ReDesign: The Thing - Audio Design Desk
The Thing

ReDesign: The Thing

Audio Design Desk Team
Friday October 9, 2020

To start our slate of Halloween films, today we present the first movie we’ve featured in a You Design to be nominated for a Razzie! John Carpenter’s The Thing was not a critical success upon its 1982 release but instead considered “instant junk.” It wasn’t until many years later, after VHS circulation, that critics reappraised the film as one of the best sci-fi/horror films of all time.

Believe it or not, The Thing earned its Razzie nom from the late and great Ennio Morricone’s score for the film. An early attempt for Morricone in the electronic music genre, most of it was scrapped by John Carpenter and replaced with a score Carpenter recorded himself. That score was eventually applauded for how it changed the genre. The suspense was maintained with simple tones droning away with a slow heartbeat of bass to back it up.

The electronic score truly paved the way for modern sound design, especially sound design used in sci-fi/horror films. Being mostly beds and drones, the score was able to layer in with the droning ambiance of the antarctic blizzard. Then the sound design team had to create monster sounds used for several gruesome transformation scenes. Since the monster itself is an amalgam of organic life, its sound was created by combining and editing the sounds of various animals. The transformation scenes also required an extreme amount of detail from the sound team to add all of the gory, bone-crunching sounds. So, let’s have some fun with this eighties cult hit that would not only change the horror landscape in its time but continue to inspire prominent directors and films almost 40 years later.

Now you’ve heard add.app artist Jared Otto’s new sound pass of The Thing, it’s time to make your own. Download his Audio Design Desk project as a starting point and get into the Halloween spirit by designing your grossest scene yet!

 

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