Horror Music in Film — An Interview with Spencer Creaghan on “Motherly”
Spencer Creaghan is an award-winning composer working in film and television, among other media. Some of Creaghan’s recent projects include the SYFY series SurrealEstate, Letters to Satan Claus, Quickening, and the 2021 Canadian psychological thriller Motherly.
Considering Motherly’s recent nomination for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Original Score, in this interview we’ll be going behind the scenes with Creaghan to discuss the score’s unique sound, along with his insights into the creative process and how music for horror films compares to other genres.
Motherly (2021, directed by Craig David Wallace) follows a mother and daughter duo living alone in an isolated farm house, when they begin to experience sinister events. As psychological thriller and horror film, “found sounds” play a pivotal role in the score — such as smacking on a table or running a sanding machine. Classical orchestration blends with experimental, non-musical arrangements in a soundtrack that, as Creaghan puts it, becomes like another character in the film.
Spencer Creaghan is a Canadian Screen Award nominated & Multi-SOCAN Award winning Composer and an alumni of the Canadian Film Centre’s Slaight Family Music Residency. He is an alumni of the Canadian Film Centre’s renowned Slaight Family Music Lab, and has written music for over 100 feature films, short films, plays, series and web series, advertisements, video games, and more. His music has been heard in festivals around the world, including TIFF’s Canada Top 10, Cannes Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.
“Beyond anything, we wanted the score to Motherly to be Kate’s inner monologue come to life. I see Motherly a thriller novel told from the first person.”
Andrew Cheek: First, could you share a little about your background working in music and composition? What types of projects do you usually gravitate toward?
Spencer Creaghan: Of course. I’ve been writing music for film and television for over a decade now. It was an itch that came about at a young age from making home videos films with my friends; I would write, direct, and act in these films, and found over time that the musical storytelling side of the process was not only one of my favourite parts of the process, but a part I was quite good at.
This lead me to York University, whose film and music program are in the same building, and fostering relationships the many directors there. I still work with them today and can track most of my project trajectories back to those early days.
I’m drawn to films that tell and story with thematic depth that inspire bold musical ideas. The directors I love working with are ones that understand the power of music in film, embrace it, yearn for it, and push the score to be stronger than either of us imagined it to it when we started. As I’ll get into more soon, I love any film that is excited by strong musical identities that ensures the music is another character within the cinematic experience.
AC: How did you get started scoring the 2021 horror thriller Motherly? Would you characterize the sound in any particular way?
SC: Motherly is one of those films that you have an idea for instantly, that you hope the director gets excited by, and you then immediately think, “Yay! They love the idea, but Shoot… now I’ve got to figure out how to realize it.” This initial idea was vocal percussion and whispers, inspired by the idea, “What if protagonist’s Kate’s conscience was speaking to her throughout the film?”
As stated earlier, I love making my scores into characters within the film and this felt an appropriate angle to approach the musical story. We wanted to avoid horror cliches in the score and keep it very experimental. Craig [the director] once described the score as “that music you hear in tranquil meditation spas… only this stuff gives you nightmares.” I’d say thats a fair characterization of it hah!
AC: Which instruments do you like using when writing a score and how much does that vary between projects? I read that for Motherly, for example, you incorporated everything from synthesizers to sanding machines and eating utensils.
SC: Great question! I’d still say I’m a pretty traditional-styled composer. My scores are a quilt of weaved together themes or motifs; strings and orchestral instruments are quite prevalent if even not the focus, and I am to make the final product ‘cinematic’ sounding (whatever that might mean!).
That said, I believe there’s music all around us and just anything can be an instrument, so I like taking non-musical sounds and turn them into musical sounds, and I making sonic onomatopoeias of feelings.
There’s a Terry Pratchett quote about ‘how gold glistens despite there being no real-world sound for glisten.’ What would glisten sound like musically? Animated movies since the dawn of animation have described it as a twinkling, sizzling chime sound… okay, so then what would nausea sound like? How about an empty house and you think you hear something and get startled, but there’s nothing there?
This is what inspired Motherly’s non-tonal synthesizers that sound to me like what nausea and dread feel like. The utensils and the table hits came from this too,“you know when you’re home alone and your anxiety is at 1000%. You think you see or hear something, but there’s nothing, and thinking back there wasn’t even a sound?”
Let’s let the music be that sound. A little table whack in the music, that’s purely non-diegetic but to Kate it could be real. The sanding-machine came from recording my friend using a machine one day—I liked how it gave the impression of a shepherd tone, without actually being one!
AC: Was there a certain effect you were trying to produce with the Motherly score? Did you have a goal in mind?
SC: Beyond anything, we wanted the score to Motherly to be Kate’s inner monologue come to life. I see Motherly a thriller novel told from the first person. The music’s job as to translate the “I” in these stories, to shape Kate’s narration musically, and relate to the audience her inner struggle between being the best mom she can be and the truth. I’m quite proud of the end result.
“…there’s something very powerful about crafting a score as if it’s a ballet to the film’s ‘dance.’ Horror scores, at least the ones I tend to enjoy and compose, are so close to being ballet scores.”
AC: What was the inspiration to draw from meditation clinics when developing the Motherly soundtrack? It’s interesting, as meditation is generally thought of as peaceful, and this kind of inverts the idea.
SC: I’m not entirely sure if meditation clinics was so much a starting point, as much as an ending place. Regardless, Motherly certainly is an atmospheric score, despite having a few melodic themes throughout. The plan with Motherly’s score was first and foremost to take us deep into Kate’s mind.
Meditation music does that too in a way, though more individually than film music’s communal approach, so perhaps the attitude surrounding the score’s creation in relation to meditation composer’s is similar… that’d be an interesting study to look into!
AC: More broadly, how do you think horror movie music differs from other film score genres?
SC: Funnily, I find Horror movie music’s closest sibling is Children’s Animation music. Both styles are quite forward about the emotions they wish to convey and there’s precision exacted to the music’s sonic connection to the visuals on the film (jump scare hits aren’t all that dissimilar to animation music’s so called ‘mickey mousing’).
Honestly, this similarly is what I love about both genres, and comedy horror films, absurdist comedies, surrealism, and animation horror are my favourite genres to not only work in, but to watch in my free time. Perhaps it’s watching the original Fantasia film when I was a child, but there’s something very powerful about crafting a score as if it’s a ballet to the film’s ‘dance.’
Horror scores, at least the ones I tend to enjoy and compose, are so close to being ballet scores. It’s very different than, say an art house festival drama or a period piece.
AC: Who are some of your creative inspirations, musical or otherwise?
SC: Inspiration comes from all over, as I’m sure many an artist as said before. Musically, I’m a bit of a metalhead. Progressive and symphonic metal mainly, but put on a good tech-death record and I’ll headbang till my neck hurts for a week! I also love folk music from all over the world and bubble-gum dream pop. My fiancé has recently got me into country and singer-songwriters, never thought I’d say that.
Then of course, film music will be the most inspirational of them all. Beyond music, I find walking in nature, surrounded by nature to be very inspiring and the sounds of the world at large. There’s music everywhere, all you have to do is listen—as August Rush would say.
And in recent years, I’ve gotten into mythology, folklore, and fairytales, particularly fantasy authors like Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett that put clever spins on these well known stories. It’s funny how much musical influence can come from outside music!
AC: This is more subjective, but do you personally define or determine good art?
SC: Wow, what a great question! Thanks for using the words ‘personally’ and ‘subjectively’—for me, good art occurs when the artists intension and expression is conveyed through their medium and felt by the audience.
If a film sets out to be a silly action adventure heroes journey with goofy one-liners and maybe subtextual theme about finding confidence, and if the viewer leaves having had a great time and feeling that subtext then, while it may be an objectively ‘bad movie,’ to me, this is still ‘good art’ as its intentions were appropriately portrayed, and accurately felt.
I mean, favourite films so far in 2022 are Everything Everywhere All at Once, RRR, The Northman, The Batman, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. They’re all quite different artistically, but I had such a blast with each, they made me think and feel. I don’t think art can be limited, it’s an ocean of expression that encompasses entertainment, commentary, meaning, journeys, and passion, among so much else.
Some art will move societal mountains; others might help someone find meaning in their life; others might just be an afternoon well spent. I think there’s room for all, and so I’ll welcome a Marvel into my life as equally as a David Lynch or Gasper Noé film.
AC: What advice would you give to aspiring composers and artists?
SC: To all the aspiring composers out there, think big! Never stop writing! Never stop listening! Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something — especially in music and especially in film music!
Motherly is a house invasion horror thriller about mums and its score is nauseating synths with vocal percussion, breathing, and whispers. My latest series, ‘SurrealEstate’ is a supernatural drama about realtors selling haunted houses and so much of that score utilizes Celtic instruments as its primary musical tonality, along with some odder ‘instruments’ like the bathtub. It can be scary at first, but come into any prospective film with a bold wild idea and you’ll have a great time; every time!
AC: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
SC: I’d like to say thank you for your wonderful questions. They made me think quite deeply about the score, I hope you’re readers enjoyed a look into the process in making Motherly!
For any Canadian readers, my latest film Quickening, is out now in Toronto and Vancouver, more theatres to come — you can check out the score for Motherly and a selection of my other work on your favourite streaming service. Thank you again and chat soon!
- For more from composer Spencer Creaghan, check him out on his Website // Twitter // Spotify // Apple Music // IMDB
- This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity, with special thanks to Impact24 PR
