So what’s my favorite horror film score to a horror film I’ve yet to see? Well I try to do my best to see the films that I buy scores for, just for posterity’s sake. It just feels like part of the whole process: see the film and enjoy the score. Or if I buy the score I make sure I get the movie watched within a reasonable amount of time. Occasionally though, I’ll hear the score before the film and get entranced in that sound world. Seeing the film seems somewhat secondary once the music captures my imagination on its own. I mean, who says I can’t enjoy an Ennio Morricone, Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer, or Wojciech Golczewski score completely on their own and NOT see the film that the score was, well, scoring?
I imagine the filmmakers for one. But I digress.
My intention is to always eventually see said film, but for the time being I will happily keep spinning Tonight She Comes, composer Wojciech Golczewski’s score to the 2016 horror film of the same name. It involves the woods, a cabin, friends, someone missing, and then mayhem I’m sure. But the first time I heard the track “She Comes” when Mondo released it as a 7 inch single I was hooked. Mr. Golczewski has this knack for creating both great melacholy and dread in his music, whether it’s his original works like Reality Check, Inert, MonoLogs, or End of Transmission; or whether he’s scoring amazing independent horror like We Are Still Here, Beyond The Gates, Mowhawk, or Dark Souls. There’s a timelessness to his work, and Tonight She Comes captures that ten fold.
Listening to this score I do find myself getting lost in thought. It puts me back in that time as a teen renting horror movies two or three times a week during summer break. Before I could drive I was at the mercy of my mom to drive me to Video World, but once I had a license I was hitting them up quite often. Of course those minimalist synth/electronic scores made their mark on my brain. House By The Cemetery, Nightmare On Elm Street, Day of the Dead, and Fright Night were scores that stayed with me. Of course the movies did, too. Tonight She Comes feels as timeless as those scores, eliciting a very visceral reaction in me. The buzzing synths, the haunting melodies, and Golczewski’s knack for finding the right balance between chaos and sadness. At the heart of horror is sadness and tragedy. If all you’re conveying through the music in a horror film is dread and violence then you’ll never completely lock the viewer in. Well, you won’t completely lock me in.
Tonight She Comes does that, as well as being a wonderful standalone listen. This is a great horror score, for sure. But it’s also just an amazing analog synth album. Something you’d find in a electronic bin at a cool record shop. Klaus Schulze and Edgar Froese vibes abound, with just the right amont of modular magic. Wojciech Golczewski’s work feels very intimate. His electronic music in general can range from vast sound worlds like Reality Check, to the quiet, late night intimacy of End Of Transmission. From 2001: A Space Odyssey huge to 8-bit buzzes that send you back to 1981 playing Intellivision at 1am in your pajamas. Tonight She Comes does a nice mixture of both of those things, but with a Gothic touch.
Maybe I’ll start posting bits about favorite horror scores for films I haven’t seen. Or maybe this will be a one time thing. Not sure yet. I essentially just wanted to talk about one of my favorite current film composers/analog electronic wizards Wojciech Golczewski. I’ve been a huge fan ever since snagging Reality Check back in 2016, and then from there being entranced with his minimalist analog sound excursions. If you’re looking for the perfect analog synth horror soundtrack that has just the right amount of dripping doom and mournful melancholy, Tonight She Comes would be the perfect Friday spin.
Oh, and check out the movie as well if you want. Up to you.
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