The AMC owned streaming service, Shudder, has become the go-to destination for horror aficionados thanks to original projects such as Creepshow, Slasher, The Last Thing Mary Saw, Jakob’s Wife and V/H/S/ 94 premiering every week. The most recent release being Jeremiah Kipp’s creature tale, Slapface starring August Maturo, Mike Manning, Dan Hedaya, Mirabelle Lee, Lukas Hassel, Libe Barer, Bianca D’Ambrosio, and Chiara D’Ambrosio. Not only is Slapface now available to stream, but the film’s score by composer Barry J. Neely is also available digitally. To celebrate the release, we conducted the below Q&A with Barry.
First off, how did you get into scoring for visual media? Do you remember a specific moment where you thought, this is what I want to do?
I always knew I wanted music to be part of my life, but I also came to the conclusion pretty early on that I didn’t really want to be in a band: I was drawn to project-based music. And on top of that, a lot of the music I would write, even as a kid, would be instrumentals, and instrumentals that would take their time to develop, kind of “cinematic.”
So from the get-go, after college I just started finding people who were making things: short films, web series, whatever so I could continue writing that cinematic music I was always drawn to. From there the projects just kept coming, and ones that would allow me to create some fun music.
Honestly, I can trace Slapface back to a Craigslist job I applied for in 2005! From one job comes another.
What did you do to prepare for the film?
I immediately dove into some horror soundtracks. Not to pull from, but just to get back into the feeling as this was really only my 2nd, maybe 3rd horror film. But with music, I kinda just “go” and I start writing whatever comes to mind.
However, Knowing I was writing this during the very beginning of the pandemic, I knew I’d be doing a lot of the instrumentation myself. So, I went on Craigslist and tried to find some interesting (and hopefully not expensive!) instruments that might be inspiring to me.
Some composers like to incorporate “found sounds or objects” into their scores. Did you do anything like this for Slapface?
A year prior, I did a score for a short film where I just hit my body to get the sounds, so I wanted to take a different approach with this one. The objects I “found” were the ones on Craigslist: a dulcimer and a santur, which is an Iranian hammer dulcimer. Not necessarily the “found” you were thinking, but honestly, I definitely did NOT play that dulcimer how it was meant to…
Did you give the characters specific themes? If so, can you talk about those?
To me, all the characters focus around the main character, Lucas. I know that sounds obvious, but we never find out (hopefully not a spoiler) if the Witch is real or not, so in my mind Lucas and the Witch are one in the same. And Tom, Lucas’ older brother, is of course linked to Lucas by family and the death of their parents.
What I did was, write an overall theme on piano, then I drew from that. But in a horror thriller like this, having an “apparent” theme has potential to take people out of the story. So from that 5-bar theme I wrote – which wasn’t overly complicated – I extracted tiny little snippets from that. This way, the themes aren’t super involved, so they don’t seem obvious, but also the score is consistent over the whole film – which always a goal of mine – and all the characters are pretty much linked through music.
Did you score the film in chronological order, scene wise? Or did you save the big numbers for last?
I always do the big numbers first. That way – similar to how I extracted the themes from a single melody – I can take bits and pieces from that first big scene, which was a scene where Lucas encounters the Witch. He’s initially fearful, then after a bit of tension, he comes to accept the Witch. That “mini journey” meant the music had to do that as well.
What was the most difficult scene to score and why?
The scenes where not much action is going on on screen are toughest for me. I’d say that the scene towards the beginning, where Lucas first heads to the abandoned hospital, and cuts himself over a picture of his mom, was the most difficult. I so desperately wanted a theme that would be an “ode” to his mom, but like I mentioned earlier, any melodies that pop out, especially in a scene like this, would almost scream “here’s a theme!” By the time I was done, there were maybe 3, 4 tones in there?
I swear one day I’m going to talk myself out of a job, because often times I don’t think certain scenes need music at all. But this one needed SOMETHING, I just had to pare it down to basics.
You have previously said that you are drawn to writing sad, darker music. What instruments have you found you use most when composing for projects in that world?
Piano, piano, piano. But maybe that’s a personal thing. There’s just something to me about playing a high-pitched, slow piano melody that just feels so melancholy. So often, I go right to the piano to create that sound.
What shows are you currently watching?
Besides Arrested Development again? Dopesick. Talk about a subject where you know it’s all just going to get worse and worse. And what makes it even sadder is that it’s based around the true, tragic story.
But let me tell you quickly about an absolutely bonkers movie, Shadow in the Cloud starring Chloe Grace Moretz. It’s one of those movies where you either like it, or you don’t. And I was 100% IN. That’s all I’ll tell you about it.
Do you have any favorite directors? Any directors you would like to collaborate with some day?
I want Mimi Leder to make another action movie. She now mostly directs TV, but there’s this not-particularly-well known film called The Peacemaker that just has some of the most amazing and rough action sequences. And that’s a kind of movie I LOVE.
Those are the films I’m drawn to: maybe out-of-this-world topics, but in a realistic environment. The films Chloe Zhao, Matt Reeves are making. And I gotta say, anything Antoine Fuqua is making I’m usually totally into.
And though this might seem obvious, I really hope to work with Slapface director, Jeremiah, again. We did do a series last year that hopefully will come out sometime soon. But working with him on Slapface was such a positive experience that I hope to do many more.
Many thanks to Barry for taking the time for this interview. You can learn more about him at https://www.barryjneely.com/.
