I think a common misconception is that horror music needs to be terrifying at all times. Maybe that works for some films, but my scores tend to focus more on when life itself becomes horrific, which can include receiving life-altering news, spiraling with anxiety, or facing grief.
Real life doesn’t come with a Halloween theme or Psycho stabs (though it would be pretty cool if it did – I love those scores). In reality, those moments feel more like amplified dramatic tension leading to mourning. I’ve found it far more powerful to treat horror as high drama or suspense, and to earn those terrifying crescendos rather than live in them constantly. Thrill makes that balance possible. It offers as much beauty as it does dread, and that contrast is where I fell in love with it.
Scoring horror, or any genre, comes down to respect. Respect for the visuals, the performances, the audience, and most of all, authenticity to the story. I’m paraphrasing here, but the legendary Bonnie Hunt once told me, “Scoring is more than music. It’s the final rewrite.” That’s stuck with me ever since.
