Terror Tracks - Music, Sound and Horror Cinema - Philip Hayward
Spooked by Sound: The Blair Witch Project
Terror Tracks - Music, Sound and Horror Cinema - Philip Hayward
Rebecca Coyle † [+]
Rebecca Coyle published on screen music and sound in a number of journals and books, including two anthologies on Australian feature film music. She was the editor of Screen Sound, the Australasian Journal of Soundtrack Studies and on the editorial board for such international journals as Convergence and Music and the Moving Image. She taught in the Media programme at Southern Cross University, Australia, until her death in November 2012.
Description
The Blair Witch Project (hereafter BWP ) is a noisy film despite the near-absence of music or standard suddenly shocking horror sounds. This low-budget film, directed by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sànchez (1999), draws on dialogue, foley and location sound for its effect. Indeed, it is through its approach to and connections with the horror elements that the film builds its affective impact. This chapter investigates how sound and music are tied into the narrative in BWP. I will analyse a selection of key scenes and their sonic elements to discuss the ways by which sound is used to situate, identify and enhance horrifying events that are not necessarily represented on-screen.