While the superstition that surrounds this unlucky date can trace its potential origins hundreds of years back, today’s world knows Friday the 13th for the slasher horror franchise that debuted in the ‘80s. Billed as a “24 hour nightmare of terror,” the original film starring Betsy Palmer and Adrienne King is an iconic piece of the genre’s history. Furthermore, it has one of the most recognizable scores in the film world, courtesy of composer Harry Manfredini. His personification of the score as an additional character enabled the music to reach the audience in a captivating and memorable way. For this Friday the 13th, we had the opportunity to ask Manfredini about his involvement with the franchise and the industry.
Maggie Iken: What makes a successful horror score?
Harry Manfredini: Being a film composer is like being a dramatist. Sometimes you’re not as much a composer as you are a dramatist. Your obligation musically is to the film and to the story and to tell that story as best you can in an aural way that helps and makes the director’s and writer’s intention come through. In a horror film however, there’s a few things that are slightly different.
First of all, musically, pretty much all bets are off. You can do any kind of music you want. I’m sure you’ve seen a horror film where there’s a little music box, which is a completely innocuous sound, but because of the situation or the story, that music box could be rather terrifying. The object in most cases is to manipulate the audience to give them the scares that they’re looking for because they’re like roller coaster rides, whether you get them to relax or you get them to get more excited, or sometimes in horror films, something funny happens. Well, if you can get them to laugh or lose the tension that usually builds up when you’re watching it, those are all things that a composer who’s trying to evoke everything that’s necessary in a horror film creates. Doesn’t matter what the horror film is.
In Friday the 13th in particular, we have a movie where you never seen the killer until reel 9. I’m going, “how is the audience supposed to know when it’s the killer looking at things or just the cameraman looking at things?” You have to somehow show that difference. What I was able to do, thanks to Betsy [Palmer], when she came up at the end and it was the close up of her mouth where she goes “kill her, mommy,” in Jason’s voice, then it’s her voice, then it’s back and forth. I went, “oh, I get it, she hears voices. She hears voices, she’s crazy, and she doesn’t care. That’s the way she is.” What I took was “kill” and “mommy” and I went to a microphone–and remember this movie was done on like ridiculously low budgets–I just went to a microphone and went “ki, ma” and then I echoed it like it was in somebody’s head: “ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma.” So every time the camera was the POV of the killer, you knew it was the killer because I put that there.
In a way, in Friday the 13th, the score almost became a character. It became an actual person. And the other thing we decided with that picture, before we started, was that we’re only going to have music when it’s the killer. We’re not going to play any other emotion or any other scene–if it’s not the killer, we’re not going to do anything. There were two pieces of music, one where Crazy Ralph is there, I made some pizzicato music for Ralph that was sorta goofy, and then of course at the end when Adrienne is in the lake. Other than that, the music is only for the killer. That was a choice. For example in the movie, the girl is setting up the archery and the one comic relief guy with the Indian hat on shoots the arrow into the bullseye right next to her. In any other horror film, that scene would have had a musical hit the size of Pittsburgh, but there was absolutely no hit at all. I didn’t touch it because I was only going to put music for the killer. These are choices you make specific to a movie but the other ones are always trying to manipulate the audience to generate the actions, the feelings, the excitement, the fun of whatever the movie happens to be.
This happens in a lot of horror films–look for it the next time you watch one. Watch for when the music goes out, when the music stops. Usually when the music stops, something is about to happen. The object is to get everybody to relax for when something really happens. The object is to get the audience to come down to a tension of 2, and then when you hit them with the 10 you get an 8 jump. But if they’re already at 7, you’re only going to get a 3 jump. There’s a scene where Adrienne is in the kitchen and she’s scared to death about Mrs. Voorhees chasing her. I think she’s got a baseball bat and a turkey fork in each hand. But if you watch, the actors tell you what to do. You watch her, see her take a sigh, and you’ll see the music going out with her on that because I wanted to get everyone to relax with her. Those are things that you look for in a specific movie but at the same time in any horror film, you have to deal with.
You also have what they call red herrings. Something is going to happen and it’s nothing like what the audience thinks. Usually in that case, I work real hard to build it up. Like, way more than I would even if it weren’t a red herring. I try to build it way up because it’s not going to have a payoff. You’re always manipulating the audience.
You’ve previously cited Ravel as an influence, and I thought that was interesting.
There are really only two chords in Friday the 13th. One of them is the sound of Friday the 13th. It’s, like, an A-flat 7 with an augmented 5th and a sharp 9. It doesn’t function. When you said Ravel, he takes the sonority for a color and then uses just that color and I did the same thing. I created a color and it doesn’t function because technically that A-flat-7-sharp-5-sharp-9 should resolve to a D-flat. It should be a V-I. But it doesn’t, it never resolves to anything, it’s just it. The chords don’t function, they just become color.
I was reading another interview where you explained the breakdown of the “ki-ki-ki, ma-ma-ma,” and you talked about how you had a lot of different roles in the performance because that’s your voice. What other instrumentation did you use personally and how did you enlist your performers?
At the time, I was going to Columbia University to get my doctorate, and we used to have an orchestra for conducting class that would come and play. These were all kids from Manhattan School of Music. I was a sax player in town so I knew a lot of horn players from stuff like that. I had a friend who had a recording studio in his basement. So I got 9 string players, it might have been 6 violins, a viola, a cello, and a bass. Then 3 horn players: a trumpet, a French horn, and a trombone. And then everything else I played. I played tin whistle, piano, synths, cymbals, any percussion, vocal effects–I did all of those myself. The strings, we tripled. Everytime we did a take, we’d do three takes. It sounded like a lot more violins, but it was just that, and it still sounded pretty thin. Even a triple is not a triple. And it was super low budget, just kids I knew from college who were more than happy to come and play the whole day for me for $300.
I know that earlier on, as far as the electronic synthesizer instrumentation in music for horror movies was due to budgetary constraints a lot of the time. And it’s been making a pretty big resurgence as of late, whether that’s because of people in music being more interested in electronics or a nostalgic piece in some series reboots and stuff like that, what’s your take on the resurgence of all of that?
I think there’s a couple of answers to that. Budgets being what they are, that eliminates a lot of players sadly enough. Everybody would love to have players all the time, there’s nothing like having real blood in your music as opposed to samples. But of course the samples keep getting better and better, and frankly anybody with an electrical output and a couple of pieces of gear can score a film now with the right samples. So that’s one thing being said.
The other thing being said is that the surge of the ability to create sound effects and sound design in a movie has really come to the fore. A long time ago, score was really necessary to cut camera noise or just because there’s nothing there. They wouldn’t have sound effects. You’d just fill it in with music.
The third thing is that when people like Zimmer and people who do really aleatoric electronic music has come into vogue. So the orchestra in that case, even though you hear orchestra with him, there’s an awful lot of manipulation and processing that goes along with it.
I did a short film for somebody and I wrote the music, and he came over to listen to it and he goes, “get that melody out of there, what are you trying to do?” I’m going, “I don’t know, I’m just trying to put a little emotion into it.” He says “no, no, get that out of there.” So the next thing was get rid of this, get rid of that, and what we ended up with was a low tone. If that’s all you wanted, I could have done this score in five minutes. But you see, that’s the way things are especially with new people who see music that way.
When you’re talking about movies, you’re very aware of what’s going on with the movie and what’s going on in the other positions who are working on the movie. Have you ever considered being involved in another aspect of filmmaking beyond composing?
No. I’ll tell you one thing though. When you are writing the score to something, I’ll see the movie and I see some sort of monster, something that’s going to be in the movie. I will call the sound guy and I will ask him “what does the monster sound like?” If I see an effect, I’ll say “are you going high? Is it going to be real high or is it going to be real low? What is it going to sound like?” Then I’ll try to go in the opposite place musically. So that we can both live on the track together as opposed to me annihilating you or you annihilating me. Let’s try to get the most out of both of our ideas. But no, I’ve never ever wanted to do anything else. I always go like “I’d love to write a script” or something but it seems like way too much work.
The Friday the 13th game that came out last year, your name is on that. Did you compose new music for that or was it reused music?
Yes, I composed all new music. And I’m still composing. We’re still working on it and working on a single-player version.
How is the process different for writing music for a game versus a movie?
It’s totally different because I didn’t see anything. Basically, what you’re writing is a bunch of modular stuff that can get looped and last longer, or it can go into another piece. Think of a giant music crossword puzzle. Let’s say there’s seven people playing the game at the same time, you’re playing the game and I’m playing the game and we’re in the same game together. The object of the game is to survive, so you would be trying to survive as would I, but you would make choices and do things, therefore whatever you would choose to do in your game, there would be music that followed you, whereas if I decided to do something completely different, there would be music that would follow me. Everybody playing the game is hearing a different piece of music, so it’s all modular because there’s no telling how long that piece is. It’s not like a film where it’s like one minute and 48 seconds before somebody gets stabbed. Here it could be 3 minutes and 48 seconds before somebody gets stabbed or it could be 48 seconds. Everything has to be able to flow as best as possible. It’s not fun. I’m only saying it’s not fun because I spent my whole life writing to something I see but there’s nothing to see, I’m just writing and I’m trying to imagine something but at the same time I have to make sure it’s–I keep using the word modular, but that’s really what it is.
Do you have advice for composers who are trying to get into the field of music for filmmaking, specifically for horror movies?
Usually the advice I give is don’t turn anything down. If somebody says “hey, I’ve got a short film, would you write the music?” you say yes. And if they say, “I don’t have any money,” you say, “that’s okay I’ll do it anyway,” because you need a lot of demos. You also need to create your own demos. One thing you can do is to emulate–I’m using the word emulate, I didn’t say copy–music that you like, music that you’ve heard in a movie that you really like. “I think I’m going to do a Harry Gregson Williams, or an Alan Silvestri cue” or whatever it happens to be. Whatever is in your realm of ability. And you’re also limited to your gear.
Another thing you can do is take a scene of a movie that you really like and strip it down to nothing and then write your own music under that scene, and then use that as a visual demo because a lot of directors like to see that. Friday the 13th was the fifth piece I scored in my life. Keep writing and keep trying to write different styles, because they’re going to ask you for that. Unfortunately, they’re not going to care what you want to write. They’re going to say “we want a Zimmer kind of thing, a Tommy Newman kind of thing,” so you have to know what Tommy Newman sounds like. “We want Shawshank Redemption,” Okay, good, here’s some Shawshank Redemption cues. Because that’s what they’re going to ask for. Remember I didn’t say copy, I just say emulate.
Is there a filmmaker who you haven’t worked with already who you would like to work with in the future?
Somebody who is young and old at the same time. I like a director who’s very visual who understands you can tell a story without yakking all the time and not have people tell you what you’re seeing. There’s a couple of guys I’ve done short films for that are just absolutely phenomenal. They haven’t done features yet but I’d love to do a whole movie with them. But they’re just like all of us, they’re out there struggling and it gets more and more difficult.
Do you have any favorite horror movies?
I would guess my favorite horror movie is the Exorcist. Scared the crap outta me.
Favorite scores in horror movies?
Well, Friday the 13th I really liked. Everybody’s a big fan of Bernard Herrmann, it’d be stupid if I said him because everyone loves him. I like Alan Silvestri’s scores, I like James Newton Howard. Even Danny Elfman every once in a while. Red Dragon had a really good score.
Just one more for fun: are you a cat or a dog person?
I am a cat and a dog person. I used to have dogs but now I have the world’s greatest cat and I became a cat person. This cat that have I have now, Goldie, is just the coolest. If I call her name and whistle, she comes. How many cats do that?
But I love dogs too, I’m an animal person.
