What would you do if your hometown literally started collapsing under your feet? This is the premise of the Swedish disaster film, The Abyss, which began streaming on Netflix last month and quickly became the #1 most watched film. The Abyss, from director Richard Holm, tells the story of Frigga (Tuva Novotny), a security manager at the Kiirunavaara mine in Sweden’s most northernmost city. Faced with the tricky balancing act of her risky job and her complicated family life, she soon finds herself fighting for her life and the lives of her loved ones when her city starts collapsing into the mine.
Every disaster movie needs an epic score to push the story along, with The Abyss being no different. Lasse Enersen served as the film’s composer. Some of his previous credits include There’s Something in the Barn, The Misfits and Tom of Finland to name a few. When discussing the film’s score, Lasse says, “Composing the score for The Abyss was an emotional journey, mirroring the dual narratives of a city on the brink of disaster and a family grappling with its disintegration. My approach was to blend these themes, treating the crumbling city and the family’s unraveling as one story. The music not only underscores the terror of the mine’s collapse and the city’s descent into chaos but also delves into the nuanced emotional landscape of a family navigating the aftermath of divorce”.
We spoke to Lasse more in-depth about his The Abyss score below, and you can also listen to the full score here.
From a very young age you have been connected to music. Do you remember what first prompted this?
Yes, in first grade, my teacher introduced us to an incredible exercise. She played Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and encouraged us to draw whatever we imagined while listening. The music captivated me to the point where I couldn’t draw; my mind was flooded with vivid images, cementing a lifelong bond between music and visuals for me. This connection deepened with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony at age 12, marking all my favorite musical experiences with strong visual elements. Later, at the Sibelius Academy, where I pursued my studies, this blend of music and imagery became the foundation of all my compositions.
Your most recent project is the Netflix movie, The Abyss, which recently went to #1. What attracted you to the script?
The fact that it is good old-fashioned entertainment that is rooted in emotional family dynamics. I believe that a good script is a very simple (but hard to pull off) thing: if you keep turning the page and want to know more, it’s a great movie. The narrative of a disintegrating family, detailing the distinct, tangible realities of each member’s life, is intricately linked to the broader theme of a city collapsing.
What did pre-production look like for you on The Abyss?
It involved extensive experimentation in the studio. Dressed in my lab attire, I dive into a creative exploration with hardware, software, paper, and pencil, aiming to piece together the movie’s unique DNA. It’s akin to a chef visiting the morning market, assessing the freshest ingredients, and envisioning what can be crafted from them.
You recently released a score album for The Abyss. Do you have a favorite track from the film? Why?
There’s a lot of intense thrills in the soundtrack, but my favorite piece is probably the last one, which is quite slow and moving: 12. Legacy of Love. It’s an emotional culmination of everything that has happened in the movie. I believe that if the emotional aspects don’t work, then the intense thrills don’t work as well either.
Because The Abyss is a disaster movie, did you feel you needed to make the score bigger and bolder than some of your other previous scores?
In some sense, yes. When a city is collapsing into a mine, you can’t NOT go big. However, the truly bold approach lies in the strategic moments of calm, designed to highlight not the visual spectacle but the emotional depth experienced by the characters. This could mean exploring their shortcomings as parents or their processes of letting go, emphasizing the internal over the external.
You co-scored Tom of Finland with Oscar winner Hildur Guðnadóttir. How did that come about?
One of my good friends, Jukka Immonen, was sort of in charge of producing the score. I can’t even remember exactly how everything happened, but me and Hildur were tied to other projects but could, if put together, pull the score off quite quickly.
What was the best piece of advice Hildur gave you?
I learned a lot from just seeing how she works. She played all the cello parts herself, and she has an amazingly deep and dynamic way of expressing things with just a few notes. It’s like a miracle really. I learned that less is more, and that emotions can be expressed often better with going straight to the point, with a few perfectly authentic strokes.
You are a self-confessed cinema buff. What are some of your favorite films?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Last Detail, Once Upon a time In America, My Life as a Dog, The Deer Hunter, Eraserhead, Punch Drunk Love, The Thin Red Line, West Side Story, Chinatown, The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Dazed and Confused, the list goes on and on.
Is there a genre you haven’t worked in yet that you would like to?
I would love to do a straight up comedy movie like Liar Liar, or an intimate epic like The Deer Hunter.
Who would be your dream collaborator?
Somebody like James Cameron, who is a super pro in every aspect of movie making, making extremely entertaining movies that have lots of emotional depth. I also absolutely adore Ruben Östlund, Safdie Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson and Yorgos Lanthimos, who all have a singular vision.
Thanks to Lasse Enersen for taking the time for this interview.
