Here, Garnhart talks about using real-world sounds – like whispers, winds, insects, and metal grates – to create feelings of terror, using vocal pads as the main element for glowing crucifixes, and layering animal effects with treated dialogue to create demonic voices. He talks about his field recording trip to an abandoned mental hospital, shares tips on crafting tense moments, and much more!
Interview by Jennifer Walden, photos courtesy of New Line Cinema/Max; Sean Garnhart
Salem’s Lot – now streaming on Max – is the latest Stephen King screen adaption by director/writer Gary Dauberman. The story’s supernatural subject material (namely, vampires) is grounded in reality using natural sounds like winds and whispers. Emmy and MPSE Award-winning sound supervisor/sound designer/re-recording mixer Sean Garnhart at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services in New York City also uses the lack of nature sounds to announce the presence of evil. By crafting lush, interesting, and varying background sounds, Garnhart draws the audience’s ears to the environment the characters are in, so when an evil presence appears, he’s able to make the moment get extremely quiet as if the vampires are literally sucking the life out of everything around them.
Here, Garnhart talks about how the sound team created the sounds of the vampires, how he builds immersive backgrounds to set the scene and then pulls them out to build tension, how he created the sound of the glowing crucifixes using choir pads playing a suspended seventh chord, and how foley details (like rattling wooden stakes) can add anxiety to quiet moments. He also shares tips on ‘worldizing’ sourced effects to make them feel like they’re coming from the characters/objects/spaces on screen, and how to tell a story using restraint and focus and a few well-chosen sounds. He talks about his field recording trip to an abandoned mental hospital and much more!
Salem’s Lot | Official Trailer | Max
What were director Gary Dauberman’s initial ideas for sound on Salem’s Lot? Being supernatural horror, there are certainly subjective sounds – like the vampires and the glowing crucifixes. What were his thoughts on those? And what did you want to bring to this film sonically?

Sound Supervisor/Re-recording Mixer Sean Garnhart
Sean Garnhart (SG): Gary was into real sounds. Even though there were a lot of supernatural ideas in this film, he wanted to start organically, with a real base, a familiar foundation. I loved that because, honestly, I like starting with sounds that we already know, ones that already have a burnt-in emotional effect on us. Gary’s desire to build organically and my natural instinct to do the same was a perfect pairing.
I love that your sound work is based in reality for supernatural elements. For instance, in some off-screen, dark, scary moments in Salem’s Lot you used whispering and whispery sounds…
SG: Yes! We used a lot of natural whispery winds and built some winds out of real whispers. I did a lot of recordings of just whispers – literally, me standing at a mic making whispery sounds with my mouth. Then, I added a little reverb or maybe some chorus or flanging to those whispers and mixed the processed whispers with tones and winds from my library. I married the newly created sounds to the already fantastic visuals in the movie and all of a sudden the film became an otherworldly experience; so fun and exciting to create.
Did you get to do any field recordings for the film? Did you take a trip to record sounds?
SG: It wasn’t specifically for this film, but a friend of mine was working on a horror movie years ago, an indie film, and he was given access to this completely closed, rundown mental hospital in upstate New York. He asked me, “Do you want to come up for the day? We have full access. We can break windows. Whatever we find, we can record because they’re going to knock the place down. Do you want to come up and record with me?” I was like, “Are you kidding me? Yes, I do!”
We captured wind blowing through the windows or the cracks in the doors.
So I went up there with him and spent an entire day mostly in this huge, dank, shut-down industrial kitchen.
First, we recorded room tones and ambiences. Nothing was plugged in so there were no electronic tones. We captured wind blowing through the windows or the cracks in the doors. There was no traffic nearby. So we got some really cool interior tones which I used in Salem’s Lot, in the basement of Barlow’s mansion.
They had very heavy metal doors with intricate locking mechanisms that produced awesome scrapes and rich ca-chunk sounds with a metallic ring.
Then we found some old industrial freezers. They had very heavy metal doors with intricate locking mechanisms that produced awesome scrapes and rich ca-chunk sounds with a metallic ring. We used some of those sounds for the car trunks in the drive-in scene. Sound effects editor Mark Filip, who has worked with me for more than two decades, did wonderful work on this film. He found some great recordings of rickety antique car trunks and car doors. I shared the freezer door recordings with Mark and he used them to add more girth and impact to the car trunks.
We also added squeaky, scrapy elements to the trunks. We found metal grates in storage closets at this rundown mental facility, as well. Scraping the grates with other pieces of metal we found on the floor gave us amazing spooky wronks – almost screaming metal!!
Sound highlight - article continues below:
Scraping the grates with other pieces of metal we found on the floor gave us amazing spooky wronks – almost screaming metal!!
So, to answer your original question, I didn’t do too much field recording specifically for this movie but I often jump at any chance to record things. When I’m out in the field, I don’t always know how I’m going to use a sound I’m capturing, so I try as many different things with that prop or location as I can. This approach to recording gives me options in the cutting room where I find uses for the sounds I may have recorded years ago.
Since you got to destroy this rundown mental facility, did you smash out a corner of a window to grab spooky wind blowing through it?
SG: Absolutely. In addition to smashing windows, I dragged metal filing cabinets across the huge reverberant concrete floor. I always record at really high sample rates – 192k – so I can pitch shift without any aliasing. Again, I don’t always know what I’m recording for or how I’ll process the sound later. So if I find something I’ve never heard before, like these scraping cabinets, I’ll capture it.
The cabinets made crazy-interesting metallic shrieks. When you pitch them way down, they become these otherworldly elements…
The cabinets made crazy-interesting metallic shrieks. When you pitch them way down, they become these otherworldly elements that can be anywhere from dinosaur growls to very distant, spooky howling winds. That whole day of recording ended up being a super fun experience.
I imagine the sound of this empty space with hard, reflective surfaces must have had some great natural reverbs. Were you close-miking and far-miking sounds in there?
SG: That is exactly what we did. We had two recorders running the entire time.
One was a very close mic, and the other one was very ambient. It was amazing.
We captured this ominous, explosive sound, especially on the ambient mic.
We even found a bowling ball, although I have no idea why it was there. We rolled the bowling ball down this long hallway, and it ended up bouncing down a set of stairs. We captured this ominous, explosive sound, especially on the ambient mic. The close mic sounded more like a bowling ball, but the ambient mic picked up this crazy reverberant thunder. I don’t remember using it in Salem’s Lot but it’s in my library for the next inspiration.
And so the million dollar question: you set up microphones in a possibly haunted space; did you capture any anomalous sounds, something possibly supernatural?
SG: The place felt pretty haunting but I didn’t get any sonic ‘proof.’ There was a time when my friend had to leave to speak with the film crew who was shooting in another building, so I was alone in this space. But I wasn’t scared. I was too excited to find the next thing to beat up, break, and scrape. I had a blast finding things to record; things that a normal person – not a sound person – would see as junk. To me though, I was in heaven.
What went into the sound of the vampires? What about their vocal processing? (I like the restrained use of processing. It’s just a bit of ‘extra’ when it’s needed).
SG: That is precisely what we were going for – not too over the top, just scary enough to creep you out a bit.
There were two approaches to the vampires. There were a lot of townie vampires, and we asked our loop group to do a pass of monstery vocals. Dann Fink and his crew at The Dann + Bruce Company (a New York-based Loop Group and ADR Voice Casting business) are always super fun and always up for the challenge. So, we mainly used unprocessed loop group recordings for the town vampires – just fun people having a good time making monster sounds.
…the actor, Alexander Ward, was very interested and willing to take a pass at doing some scary vocals.
Barlow was a whole other story. He had very few lines in the movie, but the actor, Alexander Ward, was very interested and willing to take a pass at doing some scary vocals. If I remember correctly, he wasn’t able to vocalize to his potential on set because the teeth of his costume were in his way.
6 sound facts about Salem’s Lot:
Q: Who did the sound design and mix for Salem’s Lot?
A: The Salem’s Lot sound team at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services in New York was led by supervising sound editor/sound designer/re-recording mixer (effects) Sean Garnhart and sound designer/re-recording mixer (dialogue/music) Larry Zipf. Sound effects editors were Mark Filip and Wyatt Sprague. Dialogue editor was Rick Chefalas.
Q: Who composed the music for Salem’s Lot?
A: The musical score for Salem’s Lot was composed by Emmy-winning composer Nathan Barr, known for his work on horror films and series like True Blood, Cabin Fever, Flatliners, and Shutter. Additional composer and solo vocalist was Lisbeth Scott.
Q: Who handled the foley on Salem’s Lot?
A: The foley on Salem’s Lot was performed at The Foley Barn in London, UK. Foley supervisor was Igor Nikolic, Gareth Rhys Jones was foley artist, and Julien Pirrie was foley mixer. Foley editors were Matthew Haasch and Nora Linde.
Q: What went into the vocal sounds for the vampires in Salem’s Lot?
A: The vampire vocals in Salem’s Lot were handled differently depending on the vampire. The ‘town’ vampire voices were performed by loop group actors – supervised by Dann Fink at The Dann + Bruce Company – who were asked to do a pass of ‘monster’ voices.
The voice of Barlow – the head vampire – was performed by actor Alexander Ward. Since Ward’s costume on set restricted his vocal abilities, he did a pass of scary vocals during his ADR session. Sound designer/re-recording mixer Larry Zipf built Barlow’s vampire voice in layers. He used different processing for each layer: pitch-shifting, chorus effect, and light processing using the Krotos Dehumaniser plugin. He also kept Ward’s unprocessed performance in the mix. Sound supervisor/re-recording mixer Sean Garnhart then layered in sound effects of low, guttural animal growls from bears, alligators, camels, lions, pumas, and others. Keeping these layers separate in the mix allowed the mixers to control the amount of vocal processing to be more human or more demonic as needed.
Q: What’s the most surprising story behind the sound of Salem’s Lot?
A: Several key sounds in Salem’s Lot came from recordings that sound supervisor/re-recording mixer Sean Garnhart captured years ago during a field recording trip to an abandoned mental hospital. There, he was able to record spooky wind sounds, industrial freezer latches and door creaks, metal grates scraping along the empty hallways, and other haunting sounds that ended up working perfectly on Salem’s Lot.
Q: What was the most challenging aspect of the sound on Salem’s Lot?
A: The glowing crucifixes in Salem’s Lot was a tricky sound. Sound supervisor/sound designer/re-recording mixer Sean Garnhart’s initial sound design included elements such as sizzles, synth tones, and transformer hums to support what was happening in the VFX. As dir. Gary Dauberman refined the VFX for the glowing crucifixes, Garnhart refined his sound design to match. The sizzles, synth tones, and hums were minimized and the most predominant sound became a choir pad Garnhart created using female voices – a fitting choice for a crucifix. Then, Garnhart played the choir pad in a suspended seventh chord, which feels unresolved. This chord feels like it’s leading somewhere, subconsciously creating a feeling of anxiety. The combination of the choir pad with hums and sizzle sounds playing underneath became the perfect sound for the glowing crucifixes.
He came in for a looping session and performed some really cool stuff. Re-recording mixer Larry Zipf, who handled dialogue and music, took the Barlow vocals under his wing. He started with the original recordings, then pitch-shifted and added some chorus, and also used Krotos’s Dehumaniser plugin a bit. Larry saved all of these steps as different layers of processing. So if Gary wanted something a bit more human or a bit less human, it was easy to manipulate those elements on the mix stage.
I matched the envelope of Barlow’s vocal performance with different animal growls to create a non-human layer.
In addition to Larry’s processing, I used bear growls, alligator hisses, camels, lions, pumas, and anything else that produced low guttural growls. I matched the envelope of Barlow’s vocal performance with different animal growls to create a non-human layer. Larry and I married these layers to push the human performance to a supernatural level, but again, it was all done with organic, real sounds which Gary loved.
Can you talk about your sound work on the scene with vampire Ralphie trying to lure his brother Danny outside?
SG: I used many different winds and whispers to create that moment. We started with organic whistling winds – probably recorded through a chicken wire fence. Then I mixed in whispers that I performed with my mouth and my teeth.
Performing makes the sound more specific to picture, which, in my opinion, makes it more believable.
I like to perform while watching picture, almost like a musical instrument, so I can focus on details, like when the cape is flapping and when the vampire’s body is either suspended or getting lifted by a gust of wind. Performing makes the sound more specific to picture, which, in my opinion, makes it more believable.
Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:
-
50 %OFF
-
9 %OFF
There are dark moments that precede an attack – like Barlow’s first victim, little Ralphie Glick, stuffed in that sack. And we experience this attack through his perspective of peering out of a hole in the cloth. Can you talk about your sound work for that sequence?
SG: I loved how that scene was shot…sometimes we’re in the sack with Ralphie and other times we’re watching as an audience member that can see everything. Playing the difference between full-frequency sound and muffled sound when we were in the sack helped to enhance Ralphie’s feeling of terror and claustrophobia.
…the key to making the scene leading up to the sack so scary – the scene in the forest when Ralphie was abducted – was establishing sound, and then removing it.
But we used another tactic, too. I think the key to making the scene leading up to the sack so scary – the scene in the forest when Ralphie was abducted – was establishing sound, and then removing it. At the beginning of the scene, we painted a lush night forest. You hear a calm comfortable wind blowing through the trees along with the chirping and buzzing of numerous night insects. Then, as soon as we hear the wood crack off-screen, all of the ambiences shift. The insects disappear and the winds change. It’s almost like a vampire sucks the life out of the environment.
We used this approach several times throughout the movie. There’s a whole orchestra of sound when Ralphie’s sack is carried into the foyer of Barlow’s mansion. The candles are flickering and stormy winds are blowing. But then a deadly silence overtakes the soundscape. Silence allows every detail to be magnified. Again, when we’re hearing each creak and footstep from Ralphie’s POV, we are freaking out about what is about to happen, what’s coming, who’s coming, when is it coming? The silence makes you hang on the edge of your seat, like, “Oh boy, when am I going to jump?”
When he first goes outside, you can hear crickets and wind made from processed whispering and screeching bats flying around.
We used the same suspense-building mixing technique when Danny is in his backyard and the see-saw starts moving by itself. When he first goes outside, you can hear crickets and wind made from processed whispering and screeching bats flying around. All of a sudden the crickets and bats disappear and the wind becomes stagnant. Again, this silence created the tension, the dread we wanted before Danny’s attack.
One of the reasons all these details work is because we had incredible material. The foley was such a huge part of this movie. Igor Nikolic, our foley supervisor, approaches his work with fantastic attention to detail. We recorded the foley at The Foley Barn in London with artist Gareth Rhys Jones, and mixer Julien Pirrie. I love foley when it’s thoughtfully performed and recorded with care. Gareth, Julien, and I had worked together on Servant so I knew they were the team for this job. They proved me right. The details in their foley pull you in and heighten every moment.
All of those sounds tell the story because it’s dark. Like, when Mark and Matthew are in the basement of the Marsten House, there is little to no light. Another moment is when Mark is alone in the dark at the drive-in. He hears heightened sounds because he’s so attuned to what’s happening in the dark around him…
SG: When I was working on that scene with Mark at the drive-in, I was thinking about a moment when I was a kid. Someone had left our back door open and my dog ran loose out into the night. I lived in a suburb that didn’t have a lot of streetlights so it was very dark; especially my backyard. I could see maybe 15 feet in front of me, but no more. I remember deciding to close my eyes to listen for my dog’s jingling collar. I was surprised by how acute my hearing became when my sight wasn’t distracting me.
Details like creaking wood – is that somebody’s footsteps or is it just another piece of wood settling? Every detail lends to the suspense.
I never forgot that moment. Even though it’s dark when Mark is under all that debris, he hears every detail. I was scared when I was looking for my dog. It was an uncomfortable, scary, heightened-awareness moment. That is what I was going for with Mark. Details like creaking wood – is that somebody’s footsteps or is it just another piece of wood settling? Every detail lends to the suspense.
You always do the sound for lights really well. How did you create the sound of the glowing crucifix sounds in Salem’s Lot?
SG: Thank you. That was a very tough nut to crack. Gary was very particular about that cross, and finding just the right combination of sounds took some time.
Seven sounds create the glow for the crucifix. Six of them are sizzles, synth tones, and transformer hums. Temporary VFX had guided us to use the above sounds but Gary didn’t like them…mostly because the cross didn’t look right to Gary yet. Once Gary found the correct look of the cross, I decided to use the above sounds as a subtle bed and create something new.
…it was pretty awesome that a choir was the featured tone because that’s so perfect for a cross!
The seventh and most predominant sound of the crucifix is a choir pad I created using female voices. Being a musician has its perks. While I was experimenting, I decided to make the choir sing a suspended seventh chord because that kind of chord is dying to resolve; meaning, the sound of that chord makes you feel like it should be going somewhere. Where is it leading me? Where is it going to land? This all happened subconsciously. But I realized later that it was pretty awesome that a choir was the featured tone because that’s so perfect for a cross!
One of the best times to hear the cross glowing is when Matthew is walking through his house looking for the vampire, wondering when it’s going to jump out. That’s where you really hear the choir pad. It’s not necessarily foreboding, it’s just very tense. There’s a little sizzling and a bit of a hum, but the sustain, the tension, is the choir pad.
Going back to the foley, it really shines in these quiet moments you crafted, like when Mark breaks into Barlow’s store. I love the specificity of this scene. It’s so quiet and each sound has its little moment to tell the story. You have the crunch of the glass, the drops of blood hitting the floor, the creaks, the rattle of the wooden stakes in his backpack… It was so specific and so linear – one sound after another telling the story as it unfolded. Any tips for crafting scenes like this on the dub stage, for weeding out sounds and choosing what is going to tell that story?
SG: The secret might be restraint and focus. It’s very easy to throw a lot of things at the screen but that normally isn’t the best way to go, in my opinion. Try focusing on every single moment, on every single shot, and figuring out what’s important in that shot. What could be the most emotionally impactful in that shot? Then, accentuate it; either with or without sound.
It’s very easy to throw a lot of things at the screen but that normally isn’t the best way to go…
You don’t always need to accentuate with sound. Sometimes. if the visual is loud enough, you may not have to hear anything. I think the secret is to mix with fine, detailed brush strokes, focusing on the emotional impact of every shot.
Since the sounds are so exposed in the quiet scenes, any tips on making each sound feel like it belongs to the person or the object making the sound? So, the glass is on the floor. Any tips for taking a sound effect of glass and making it feel like it’s coming from the floor instead of floating in the air? Any tips for making sound feel like it’s happening in that space?
SG: I always think about the resonator. What I mean is, if I’m recording somebody stepping on glass, what surface is the glass on? Is it wood? Is it concrete? The wood or the concrete is the resonator. The sound of glass interacting with a particular surface is just as important as the glass itself. You get a very different sound depending on the surface. And that’s true for everything, not just footsteps. A single blood drip into a puddle of blood will have a much different sound than the very first splat of blood on a dry wood floor.
A way to get the sound to ‘fit’ in the mix better is to play that recorded sound through a speaker placed in an environment, and then record what is coming out of the speaker.
The attention to how a sound is created or recorded is so important. I love to experiment when I’m recording. If we record a sound very closely miked, it may not sound like it’s in the world that’s on screen. A way to get the sound to ‘fit’ in the mix better is to play that recorded sound through a speaker placed in an environment, and then record what is coming out of the speaker. This process ‘worldizes’ the sound.
I definitely use plugin reverbs and compression all the time, but if I have time and access to the real environment, I try my best to record things as they happen on screen…
We used this technique a lot when I was the music editor and re-recording mixer on the Coen Brother’s film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. When the Sirens were singing, “As I Went Down To The River To Pray” in the forest, we played each Siren’s vocal part through speakers placed in a forest. Then we recorded the sound of those vocal parts coming through the speakers and bouncing off trees, grabbing the natural reverb and slap of the forest. We did the same thing for the band playing in the back of a pickup truck. We mounted speakers on the back of a pickup truck so that we could record the music with a natural Doppler effect rather than trying to manufacture it later. When I got to the dub stage, since we ‘worldized’ most of the music in that film, I remember using the studio recordings married to the in-the-world recordings to make the music naturally ‘fit’ on screen. I don’t think I used any plugins or outboard gear for reverb. That whole process was a huge lesson for me on the importance of making believable recordings.
I definitely use plugin reverbs and compression all the time, but if I have time and access to the real environment, I try my best to record things as they happen on screen so that it feels as natural as possible.
What was your favorite scene for sound editing/design? What went into it?
SG: I love designing detail. I’m not sure I have a favorite scene. I had fun with so many.
When Barlow’s coffin is delivered to the basement, we hear glass wine and liquor bottles rattling, coffin creaks, dusty footsteps, dirt trickling out of the crack in the coffin, the delivery truck rumbling, and the pull-chain jingling on the single light bulb.
The scene when Ralphie gets abducted in the forest, and when he’s in the sack as Barlow is coming down the stairs, and when Danny is in the backyard by the see-saw, I loved those scenes.
I want a lot of colors in my backgrounds so that they paint a very detailed picture of where we are in a movie.
I mentioned that I love foley. But I also love ambiences – detailed backgrounds. I love winds that have character and change throughout the scene. I build specificity in my traffic BGs, too. I want tonal things, like horns, whistles, bicycle bells, and random callouts. I want a lot of colors in my backgrounds so that they paint a very detailed picture of where we are in a movie.
For example, when we’re in the car with Ben Mears at the very beginning of the movie and he’s looking up at the Marsten House, there are lots of bugs and insects along with some winds blowing through the tall grasses. This is intentional. The backgrounds create a lush, alive environment that will change dramatically throughout the movie when vampires are present. As I’ve said before, backgrounds can be powerful.
Also in Matthew’s house, as he’s researching vampires, there is a baseball game playing in the background. When the vampire wakes up, the game goes from listenable to static. There’s an interference. The sound of the game changes in the background. And after the whole town becomes vampires, they’re standing in Mark’s kitchen and you hear water dripping from the faucet. It’s signifying that no one is around to address this leaky faucet. It’s a lonely sound….
SG: Exactly. Those sounds were meant to create a visceral reaction. We were trying to sell loneliness, emptiness, and dread with those sounds.
What was your favorite scene in terms of the mix? Why?
SG: I loved working with Larry. He mixed the dialogue and music. He did an incredible job. And, he is so easy to work with; he’s so eager to experiment which makes the job of mixing so fun.
…I’d have to say my experience with Larry was my favorite part of the mix.
Budgets don’t always allow for a ton of experimentation on the stage, so to get cool results, you have to be really fast and really good – Larry is both. Together, we had a ball diving in and figuring out some pretty cool things. When I’m working with somebody who is into it, it’s so fun and inspiring. You asked about my favorite scene but I’d have to say my experience with Larry was my favorite part of the mix.
Gary was also a huge part of that creative energy on the stage. Directors aren’t always on the stage for the entire process. Many will come only for playbacks. But Gary was on stage with us the entire time. He was so supportive of our work, our team, and our artistic approach.
What did you learn while working on the sound of Salem’s Lot? What has stuck with you about this experience?
SG: What has stuck with me about the experience of mixing Salem’s Lot is probably the freshly baked mini doughnuts Gary treated us to with different flavored dipping sauces. It was one of the best snacks I’ve had on a dub stage.
HA!!
I’m always learning how to help the audience focus.
But back to sound. I’m always learning how to help the audience focus. Every time I’m on the mix stage, I gain a clearer understanding of why the director made the choices they made when they were shooting and editing. If I can use my abilities with sound to underline those choices, to show the audience what they should be dialed into, then I’m helping the director and the film. Can I make it more exciting, scarier, more emotional? I keep trying to learn to do that better. It’s a journey. And it’s an exciting ride!
A big thanks to Sean Garnhart for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Salem’s Lot and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!
Please share this:
-
50 %OFF
-
9 %OFF