‘Scream, Queen!’ Documentary Composer Talks ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street examines the legacy of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, and its effects on the life of the film’s lead actor, Mark Patton.
Coinciding with a Blu Ray release from Vinegar Syndrome, 1984 Publishing has re-released Alexander Taylor’s soundtrack for the Shudder Original documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street with some noticeable upgrades.
Still featuring the iconic cover from Matt Ryan Tobin, the 2022 release debuts gatefold artwork by Travis Falligant. Available in the original “Hot Pink” as well as a new “Blue Swirl” variant containing 18 tracks composed by Alexander Taylor, plus the song “Split Second” by Skeleton Head.
We spoke with composer Alexander Taylor to discuss Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream, Queen, and the franchises influencer on Taylor’s score.
What’s your own personal relationship like with Nightmare On Elm Street?
I was very lucky as a kid. My parents weren’t strict at all when it came to horror flicks, so I started pretty young. Halloween. Friday the 13th. Scream. I watched all of those franchises by the time I was 8 or so, and I turned out fairly normal. (Laughs)
For Elm Street, I remember going through that series with my dad. My parents were divorced, so on weekends, my dad would take us. Since he knew my older sis and I loved scary movies, we decided to go through the Elm Street series one October. I remember after watching Freddy’s Revenge, my dad said something along the lines of, “Well…that one was weird.” I’m pretty sure none of us got the subtext at the time. And for years, it was just kind of buried in my mind until college.
I actually wrote a term paper specifically on Nightmare on Elm Street 2 for a queer theory class at Wright State. I can’t remember what exactly clued me into the queer subtext, but as soon as I rewatched it, it was so, so clear. When you get a chance to critically psychoanalyze the film for a 50-page paper, you get pretty close to the material, so it ended up becoming one of my favorite films in the franchise.
How did that affect how you scored the doc?
Growing up watching horror flicks, the music was one of my favorite parts. My family can attest that I could annoyingly play the Halloween theme on any instrument I could get my hands on. Having a deep love and familiarity with not only the Elm Street source material, but also ’80s horror as a whole, was crucial for writing this score.
Since the ’80s were such a dangerous time for the gay community facing the aids epidemic and demonization by talking heads on the right, I figured the score had to feel as though it were from the ’80s. Keep in mind, I started this in 2016, so it was before the “’80s throwback” tidal wave that horror has been engulfed in since Stranger Things. At the time, it felt like a fresh idea, so of course, I went crazy with my synths, guitars, and fx pedals. I wanted a listener to feel nostalgia for something they’d never heard before, so hopefully that translated.
What was your experience creating this score?
Working on the score for Scream, Queen was very liberating. Roman, Tyler, and Mark were a DREAM to work with, and gave me a ton of freedom to play and experiment. I knew they wanted a dream-pop/synthwave score, and that was something very in my wheelhouse when I landed the gig.
As I mentioned earlier, I started working on tracks in 2016. I definitely jumped the gun since the film would go through many many many more cuts. I have a lot of unused music as a result, but that is really my own fault. I’m sure I annoyed Roman and Tyler; I was constantly asking them for more cuts. For most projects, you wait until the film is locked, meaning there are no more edits to the film. So when you get the finished film, you cloister yourself for 3-8 weeks writing the music.
I didn’t do that for Scream, Queen! I was too hungry to write. So a lot of the music in the film was written over the course of 3 very formative years of my life in LA. The score feels like a time capsule of memories for me. Each track brings me back to a specific time in my life. I don’t have that with other films. For that reason alone, I feel like Scream, Queen! will always be the soundtrack that means the most to me personally.
Any success I have, I can always find the line right back to Scream, Queen! This film changed my life, and I can’t tell you enough how much I love everyone involved. Mark, Roman, Tyler… I’d walk through hell for them. And the fact that the horror community has embraced Mark, Freddy’s Revenge, this amazing documentary, and the score is very humbling for all of us.
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