Music in the Horror Films of Val Lewton

Val Lewton’s horror films revolutionized a popular genre through a much-studied and still widely emulated visual style emphasizing shadows and absences. By denying audiences visual confirmation of horror, his reforms placed a fresh burden on the soundtrack of his films. This book offers a fine-grained study of the Lewton unit’s transformational sonic style which introduced the first ＂jump scare,＂ liberal use of pre-musique concrète, and an original orchestral score for every film in the series in violation of ＂B＂ movie norms. Their orchestral scores often exceed the conventions of film music as we hear the RKO Music Department ignoring instructions thus freeing their contributions to signpost the path toward each films’ essential themes.

Michael Lee is Professor of Musicology at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of numerous articles on film music in horror films from studio-era Hollywood. His earlier work focuses on the American postwar avant-garde and the Ballets Russes in the 1920s.