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Thu Sep 29 2022 |

How to Design Horror Sounds โ€“ with horror sound veteran Joe Dzuban (โ€˜The Conjuringโ€™, โ€˜Insidiousโ€™, โ€˜Annabelleโ€™ & many more)

By Jennifer Walden
How to create horror sound effects

Sound designer Joe Dzuban worked on five films with horror director James Wan, starting with Insidious in 2010. Since then, he's designed and/or mixed the sound for a dozen top horror films including The Conjuring, Annabelle, Malignant, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Crimson Peak.

Here, Dzuban shares his insights and tips on how to design amazing horror sounds!

Interview by Jennifer Walden

Sound designer/re-recording mixer Joe Dzuban (at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services in Burbank) is an undeniable authority on designing and mixing sound for horror films.

Sound designer & Re-Recording Mixer Joe Dzuban
Sound designer & Re-Recording Mixer Joe Dzuban

Heโ€™s worked on some of the best-known horror films by top horror directors like James Wan and Guillermo del Toro. His credits include Wanโ€™s Insidious (re-recording mixer / supervising sound editor), The Conjuring (sound designer / supervising sound editor), Insidious: Chapter 2 (re-recording mixer / sound designer / supervisory sound editor), The Conjuring 2 (supervising sound editor), and Malignant (re-recording mixer / supervising sound editor), and del Toroโ€™s Crimson Peak (re-recording mixer / additional sound design).

Dzuban was sound designer and re-recording mixer on two films from director John R. Leonetti: Annabelle and Wish Upon, and sound designer on director Andrรฉ ร˜vredalโ€™s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and director Jacob Chaseโ€™s Come Play. He also mixed Paranormal Activity 3 (directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman) and Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (directed Christopher Landon).

Get ready for some great tips on designing horror sounds, courtesy of Joe Dzuban!

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What are five essential tips youโ€™d share on how to design gory/scary/cringe-inducing horror sounds?

1. Record something! Find something unusual and unique to record for your gore. Try various things you can tear and destroy to get a variety of interesting textures. Take a trip to the grocery store!

2. Donโ€™t over-do it: As sound editors, we love to layer our sounds. But when it comes to gore, fewer layers are better. Give the audience something strong to hold onto. Donโ€™t clutter the moment.

Evocative sounds will make the picture all the more squeamish.

3. Sync is optional: Donโ€™t get too tied to picture. Make a sound that works and tells a story, and 9/10 itโ€™ll work to picture. Evocative sounds will make the picture all the more squeamish.

4. Donโ€™t stack all your sounds: Think of moments in terms of double or triple events. So a stab isnโ€™t just a single sword โ€˜shing;โ€™ it might be a tear followed by a thrust, followed by a juice splat.

5. Try, try, and try again: Try your sounds to picture, live with them for a few days, revisit them, and then try new sounds. Experiment with different types of sounds and rhythms until you get to that โ€˜momentโ€™ where it works!


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Whatโ€™s your approach to creating effective jump scares? (Any tips to offer on how to make the best/most effective jump scares?)

Jump scares work best when the audience least expects them. Much of the success of a scare comes from picture editing. But as sound folks, we can help those moments by trying to โ€˜lullโ€™ the audience before the big jump. We want them to lean in a bit. Getting into that lull is the creative challenge and is different for every film. Sometimes the lull lives for say 15 seconds before the scare, other times itโ€™s a brief pause just before the action.

Take the transient โ€˜edgesโ€™ off of door closes or footsteps, or EQ them a bit so they are tucked into the mixโ€ฆ

I make sure all the sounds preceding scares are โ€˜roundedโ€™ and less staccato. Take the transient โ€˜edgesโ€™ off of door closes or footsteps, or EQ them a bit so they are tucked into the mix โ€“ we donโ€™t want any sounds capturing the audienceโ€™s attention.

Also, try to find a way out of music so that we really minimize the soundtrack.

For the sting itself, use sharp, strident sounds and play them โ€˜loud and proud.โ€™

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Bonus: Download 13 free horror / gore sound effects from Soundbits:


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Download 13 gore sound effects from Soundbits for free (opens in a new window)

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Anything that sound designers should avoid when creating sounds for a horror film?

Avoid excessive sounds in horror films. Donโ€™t overdo the soundtrack with a classic โ€˜Hollywoodโ€™ feel. We donโ€™t need to hear EVERY footstep, EVERY hand-pat, or 30 layers of BGs!

Find those few sound elements in a scene that tell the story and make them come to life.

Horror soundtracks tend to be concise, compact, and incorporate only the bare essentials of what is needed to tell the story. Find those few sound elements in a scene that tell the story and make them come to life.
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A big thanks to Joe Dzuban for sharing excellent tips on designing horror sounds and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

Want to learn more about horror sound?
Check out the Ultimate Horror Sound Guide below:

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The Ultimate Horror Sound Guide

Explore the Ultimate Horror Sound Guide here

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Shortcuts:

Click below to jump straight to your desired topic or story in the Ultimate Horror Sound Guide:

How to make your own horror sound effects:

How to Design Fierce Creature Vocals โ€ข Haunting Horror Sounds Effects for Interfaces โ€ข 5 tips for making the most of Dehumaniser 2 โ€ข How to create horror sound effects that are truly scary (and gory!): โ€ข Tips: How to create your own horror sounds

Exclusive horror sound stories:

Midnight Mass โ€ข Candyman โ€ข Halloween Kills โ€ข The Black Phone โ€ข Bodies Bodies Bodies โ€ข Speak No Evil โ€ข The Quarry โ€ข Archive 81 โ€ข Master โ€ข Prey โ€ข Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me โ€ข Demonic โ€ข Contagion โ€ข The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It โ€ข The Haunting of Bly Manor โ€ข The Third Day โ€ข Lovecraft Country โ€ข Halloween โ€ข The Haunting of Hill House โ€ข Hereditary โ€ข The Nun โ€ข A Quiet Place โ€ข Annabelle: Creation โ€ข It Comes At Night โ€ข Alien: Covenant โ€ข Blair Witch โ€ข The Mist โ€ข Penny Dreadful โ€ข Lights Out โ€ข The Conjuring 2

Bonus: More horror sound stories:

Behind the sound of Inside The Exorcist, Darq, Through The Woods, The Evil Within, Outlast, and Colina: Legacy + how scarehouse sound is made & How Sound Is Used To Create Suspense In Horror Movies

Ready to scare: Nightmare-inducing horror sound effects:

Highlighted horror sound effects libraries โ€ข Popular horror sound effects libraries โ€ข New horror sound effects libraries โ€ข Search for horror sound effects



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