Mark Korven has composed scores for The Witch and Eggers’ follow-up,The Lighthouse. His haunting new score can be heard in Arkasha Stevenson’s feature directorial debut, The First Omen.
The orchestration consists mainly of strings and choir, with additional sound design elements created from unconventional sources “like samples of opening an old ironing board, creating shrieks perfect for a horror atmosphere.” Korven created motifs for specific characters and themes, including a theme for a jackal.
Korven and Stevenson struck a balance between originality and paying homage to Jerry Goldsmith’s original 1976 The Omen score. While Korven’s score greatly differs from the original, he brought back the iconic “Ave Satani” Omen theme to add a bit of nostalgia for the audience toward the end. Read more in our exclusive interview with Mark Korven below and take a behind the scenes look at a recording session.
Tell us about your inspiration and method, did you choose any particular instruments to create specific sounds or feelings or do anything outside of your usual process?
Well, since I am traditionally more of a home studio guy with my intimate handmade horror style, going orchestral with it was a bit of a switch. We used quite a large choir, a good sized string section and some low winds and low brass. All recorded at AIR studios in London which was absolutely wonderful. It made my handmade horror very large and fully realized.
Women’s voices are utilized quite a bit in the soundscape- singing, breathing, wailing- how did that come to be, and how do you work that into your pieces?
Director Arkasha Stevenson is a big fan of voices, so she was really pushing for that. She also loved what I did with The Witch, so again I used Toronto’s Element Choir, together with the London Voices choir. The Element choir was for the weirder more intimate improvisatory textures. We also brought in some subsonic baritones to sing the real real low stuff which was a treat.
You’re working with a fresh story within a well-established franchise. How do you approach what already exists? Do you consciously choose to pay homage to Jerry Goldsmith’s original score for The Omen? Do you find ways to work bits in, echo it, create pieces reminiscent of it, or go in another direction entirely?
Arkasha was really pushing the boundaries on this movie and, therefore, was also cheering on the musical dissonance. On occasion, I’d try to push it just a little bit towards Goldsmith, just as an homage, and to tie it into The Omen world a bit. But it’s pretty subtle. Generally, it’s quite twisted and aleatoric, so we kind of did our own thing, with the exception of “Ava Satani” at the end of the movie, which worked beautifully.
Do you find it more difficult to create inside a space that belongs to a franchise vs creating for a story that isn’t connected to any existing film?
The franchise thing definitely makes it more difficult, because there’s always that subconscious restraint that you feel when you’re writing. Will it please the fans? Am I being sacrilegious towards the original Omen? Will they hate me because I’m not Goldsmith? That sort of thing.
The score is a subconscious character here, creating a bed of anxiety before working into an absolute frenzy. Arkasha has mentioned the score being almost “interactive” with Margaret’s (Nell Tiger Free) character. Was that something that was always in the discussion?
I wasn’t really aware of the interplay between the music and Margaret’s character. I was usually thinking of The Jackal. I was writing from that perspective. And the very twisted church conspiracy in the story.
What are your top five horror scores?
In no particular order…..
1. Psycho
2. Under the Skin
3. The Omen
4. Rosemary’s Baby
5. Hereditary
Do you have any favorite or standout pieces from your First Omen score?
“It’s All For You” is a nice track. Well, not nice per se, but interesting. This is Angelica’s hanging. I like that it’s “no holds barred” craziness.
For more no-holds-barred craziness, you can find Mark Korven’s terrifying The First Omen score on vinyl thanks to Mutant, in partnership with Hollywood Records and 20th Century Films.
In the meantime, enjoy a behind-the-scenes peek at some clips from the recording session at AIR studios in London. The First Omen is now in theaters.
