, Ghost Rider, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
Chris kept his momentum going, scored Untraceable starring Diane Lane. Furthermore, Young delved into the dramatic with Sleepwalking starring Charlize Theron. Young worked closely with Theron who was also a co-producer on the film. He then found his way back to his roots in “thrillers” with the action-packed Vampire flick Priest. More recently Chris has worked on Black Tulip and the Hunter S. Thompson drama titled The Rum Diary starring Johnny Depp.
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Young likes to say that he has two distinct sides. One side that is attracted to abstract ideas and 20th Century music. And the other side that enjoys writing “The great American tune”. That dichotomy serves him perfectly as a film composer. Constantly called on to write the most dissonant music for a suspense cue one minute. And collaborate with a lyricist on an R&B track (“Give me a Reason” with Dave Hollister for In Too Deep). Or a love song (“Against the Wind” with vocalist Lori Perri for Set it Off) the next.
When not working, Young spends his time delving into a rather eclectic hobby. He ascended from the ranks of solely scoring horror and science fiction films. And his ongoing fascination with the macabre is evident. In his vast collection of jack-o-lanterns, masks, and autographs of many horror film stars of the past.
Also Read: [Exclusive] Venture Into PET SEMATARY’s Darkness With Christopher Young’s “The Wendigo”
Christopher Young says he has been blessed with his career so he gives back to the film music community. He has taught a film scoring class at USC for over ten years. Is a two-term past president of The Film Music Society. And the president of the Madrid Film Music Festival in Spain.
J. BLAKE FICHERA (Dissecting Horror Co-Moderator)
J. Blake Fichera is the author of the film music-themed books, Scored to Death: Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers and its sequel Scored to Death 2: More Conversations with Some of Horror’s Greatest Composers. He is the host of Scored to Death: The Podcast, as well as the co-host of the Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers podcast, and can now be heard on the Cinematic Sound Radio Network hosting the new horror soundtrack podcast, Scored to Death Radio. Blake is also a gigging musician and a New York Blues Hall of Fame inductee.
Are you also excited to check out “Dissecting Horror” with Charlie Clouser, Mark Korven, Joseph Bishara, and Christopher Young? Let us know in the comments below or also on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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