Music can be a very important part of a film experience, especially in the context of horror. From jarring staccato strings to melodic modern synths, there are loads of stellar soundtracks in horror cinema. One of the most interesting musical tools in the genre is the Drone of Dread, which turns a single long note into a haunting horror soundscape.
In horror films thatrely on jump scaresand surprising visuals, silence is a common method of increasing tension. When a film doesn’t want to leave the audience completely without sound, a subtle option built from a single sound will do the trick.
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The Drone of Dread is a musical trope that uses a sustained note as the wholistic sonic experience to underscore a film. It createsa feeling of uneaseas a single sound rings out unceasingly. Tons of different instruments have been used to create this technique. There’s no real rhythm to this type of song, nor is there any particular melody. Often multiple droning sounds will come together to form one discordant melody, offering something more appealing than the simple single note. The Drone of Dread is most common in horror cinema, but it can appear anywhere. It generally communicates a degree of otherworldly etherealness or infects the audience with the sense that something isn’t right. In the most extreme cases, droning music can use infrasound that barely reaches the human threshold of sensory perception. This evokes an unease that has been linked toreal-life reports ofsupernatural events.
One of the earliest and most iconic examples of the Drone of Dread comesin Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 classic2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is well-known for a number of its unique production decisions, including its abnormal use of music. Every appearance of the iconic Monolith is heralded by a portion of a song calledRequiemby beloved Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti. The film borrowed and altered Ligeti’s music without informing him, leading to a lawsuit and a substantial financial settlement. The tracks used communicate a sort of alien presence that gives the Monolith part of its unique appearance. This likely isn’t the first example of the trope, but it does provide something of a blueprint for future cinematic outings to make use of it.
Clearly inspired by2001, Steven Spielberg’sClose Encounters of the Third Kindgrants its aliens a very similar musical aura. The final track used when the aliens emerge sounds almost exactly like Ligeti’sRequiem. The trope gained steam and became common in horror cinema. BothThe ThingandTheEvil Deadmake heavy use of the Drone of Dread in their general soundtrack. In both cases, the droning notes pummel the audience with a discordant and unpleasant sonic experience. Even the calm scenes of these classic horror films are made haunting by their simple droning soundtracks.David Lynch leans onthe drone so frequently that the rare feature of his to skip it feels somehow lacking. Lars von Trier’s 2009 psychological horror filmAntichristfeatures exactly one full song in its 108-minute runtime. It’s the classical track “Lascia ch’io pianga” by George Frideric Handel, and every other moment of the film is scored with either silence or an ambient drone.
The Drone of Dread has a presence far beyond the world of horror cinema. When a non-horror film or TV project wants to give its audience a sense of unease, the drone works just as well. One common use of the trope is to attach a discordant drone to a specific character as a leitmotif. These films won’t drop the drone into every scene, but, when it does play, the audience knows who is coming to the screen. Perhaps the best-known recent example is The Joker’s haunting string sound inThe Dark Knight. Joker’s theme, ascrafted by Hans Zimmer, was created by sawing a D-note on a cello, and it really establishes the character’s energy. Decades earlier,T2: Judgment Dayused a more techno-inspired version to introduce the T-1000. InSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Prowler’s appearances are heralded by a predatory synth roar that repeats unceasingly as long as he’s around. Even theTransformersfranchise got in on the concept, by giving Lockdown a droning theme inAge of Extinction.
The Drone of Dread is a simple technique that has been accepted as shorthand by most audiences for a nightmarish sensory horror. As mankind discovers the things that scare us, it becomes natural to use those techniques to create art. The droning sound can be misused, but it’s an easy way to keep an audience on the edge of their seats from a film’s beginning to the end. The sonic experience of a horror film is so important, luckily the simplest single note can be used to communicate so much.From horror to superheroes, the Drone of Dread does exactly what it says on the tin.
