Designing the Sound of Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Demonic’ — with Jo Rossi, Vince Renaud, and Nolan McNaughton

Some people took up knitting during COVID lockdown, but Canadian director Neill Blomkamp — known for sci-fi film District 9 and Elysium — decided to make a low-budget, tech-heavy horror film that could be made close to home and with a small crew. It wasn’t the bigger budget sci-fi film he planned on making in 2020, but you’ve got to do something with the lemons that life gives you. And it’s hard to knit a sweater from lemons.

Demonic is unique in that it incorporates both the cutting edge technology of a simulated virtual environment with biblical demons. Protagonist Carly is estranged from her deranged mother Angela who set a nursing home on fire when Carly was younger. When Angela slips into a coma, Carly is invited to interact with her in a simulated environment that’s a projection of Angela’s mind. Carly only showed up to tell her mom that she was a pretty crap mother and human being, but when she discovers that Angela is hunted by an ancient demon, things take a sinister turn.

For the sound team, this marriage of near-future technology and ancient demonic folklore offered a huge opportunity for creative sound design. Sound Supervisor/Re-Recording Mixer/Sound Designer/Sound Effects Editor Jo Rossi, Sound Supervisor/Re-Recording Mixer/Dialogue Editor Vince Renaud, and Sound Designer/Sound Effects Editor Nolan McNaughton talk about their collaboration with director Blomkamp, share specifics on designing the sound inside the virtual environment and creating the awesome vocal processing for that space, designing demonic vocals, building an eerie and brutal dream sequence, and more!

DEMONIC Trailer (2021)

Director Neill Blomkamp has such unique visions for dystopian future-Earth. Machines/mechs/robots have always played a big part in that future, like in Chappie, Elysium, and District 9. Technology in Demonic comes into play in a different way — as a way to enter into a virtual realm to converse with a catatonic patient. What were Blomkamp’s ideas for the sound of this virtual space?

Jo Rossi (L), Nolan McNaughton (C), and Vince Renaud (R)

Jo Rossi (JR): Like every director, Neill was looking for something different, lol. But seriously, before I started, Neill and I spent some time talking about certain scenes, brainstorming what certain scenes can sound like or what would sound cool and lend itself to the sonic landscape. Ambiences and setting the mood were going to be key in this feature. It’s not your straight-up hack-and-slash horror.

One of the key ideas for the virtual space was: imagine trying to salvage pictures from a failed drive and you are semi-successful, some pictures will show up half of one pic and half of a different pic. Now imagine that’s the virtual world in Angela’s thought’s and transcode that to sound.

What went into the sound of the simulation of Angela’s mind? When Carly gets dropped in, there is this cool, pixel/digital sound as the environment is being built. And these cool glitchy sounds as things go wrong. How did you create that?

JR: That was super fun, super stressful, and involved lots of revisits. But it ended up sounding so perfect for the scenes and was just a great sounding effect overall. I’m really happy with how that all turned out.

This was divided into two parts: one was the dropping in and pixeling sounds as the world is being rendered, and the other is the inner world or VR world once it’s rendered.

Nolan helped design the ‘drop-in’ sequence, which included a bunch of designy energy data surges, several computer drive ticks, and an array of sparks all being manipulated by some delay plugins like Timeless from FabFilter, EchoBoy by Soundtoys and Slapper by The Cargo Cult.

That set up the base, and then I designed some elements with Dust by SoundMorph (I love using Dust) and Aura by Big Fish Audio that just added the finishing touches.

I designed 10 glitch patches and randomly triggered the patches as the ambience beds were going through it…

For part 2, the VR World, that went through a bunch of versions because I kept getting ideas. But essentially, I designed an ambience bed in 7.1.2 with specific distinct voicings, like a certain bird call or grasshopper call, etc. knowing that when I glitch it, the effect will be heard. Then with iZotope’s Stutter Edit I designed 10 glitch patches and randomly triggered the patches as the ambience beds were going through it and tracked the results. The result was super cool. Then to finish it up, I glitched specific sounds that I layered in as needed. Some tracks also played backward and glitched.

Nolan McNaughton (NM): As Jo mentioned, I helped design the dropping in and pixeling sounds as the world and environment renders. As a starting point, I built out and printed down a bunch of unique design elements, each with many variations in speed and timbre. The best way to describe these are “digital type” pixelation events, swells, or whooshes. Some elements within these files were: small complex metal mechanisms clicking up and locking in, a few different rain sticks, stutter/chopped vocal breath-bys, stuttered synth drones, synth whooshes, and some analog TV noise/squelches. On a few of the stereo tracks for this build, I used Crystallizer by Soundtoys and Freq Echo by Valhalla.

…these base layers were…placed throughout the stereo and the surround field to immerse the viewer each time they were dropped into the sim.

After these base layers were produced, they were placed throughout the stereo and the surround field to immerse the viewer each time they were dropped into the sim.

The other aspects of the build, as Jo mentioned, were the computer, UI, tech, data, electricity, and static elements. These were all cut uniquely for each sim drop, and along with the palette of pixelation sounds, they created a full spectrum sound signature for sim entry.

On top of these elements, I used larger risers, whooshes, and impacts to punctuate the start and endpoints.
 

Dir. Blomkamp on set of ‘Demonic’

How did you handle the vocal processing for inside the simulation?

Vince Renaud (VR): The sim sections were challenging because of the noise on set. There were many fans running to keep the cameras cool in a big warehouse. All that needed to be cleaned before any processing could happen or it would have been a big mess.

Neill did not want to ADR these scenes. In fact, there’s no ADR in any of the sim scenes except additional breaths and reactions.

After the cleanup, I applied a surround delay with flanging and some pitch modulation on the delay taps with a small amount of reverb.
 

What were the most challenging scenes for sound design inside the simulation? Can you break down your work of a few, like when Carly is attacked and her arm gets cut?

JR: The VR world was a big one; getting the right sounds in so the glitch effect is noticeable was key.

The digital tears that happen in the VR world were other key moments. Like when Angela levitates and we have pixel tears happening on the scene. Those needed to be aggressive but also go with what we’re seeing.

…we had all done something different. But when played together, it sounded like massive digital tears.

It also happens again at the end when Angela surrenders to her fate. Here, Nolan did some design and Vince did some vocal design glitches and I did some design. But in this instance, we just decided to let everyone do what they thought it should be — the only caveat was that it had to have a hard attack. I designed some effects with Native Instruments that I thought were aggressive enough.

The cool thing is that when we presented all our work for that sequence, we had all done something different. But when played together, it sounded like massive digital tears.

I did a lot of moving textures to amp up the tension, some were musical-like pads with some tortured violins, while others were dark and morphing.

The Demon was another designy bit. But a bigger area that may not be so upfront at first is the moving dark textures and sonic hits. In this feature, I did a lot of moving textures to amp up the tension, some were musical-like pads with some tortured violins, while others were dark and morphing. An example of this is the whole opening, which is sound design and no music.

NM: The cacophony of digital glitches, stutters, and malfunctions throughout the “Angela levitation” sequence turned out amazing! For my additions to this section, I recorded some vocal rewind, fast forward, suction, and glitch sounds. These were processed with a long plug-in chain; one main component of that was Shuffling by GRM Tools. On top of those processed vocal effects, I added more tape rewind, fast forward, stop, and starts, circuit-bent Speak and Spell glitches, guitar/amp cable disconnects/connects, and some really harsh, pointy, transient, static glitches.

What about the supernatural elements in the film? What were Blomkamp’s directions for the demonic sounds? How did you create those sounds?

JR: When I saw the ‘Demon’ (or its first drafts) it reminded me of the plague doctor outfits of the 17th century. Those always reminded me of a bird-like mask, but just adding a bird-like call in there would be pretty lame. Neill was pretty open to me experimenting. I knew he wanted the Demon to have some guttural aspects so that was my starting point. I ended up doing about nine versions of the Demon until we were both happy.

I ended up doing about nine versions of the Demon until we were both happy.

For the Demon, I went through and created vocal profiles using my voice. Then with those profiles, I could manipulate certain sounds to either interact with those profiles or full-on replace those profiles with specific sound elements using plugins like Envy by The Cargo Cult or Reformer by Krotos, etc.

So in this Demon’s texture are elements of ice cracking, electrical discharge, metal stressing along with other elements including baby vultures crying for their mom.

Having the elements all play off each other helps in selling the effect.
 

On-set of ‘Demonic’ with Dir. Blomkamp and Carly Pope

Can you talk about your sound work on the dream sequence, when Carly’s friend comes to visit?

JR: That goes from being quiet eerie sound design to all hell breaking loose. When you are editing and designing a sequence like that, you need to be playing that mix in your head so you’re not editing too much stuff into the sequence. It can be easily overrun with sound files that just muddy up the mix. You want it to be intense but also have some clarity so the audience knows what’s going on. You’re directing them to hear what you want them to hear. The challenging parts in that sequence were going from slow-mo to real-time without losing sonic energy.

When you are editing and designing a sequence like that, you need to be playing that mix in your head…

NM: This is such a great sequence in the film! There are some great body slams and impacts throughout. For example, Carly flips over the couch and crashes into the lamp/side table, and we hear her scrambling throughout the room.

Also, when her friend is crashing into the wall, we have a huge door slam and lock. The dynamics are great throughout the sequence; everything builds and builds, with the incessant door knocking and banging leading to a climax and then tapers off to quiet before the reveal.

In terms of sound design, did you have a favorite single sound you created? Or a specific scene that you designed sound for? What went into it?

JR: The Demon turned out pretty cool. But I really liked the moving textures that were designed for this feature; it just elevated the whole sound design in my opinion. What I mean when I say ‘moving textures,’ is I designed a bunch of textures varying from different degrees of dark pads to annoying sounds (like effected, muted screams). I basically tracked different blends live to picture, trying to come up with the right tension combo which is morphing with the scene. It’s a little more complicated than that, but I don’t want to give away all my secrets.

NM: There were lots of things I really enjoyed, such as all the computer sounds, whirs, data telemetry, beeps and hard drives throughout the film.

…I designed a bunch of textures varying from different degrees of dark pads to annoying sounds (like effected, muted screams).

The camera array flashes that capture Carly’s 3D model for sim integration turned out real slick, with nice deep tones that contrast in rhythm to the sharper snappy flashes.

For some reason, I just love the recurring UI beep that is tied to the sim headgear light turning on. This signified “real-world Carly” getting knocked unconscious and swept into the world of the sim, so it was an important sound to cue the audience and contributed to the storytelling.

I spent a decent amount of time in the hospital room scenes, building out the medical machines, equipment, and beeps. It was enjoyable making little off-screen action happen around the dialogue and I was also very conscious in my attempts to not give these events too much rhythm or repetitiveness. I wanted it to feel very sporadic.

I re-recorded down beds of this glassy texture. The addition of electrical elements afterward gave the lights a tasty flavor.

The hospital room door was cool, too. I wanted to give it some feeling of sophistication and advanced tech by adding an air release open and suction to the closing sounds. Through sound, these additions also helped establish the room as a sterile and clean environment separated from the rest of the building.

There are flickering lights throughout the film, which I knew I needed new material for. I recorded several different light bulbs. I hit them together, rubbed/fondled them in my hands, flicked them, tapped them to just hear the filament, etc. Afterward, I took these elements and re-recorded down beds of this glassy texture. The addition of electrical elements afterward gave the lights a tasty flavor.

What were some of your challenges in mixing Demonic?

VR: Making it sound eerie was a challenge. We took out a lot of sound, especially in the opening scene and the tunnel scene to make it creepy with silence.

JR: Like Vince said, making it eerie, and creating tension was important. It’s a psychological horror — like the feeling you get when you’re walking through your empty home at 3 am to get a glass of water and you hear a creak.
 

Were there particular scenes or moments that went through a few iterations in the mix? Can you explain some of the options, mix-wise, for those scenes and which direction ultimately worked the best?

VR: For the Latin prayer voice on tape — as they’re walking through the tunnel to where Angela is laying — we went through several versions of that including chanting before arriving at the final. That voice went through a tape simulator to move the pitch around, and then Neill had the idea to add glitches (even though a tape machine wouldn’t do that) just to make it a little weirder.

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…Neill had the idea to add glitches (even though a tape machine wouldn’t do that) just to make it a little weirder.

JR: For the opening, we had a bigger production sequence in there with music and more sound effects, etc. It all got whittled down to what you hear now.

The first time we see the Demon, that went through some different mix versions to where we ultimately agreed we liked it more aggressive.

The end sequence where Carly is being chased by the Demon, those scenes we kept revisiting, wanting to get it quiet in all the right places, with the odd sound clanging to make you uncomfortable.

What made Demonic a unique experience for you in terms of sound?

JR: With every project you work on, you’re growing at your craft. I’m getting close to my 30th work anniversary. And I’m only limited by my own ideas. Some projects you get to be more creative than others, and when that opportunity happens, embrace it.

Some projects you get to be more creative than others, and when that opportunity happens, embrace it.

There were a lot of creative moments in Demonic, but the unique experience for me is working with Neill. I’m working with a director who has a sonic template of what he wants his movie to sound like. BUT he’s not tied to it or insisting I do something specific; he lets me be creative and gives me a chance to design what I feel the picture is relaying to me. I’ve worked with my fair share of directors, and that’s not the norm. Any time you’re working with a director that can communicate, and values your input, your creative juices get a kick start.

VR: Working with Neill is always great. He gives you ideas and lets you run with it. We’ll present a few options and then he’s very clear about the direction he wants things to take. Once he’s made a decision on a sound, it usually stays that way to the end of the movie — there’s no second-guessing.

There were constant opportunities for creativity on the project…

NM: Playing in a film that crossed genres from psychological horror to sci-fi was a real treat! There were constant opportunities for creativity on the project in this respect. When dropping into the sim there were sci-fi type sounds, but I tried to give them an ethereal element or feeling that helped to blur genre lines. I am very thankful to Jo for giving me the opportunity to collaborate with him and Vince on a Blomkamp project! Thanks, fellas; it was a blast and I look forward to our next collaboration!

A big thanks to Jo Rossi, Vince Renaud, and Nolan McNaughton for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Demonic and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

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