Code Blue

Something I've noticed over the past decade or so is that horror films have forgotten about the heartbeat effect. Come to think about it, I'd be hard pressed to name five films that have the 'heart beat' effect. For those of you who are confused, I'm simply referring to the sound of a beating heart during tense scenes. Thump thump. Thump thump.

I was watching the early 80's slasher flick 'The Prey' over the weekend and noticed that even tho the film is so bad it's good, the heartbeat during some of the point of view scenes was very effective.

George Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead' has this effect during the scene in the news station. He also uses it again during the apartment siege - when Peter and Roger are in the basement - shooting helpless zombies one by one. 'Dawn of the Dead' is one of those films that remained with me from childhood. One of the main reasons it was so memorable was because of the score - in particular, the heartbeat. Goblin really outdid themselves.

I've always said that the score to the movie is 40% of the film. I was watching 'Satan's Blade' over the holidays (a RARE slasher film from the 80's) and realized that the score was one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much. Along with the cold wintery landscape, the score was simply mesmerizing. The film can get all the bad reviews it wants, but the movie delivered in the atmosphere department. Why? The score. Was the acting good? No. It was shit. Forgive me.

Take for instance Carpenter's 'Halloween'. One of the first things people think of when someone mentions 'Halloween' is the scary ass music accompanying the film.

There's the the 80's slasher flick 'House on Sorority Row'. Not only did the director give us great style and classy camera work, the composer gave us some classy piano music which helped set the flick aside from a lot of other slasher films in the same department. A VERY classy slasher movie.

What about Dario Argento's 'Suspiria'? The film would simply be a gorgeous spectrum of style and substance without the haunting score.

Sometimes, the lack of a score is efficient. 'Malevolence', a fairly new straight to dvd release gets a lot of good reviews - and it should. Good acting. Good cinematography. The score throughout most of the movie was a simple humming that was barely audible. The quietness sort of overshadowed the hum, adding just the right amount of cinematic atmosphere to the flick.

I've noticed that I've strayed away from what I was originally going to post about - The heartbeat. Someone hand Hollywood composers a defibrillator and get that heart a pumping.