David's Transformation ("An American Werewolf in London" Rescore)
4,518
Publicado 2020-11-19
Steven Wyrick, composer
Sam Cooke, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hartoriginal, original source music
Elmer Bernstein, original score
John Landis, director
With the COVID-19 pandemic flipping the country on its back, screen scoring opportunities have come far and few for me. To get additional practice in, I began rescoring some clips from movies that I enjoyed, and whose scores I love, but had scenes where I could imagine different music. This is the first of three in a series.
In the case of the 1981 Oscar-winning "An American Werewolf in London," a (mostly) straightforward, technically spectacular horror/comedy by director John Landis, the famous transformation always struck me as being mildly humorous and utterly terrifying. In the original version, it is set to a cover of "Blue Moon," sung by Sam Cooke, as werewolf David Kessler screams and writhes in agony during his metamorphosis. Upon further research, I discovered that Elmer Bernstein wrote a bone-chilling cue for this scene and the next, so I tried to hone in on the original, standard terror that the late, great composer had envisioned.
As I prepared to write, I knew that the titular werewolf would need a threatening leitmotif, springing up with images of the moon as well as his mutating flesh, but as we saw David struggle through his change, I also wrote a leitmotif to represent his humanity, which slowly dwindles away until we are left with the bloodthirsty wolf (you first hear this when he lands on all fours). I then set everything at a sluggish tempo and accentuated the idea of this shattering pain with heavy, rhythmic, thudding percussion. Tonally, I went for pure shock value, but knowing that this is a fairly unsubtle film with good amounts of black comedy, I also went slightly over-the-top with the drama. From there, I experimented with orchestrations until I got what I wanted.
The werewolf is a monster that ties into a lot of my childhood fears, but since then I have become enamored with this creature, to the point where they are my favorite movie monster. As such, I consider this rescoring to be a tribute to them.
Obviously, I do not own the rights to this film. Really, you should go watch this film if you have not already.
Todos los comentarios (9)
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Wow! Awesome work.
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Bravo.
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Really captures the atmosphere of the transformation!
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Wow! Amazing work!
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The steady thumping rhythm made the scene march forward and the explosions of intensity matched the struggle depicted. The tinkling sound during the moon shots were eerie and other-worldly. Very cool.
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Best. Thing. Ever.
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Gracious goodness!! That was fantastic -- so scary and completely different from the previous soundtrack -- awesome, Steven!
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Holy cats: that is astonishing. My heart is pounding. The score gave an entirely different feeling to the scene and served it beautifully.
