More Details

Summary:

Abstract: "It Follows" (2014), written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. It chronicles the story of Jay, a college student who contracts a curse through sexual intercourse. The curse manifests itself as a human whom only the infected persons can see, always following at a walking pace, and determined to kill if it catches up. This thesis demonstrates the score's crucial role in establishing affect, setting, and character in a film with sparse dialogue and a silent monster. Moreover, the score creates a sense of the uncanny by complicating the binary between music and sound effect and fulfills the need to create dread without resorting to the loud or sudden sounds traditionally heard in horror films. The score's composer, Richard Vreeland, achieves this effect by drawing on both classical film scoring techniques as well as more modern horror scoring styles. It is this interaction between styles that enhances the viewers' experience of dread and horror in the film. This thesis analyzes how Vreeland's score for "It Follows" exploits the poetics of the fantastical gap, of the uncanny, and of musical semiosis. I primarily focus on the "Heels" theme and use of drones in "It Follows," tracing how these musical features blur the distinction between what is score and what is sound effect. I also examine the use of melodic themes in a primarily non-melodic score. By analyzing these elements, I show how Richard Vreeland uses both classical and modern scoring techniques to answer his own question: "Why is this scary? What could push that emotion even further?"

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• A historic overview of music in horror films
• Non-melodic scoring: "Heels" and drone. "Heels" and leitmotif ; Drone and the creation of dread ; Conclusion
• Melodic themes. "Detroit" and the uncanny ; "Jay" ; Conclusion
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Timestamps for music cues in "It Follows."

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Kinley , author

Contributors:

Geoffroy-Schwinden, Rebecca Dowd , major professor

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Bridging the Fantastical Gap: Dread and the Uncanny in the Score of "It Follows" [by Johnson, K.]

Related Series:

NT thesis, Music (Complete); [volume] 2020

Subjects:

Motion picture music — Philosophy and aesthetics

Music — Semiotics

Uncanny, The (Psychoanalysis)

Motion picture music

Music

Genres:

Academic theses

Dissertation Notes:

M.A. ― University of North Texas, 2020.

General Notes:

Discipline: Musicology.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 36-37).
Description based on: Online resource; title from PDF title page (UNT Digital Library, viewed September 1, 2021).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (iii, 37 pages) : music, illustrations.

Digital Characteristics:

text file

Call Numbers:

Electronic Thesis

OCLC Numbers:

1287597638