Presented by Paramount Scares, Friday the 13th Week sees Bloody Disgusting heading to Camp Crystal Lake for a series of features that celebrate the Voorhees family and their influence. Yesterday, Jenn Adams celebrated the franchise’s final girls, and today, Rachel Reeves, sings praises for the music man behind the mayhem.
Harry Manfredini’s score for Friday the 13th is iconic. More than just beautifully evocative and eerily unsettling, the music is one of the key elements that elevates the film from a copycat cash grab to a worthy slasher successor. Manfredini’s score is as integral to the Friday the 13th franchise as Jason himself, offering a seamless blend of his original ideas and potent reference points. To celebrate this Friday, the 13th, let’s examine what makes Manfredini’s score such a powerful asset to the film and a pivotal score that helped redefine the slasher sound.
When Sean S. Cunningham took out an ad in Variety, he boldly announced Friday the 13th would be “The Most Terrifying Film Ever Made.” Now, the only real problem with this declaration was that neither a film nor script existed at that point. Once the narrative pieces finally began to fall into place, the pressure was on to deliver the terrifying goods. With Halloween having set the standard for what a new era of horror could look and sound like, Cunningham knew that a good score would be crucial to the film’s overall success. Luckily, he knew just the guy to call.
Originally from Chicago, Harry Manfredini inherited his love for movies and music from his Italian parents. Enamored with music at an early age, the power it possesses to shape and manipulate emotions on such a deep level quickly drew him to the field of composing. Having previously worked together on Manny’s Orphans and Here Come the Tigers, Cunningham and Manfredini developed a solid working dynamic with high professional respect.
This fact proved invaluable when Manfredini screened an early cut of Friday the 13th for the first time. While watching the film (without music or sound effects), Manfredini quickly realized that his work was cut out for him. Unlike Halloween that provided Michael Myers plenty of screen time to creep audiences out, Friday the 13th utilized POV shots to embody its killer. Although an effective way to build intrigue and maintain tension, there was just one little problem with the POV perspective – it wasn’t scary.
With no real frame of reference for who the killer is, what they look like, or when the shot presented is actually the killer’s perspective and not just a slightly shaky cam shot, the need to sonically telegraph the killer’s presence was paramount. In a 2020 interview with Limelight Magazine, Manfredini recalled this issue saying:
“I told Sean that because we don’t see the killer until the ninth reel, we needed to somehow introduce them in reel one. I suggested that we only have music when the camera is from the viewpoint of the killer, making it immediately indicative that we’re now seeing with their eyes.”
Taking a cue from Psycho, Black Christmas and John Williams’ classic score for Jaws, Manfredini set forth to use his score to give the audience something tangible to cling to. When Cunningham suggested a choir element of some sort, Manfredini recalled a piece by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki that employed prominent, striking vocalizations. Inspired by the technique, Manfredini gravitated towards one scene in particular to draw from.
Recalling a close-up shot towards the end of the film where Pamela Voorhees says, “Kill her mommy,” Manfredini took the ‘ki’ from ‘kill’ and the ‘ma’ sound from ‘mommy.’ Then, to further distort and unease he executed the sounds in a harsh and rhythmic way and ran them through an Echoplex delay module. Not only did the resulting ‘ki ki ki ma ma ma’ motif become the alarm signaling the killer’s presence, it injected a new energy into the film that allowed scenes to shift from innocuous to dangerous at the drop of a hat. Additionally, the choice to use a human voice for the subtext laden effect versus a more electronic sound allows the killer to retain an important (and scary) level of humanity.
For the rest of the score, Manfredini chose to embrace a more traditional approach in terms of instrumentation. With Friday the 13th dually representative of ’70s film aesthetics and a more progressive 80s approach to horror and gore, Manfredini’s Psycho and Jaws-inspired use of strings blends seamlessly with restrained electronic elements. Though standing in direct stylistic contrast to Carpenter’s icy synth minimalism in Halloween, Manfredini similarly encountered budget restrictions that forced him to get creative. Only able to hire a small crew of 12 musicians, Manfredini implemented a variety of layering and orchestration techniques to give the final product a robust energy. And, the challenges didn’t end there.
To ensure the final shocking twist in the film hit as hard as possible, Alice was allowed to drift away in the canoe for a strategically long time. To support this false ending set-up, Manfredini was tasked with coming up with a piece of music that would assuage any concerns or doubts about Alice’s safety. While the producers originally wanted a Dolly Parton song for that scene, the small budget simply wouldn’t allow it.
Rather than come up with something totally disconnected from the rest of the score, Manfredini had the brilliant idea to expand and rework a short country song that he had written for the restaurant scene earlier in the movie. Teaming up with vocalist Angela Rotella, the track “Sail Away Tiny Sparrow” was born with lyrics that kept the Dolly Parton spirit alive. Rarely has the saying “necessity is the mother of invention” ever been more true than in relation to the many obstacles and hurdles that Friday the 13th had to overcome; Manfredini’s score included.
In the end, Manfredini’s thoughtful observations and dedication to serving the best interest of the film resulted in a score that will forever live in the Horror Score Hall of Fame. Inarguably iconic from start to finish, the ripples of effectiveness contained within Manfredini’s work deeply influenced the wave of slasher films to come. With its symbiotic relationship between sound and character, the inextricable fusion adds a persona, presence, and weight to an otherwise silent antagonist.
Cunningham fully acknowledged this fact when he said, “I’m sure that without Harry’s music and without those sound effects, we never would have had the success that finally happened.” But more than that, Manfredini solidified a sonic formula that would soon become the slasher gold standard. Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Candyman, Slumber Party Massacre, My Bloody Valentine and more took careful note of Manfredini’s work and sought to replicate the magic for themselves. While some succeeded more than others, there’s no arguing that Friday the 13th and Manfredini’s music opened the floodgates, allowing a new wave of creators, composers, and killers to burst out of the shadows and into our horror-loving hearts.
Dying for more Friday the 13th content? Today — September 13, 2024 — Paramount Scares and Bloody Disgusting are presenting an eight-film marathon on the Friday the 13th franchise. Not in the area? Can’t make it? Paramount Scares and Fangoria are also presenting nationwide screenings of FRIDAY THE 13th – The Final Chapter.
The post Killer Score: How Harry Manfredini Helped Redefine the Slasher Sound [Friday the 13th Week] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.