Learn from the Horror Sound Masters: How To Design Scary Sounds – With Rich Bologna (‘Halloween Kills’, ‘Halloween Ends,’ ‘The Hunt,’ & More)

Sound Designer/Re-recording Mixer Rich Bologna

John Carpenter’s Halloween (released in 1978) jump-started one of the most popular horror film franchises of all time. When Halloween Ends (directed by David Gordon Green) comes to theaters this October 14th, it will be the 13th film in the franchise.

Emmy-nominated sound designer/re-recording mixer Rich Bologna (at Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services in New York) worked on director Green’s Halloween Kills and the soon-to-be-released Halloween Ends. He was supervising sound editor/sound designer on The Hunt (2020) and Paramount+ series Evil, sound effects editor on The First Purge, and sound editor on Ti West’s The Sacrament.

Here, Bologna distills his coveted experience of designing horror sounds for Green’s Halloween films into insightful tips and advice for designing your own!

What are a few essential tips you’d share on how to design gory/scary/cringe-inducing horror sounds?

1. Foley: I wouldn’t understate the importance of foley. My goal on any film is to create as much new sound content that’s as specific to the actual project as possible. And foley is a great way to do that because you essentially give them free rein to make new sounds for the film. During spotting, we’ll earmark anything that is an important foley sound – whether that’s a specific note from the director or something that I know I’m going to lean on the foley crew to handle in a scene. So early on in the process, I’ll forward those notes to the foley crew so they’re aware of what needs more attention. It’s a bit of a trust game because foley usually comes in pretty late in the process, close to the final phase. So (at least on the latest film I’ve done) I hold off on a lot of those big gory moments because I know the foley is going to be coming in. (For this latest job, we had Foley Supervisor Igor Nikolic with foley services provided by: Footsteps Post Production Sound, inc.) Most of the time, that component really does the job for me. I’ll sweeten those foley sounds if needed. But, foley is a really big part of how I approach getting those sounds right. And they come up with great stuff! It’s fun because it’s not just about using the library sounds that I’m used to.

I hold off on a lot of those big gory moments because I know the foley is going to be coming in. Most of the time, that component really does the job for me.

2. Respect the AAF: Oftentimes, at least for the gory effects in a horror movie, I respect what the picture department gives me in the AAF. As much as possible, I’ll try to incorporate that. If the sound is great, I’ll use the picture team’s sound. I’ll get their AAF and pull in their tracks and a lot of times, we use those almost explicitly during the temp phase of the sound process. Ultimately, these sounds we’re given some thought and the director is used to them. They’re valuable as a guidepost to know exactly what they’re trying to get at. So, I’ll start there, using whatever sounds came over in the AAF.

3. Punch through the layers: One challenge with the big moments – like somebody’s head getting crushed or eyes getting poked out – is that you’re usually competing with a huge score. So you have to pick the sharpest, top-heavy sounds to poke through and make the desired effect. A lot of times, it’s all a matter of frequency. There’s a full-blown score going on and people are screaming, so how do you punch through? For really heavy moments in horror films, I’m stacking sounds on sounds on sounds and that ends up being the thing that punches through. For example, on my latest project, there is this very intense, visually horrifying moment. We had a pretty good shape in terms of the mix but I could tell the director was leaning towards giving it a little bit more oomph. So we added to the mayhem by putting in a dentist drill sound. It really had little to do with what you were seeing on screen, but I think everyone is subconsciously terrified of that sound. That high ringing drill sound is awful. And, obviously, that punches through all the layers of sound that are playing at the same time because it’s so high frequency. And it did the trick; everybody in the room was just squirming during the mix.

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

I’ve learned a lot on this latest project about that! The first thing to mention is that 85% of making jump scares work happens on the editing side. An effective jump scare comes from the way the picture is cut. Adding big sounds isn’t going to get you very far. It’s really about choreography in the rhythm of how the picture is cut. Luckily, on these Halloween movies, I’ve been working with this great picture editor named Tim Alverson. He’s an aficionado of jump scares. It’s an obsession of his. He’s cut so many horror movies – starting in the late ’80s – so he’s very, very attuned to how to make them work and how they don’t work.

… 85% of making jump scares work happens on the editing side.

Another really interesting thing about this latest job is that we previewed the movie for a real audience a couple of times. They invited me, Paul Urmson (re-recording-mixer), and Tony Martinez (dialogue editor) to one of the previews in New Jersey. (Inviting the sound crew used to happen more but, unfortunately, it doesn’t happen as much these days.) And it was great because we got to watch the movie with a real audience that had never seen it. For us, it was super informative to see what works and what doesn’t. It was really fun for me because I know what jump scare is coming and I could see if it worked or not. And it’s very obvious when it does. That was super helpful. So if you have the opportunity as a sound person to go to those previews, you should because you learn a lot about the whole movie, but especially about those types of things.

For jump scares, one thing that works well is a misdirect. For instance, on my most recent project, there’s a scene where we pulled out all the active background sounds to set it up for a jump scare but then there’s essentially a misdirect – a rock falls from the ceiling. It’s not a particularly loud sound, but it’s something that draws your attention. And then a second later, you get the huge jump scare and it works great because you think something happened but then the real thing happens and you get the scare. You’re playing with anticipation. And this misdirect concept was really an eye-opener for me. You set up the audience and they’re anticipating something coming but then you give them a head fake before really sticking the landing.

For jump scares, one thing that works well is a misdirect.

Jump scare moments are essentially like stingers for the movie. I have a whole grab bag of sounds that are good for these stingers but it’s always fun to create new stuff and to give the movie its own motif. The sounds end up being thematic to the film.

The other fun thing we’ll end up doing (it’s almost like an inside joke for the sound crews) is sneaking sounds into these scares. Because these stingers are basically a bunch of layered sounds that all come together, we’ll have fun little inside jokes that we sneak in there. I don’t know if I’ll bump up against any copyright issues, but one thing I always try to do is put in a short sample of James Brown doing his “Yeeaah!” You’d really have to have eagle ears to catch it, but it’s in there. There’s also the “Barton Fink door whoosh,” and this one isn’t just for jump scares. It’s a great whoosh sound that Skip Lievsay created for Barton Fink in the early ’90s and we put it in movies all the time. So I snuck it into a jump scare in this latest movie, on a quick cut of somebody opening a door, and then you’re jolted back into the movie. That shows up a couple of times in this new one.

Because these stingers are basically a bunch of layered sounds that all come together, we’ll have fun little inside jokes that we sneak in there.

Another thing I look for are moments that aren’t intentionally supposed to be jump scares. I’ll always try to pick out a couple that will frighten the audience, even if it’s not at all a frightening moment, like using an incredibly loud door creak in a moment in the film where you aren’t meant to jump. We’ll offer it up in a way that’s so over-the-top loud that it might make some people jump. For instance in this latest film, in a pretty unscary part of the movie, it cuts to a really close shot of a champagne bottle opening and I found the loudest cork “pop” sound possible and it makes you jump if you’re not used to it. So that’s another fun little challenge I’ll try to set up for myself. We obviously know the actual jump scare moments that we’re trying to do, but then there are a couple that I can sneak in that are definitely not supposed to be scary, but can still maybe get a jump.

 
[horrorhighlights]

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

For me, the dirty secret is that I’m really not a huge horror fan. I’m not coming at it with this extensive lexicon of how horror films work. I admit I’ve gotten more into the genre in the last couple of years because I’ve been working on them and I got turned on to some good horror movies, but I’m definitely not the authority on horror movies whatsoever. Maybe that’s what makes it fun for me, to dip into that world and come at it with a different perspective. It’s tricky because a big part of working on these movies is that you have to respect the genre. There are things that people come to expect when they watch a horror film, and that’s part of the fun. For me, it’s gratifying to play with those genre tropes and clichés and make them interesting and unexpected.

For me, it’s gratifying to play with those genre tropes and clichés and make them interesting and unexpected.

So I would say (and it’s the most obvious answer, but it’s true) just don’t do what’s expected. It’s really about threading the needle of respecting the genre but also completely throwing out any preordained, expected things you think you should do more for a horror movie. At every turn, you should try and make it your own. Whenever you work on a new film, there’s a real great opportunity to explore what that film is about, and how to take the whole story and theme of the show and incorporate that into the soundtrack.

For any sound designer working on a project, you also have to be prepared to kill your darlings. You can spend a ton of time getting a scene to sound great and have all hands on deck but just know that it might not work out in the end. For instance, I had Larry Zipf (sound designer) work on a huge action sequence involving a vehicle and a bunch of violence. It sounded loud and awesome but right at the end in the last couple of days of mixing, the director asked that we let music take the lead on that scene. So I had to lower all the effects by -10dB or so.

…you also have to be prepared to kill your darlings.

We ended up doing a fine pass where we picked a few specific moments to push the sound design. And we hit a really nice, happy medium. It can be a bummer to attenuate all your hard work, but it’s also one of my favorite things about mixing. It’s essentially the director’s call. For that scene, music (especially if it’s a John Carpenter score!) should be our hero. Let that rock out and the sound design can play second fiddle, which is fine. It’s really about serving the movie. So even if you give a scene tons of love and your blood, sweat, and tears, you have to let it die on the vine if it needs to.

Another thing I love about doing horror movies, especially with directors like David Gordon Green, is that you can just go all out.

That’s all I would say about what not to do.

You should just go for it. Another thing I love about doing horror movies, especially with directors like David Gordon Green, is that you can just go all out. With other film genres, directors can be timid about the sound design part of the movie. But for horror movies, particularly Halloween movies, man, I’ll never get push-back on going big and bad because that’s the point. We can have all the fun in the world and make it loud, brash, and all that. And that’s a blast for sound people.

Please share this:

A big thanks to Rich Bologna for sharing excellent tips on designing horror sounds and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!