Horror Highlights: New Elvira Apparel from Cavitycolors, THE BLOOD RED EXPERIMENT Anthology, Interview with LIGHT AS A FEATHER Composer Pieter Schlosser

When isn't Elvira apparel cool? Cavitycolors' new Elvira collection, including their "Graveyard Ghoul" tank top, has been released! Also in today's Horror Highlights: release details for The Blood Red Experiment anthology and a Q&A with Pieter Schlosser, the composer of the new Hulu series Light as a Feather.

Graveyard Ghoul Tanktop from Cavitycolors: "The cemetery gates have opened to our new ELVIRA collaboration. All new tees, tanks, and sweaters! What will you bring home?"

For more information, visit Cavitycolors' official website.

---------

The Blood Red Experiment Anthology Release Details: "Inspired by the genius of Hitchcock and his films, Latin luminaries such as Argento and Bava directed macabre murder-mystery thrillers, that combined the suspense with scenes of outrageous violence, stylish cinematography, and groovy soundtracks. This genre became known in their native Italy as Giallo.

Giallo is Italian for yellow, inspired by the lurid covers of thrillers, in the way that pulp fiction was derived from the cheap wood pulp paper of the crime stories, or Film Noir came from the chiaroscuro of the German Expressionistic lighting.

Craig Douglas and Jason Michel bring Giallo-inspired stories together from some of the best crime writers on the scene today to a wider audience, giving birth to a new literary movement in crime writing, NeoGiallo, and drag this much-maligned genre screaming and slashing its way into the 21st Century.

Amazon link: https://www.bookgoodies.com/a/B07J6THTLT"

---------

Interview with Light as a Feather Composer Pieter Schlosser: "With films such as It, Happy Death Day, American Horror Story and Halloween being released and becoming commercial hits, the horror genre is currently seeing another resurgence with Hulu, in particular, capitalizing on the wave and having great success in the scare department. First with the new original series Into the Dark, from producers of The Purge, which consists of twelve movies released once a month, each plot centered around the holiday of that month. Then with Castle Rock, which is based on characters/settings from the stories of Stephen King and most recently the teen psychological thriller series Light As A Feather based on the book of the same name by Zoe Aarsen. What would a horror project be without its terrifying score letting audiences know when evil is lurking? Since scores in this particular genre can be the most crucial to setting the tone, we decided to speak with Light As A Feather composer Pieter Schlosser and find out more about his process and scoring the Hulu show.

What was your process like scoring a show such as Light As A Feather?

Pieter Schlosser: The producers and I had early discussions about what they envisioned for the show. We didn’t want to have too much music which can become like wallpaper, or, as I like to call it, the ‘hum of an air conditioner’. When this happens, the music just loses its effect! We also decided not to do the usual jump scares unless the scene really needed it. As far as the palette of the show, I wanted to make sure it was pretty organic. This applied to synthesizers as well, meaning if I used a synth, the sound had to stay away from sounding electronic and stay rooted in living matter.

I also came up with a sound that is reminiscent of a cicada which comes up whenever we see Violet, our` ‘villain’, on screen as she’s (spoiler) plagued with a creepy chrysalis growing on her back.

Can you tell us about the opening main title sequence? How did you decide which direction you were going to go in for this? And did you work with the vocalist on this?

Pieter Schlosser: The opening theme for the show came about in a really organic way (not to overuse the term). I had already scored the first episode and had moved on to the 2nd before the titles were done.

I was scoring a scene in episode 2 where Violet is in her room and the black butterflies start to fly around in circles in front of her. One of them lands on her hand and she suddenly closes her palm and kills it. This foreshadows the first death in the show. The producers responded really well to this scene and pointed it out in their notes to me.

We didn’t talk about using this specifically but when I was sent storyboards of the main title, this immediately came to mind. I sped up the tempo and changed a few things in the arrangement and that was the one and the only version I did for the main title!

Light As A Feather is one of your first streaming projects. Did you find you approached the project differently because of this? Many composers say that when all the episodes can be watched one after the other it can be like scoring one long movie.

Pieter Schlosser: Even though I did get all the scripts in advance, I stopped reading them after episode 3 because I wanted to react to the episodes as an audience member and channel these reactions to scoring the show. The episodes were also worked on and delivered to me sequentially in pairs, so I didn’t get to see them all at once. I got to see them two by two as we spotted and then scored them.

Were there any specific challenges with composing Light As A Feather and, if so, what were they?

Pieter Schlosser: Part of the challenge was to not give too much away, for one. Second, I had to make sure not over score each scene. As soon as the music gets in the way, or becomes distracting, I’ve lost the audience. More often than not, I would score a scene, watch it back when I thought it was done, I would end up muting a lot of elements. I learned eventually that less was definitely more.

Horror projects tend to heavily rely on their score to let the viewers know when they should be scared or danger is lurking. Did you feel any extra pressure because the show is in this genre?

Pieter Schlosser: I prefer to go the other way as much as I can when scoring a scene. In other words, I try not to lead the witness. Audiences are smart, and I never want to underestimate them. As I mentioned above, I think we tend to overscore a moment (I know I’m very guilty of that) so it’s good to check myself. There is a strong argument to be made for the efficacy of silence. I believe it’s one of the best ways to make someone uncomfortable and it’s incredibly powerful! You should try it in conversation and see what happens.

The locker prank scene in the first episode is very reminiscent of the famous blood scene in Carrie. Did this cross your mind at all when scoring this?

Pieter Schlosser: That’s interesting! I had not until now. I had to re-watch the scene and it struck me how incredibly slow this scene is! It’s amazing how much things have changed since then in how horror and suspense are written, shot, edited and ultimately scored.

What this scene in ‘Light As A Feather’ did remind me of was ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ when the Nazi’s face melts off after they open the ark. This was especially true when she runs to the bathroom and her skin starts to dissolve in her hands. Now that was fun!

Are you personally a fan of horror? If so, what are some of your favorite horror films?

Pieter Schlosser: What’s important to me, regardless of genre, is the story. When you have a compelling story and interesting characters, the classification of the project is irrelevant. Having said that, I lean much more toward suspense than horror. I’m a big fan of ‘The Sixth Sense’ and ‘Green Mile’ and probably one of my favorites is ‘Silence Of The Lambs’."