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Co-op Interview: Dante’s Inferno And BioShock 2 Composer Garry Schyman!
Adam and I got a chance to interview Garry Schyman the composer behind the amazing music for Dante’s Inferno and BioShock 2. Garry has also done such games as BioShock 1 (which he won several awards for), Destroy All Humans and Voyeur, among others, t.v. shows and films.
Head past the break to check out the interview! Adam: You’ve composed the soundtracks for several games, are you a gamer?
Garry: I guess that depends on how you define gamer. I don’t have a lot of time to play games (don’t watch much television either for that matter) but when I do I love to play. I am a BioShock fan and that would be true even if I hadn’t scored the games. Loved Portal and played World of Warcraft for a year. Even play Plants Versus Zombies when I need some stress release.
You know there was a French philosopher who lived in the late 19th Century that, though he was deeply depressed, decided not to commit suicide because he wanted to find out what would happen next in French politics of the time. I on the other hand just want to live a long life so I can see what happens next with video games. It is the most interesting and compelling entertainment going on right now and it has an almost infinite potential to do amazing things as the technology and creativity continue.
TJ: When you did the music for BioShock and Dante’s Inferno, how exactly did you insert the music into each section of the game? Were the games played level by level in front of you, and you had to insert the music
where necessary and as you saw fit?
Garry: I had nothing to do with placing the music into the game. That job is done by the audio director or audio professional who is hired to oversee and implement all sounds in the game including music, sound effects and dialogue. In essence I am contracted to provide an asset to the game (namely music) that is then rendered into the project. The audio director is usually the person I speak with from day to day and the one who gives me creative input into what specifically they need for the score in general and what each musical cue should do or how it should feel emotionally.
The games are not played in front of me generally (though that would be helpful) because they are usually not sufficiently far enough along to do that when I am hired to start. In addition I am working in my home studio and not on scene at the developer’s office. In fact we are generally in different cities. What they do send is gameplay movie captures (when they can) and scripts and screenshots, artwork etc. Really anything that can help give me a feel and sense of the game.
Adam: Between BioShock 1 and 2 the underwater city of Rapture has since fallen apart; is that reflected in the music?
Garry: I try to reflect that in the music though I am not certain that comes through entirely. Rapture in both games is pretty scary. But that said I think the scores are quite different mainly because BioShock 2 is a different game with different musical needs. There’s lot’s more combat music in BioShock 2 as well.
Adam: Did you assist in selecting any of the vintage music used in either of the BioShock games?
Garry: No – that was done by the Audio Director for each of the games.
TJ: Do you prefer composing video games, tv, or film?
Garry: There’s good, bad, and great things about all three mediums. In some ways video games is the best at this moment because they want strong music that is iconic and interesting and so much of TV and many films these days have very ambient and uninteresting music. The biggest budgets are reserved for the big studio films of course. And most composers aspire to get involved with them. But the pressures are enormous as is the competition to get those gigs.
I am very happy with what I am doing right now and feel it is permitting me the most fabulous creative opportunities of my career.
Adam: You’ve composed for a variety of mediums ranging from television to film to, of course, video games. How does your approach to composing for games differ from the others?
Garry: With games, other than when I am scoring cut scenes (which is nearly identical to scoring for film or TV) I am writing music that will become part of an interactive system. Thus you are not locked to a specific scene forever as in film music. The score needs to reflect the feel and action of a particular part or level of the game though it is not precisely locked to a specific scene or action, as each player will play at least slightly differently. Additionally, though this can vary dramatically from project to project the implementation of the score can be quite tricky and complex. The music may have to be created in layers to permit interactivity based on what a specific player is experiencing at any one time. So implementation issues (how and when the music plays in a game) are perhaps the biggest difference.
TJ: When creating the music for Dante’s Inferno, did you base the music for each circle of hell, off of the names themselves? And by that I mean did you say to yourself, “Ok, this is what Greed needs to sound like, and this is what Heresy needs to sound like, etc.”
Garry: Yes in a sense. Each level as Dante described them in his famous poem has a different purpose in the netherworld. Of course the developer’s visuals and descriptions of action and their intentions are critical in influencing how each level’s music should sound and how the score should differentiate itself on each level of hell. My favorite is Lust! Not for personal reasons, of course, but because I just love the music I wrote for that level. So I was really responding musically to the direction of the game – including how the gameplay unfolds and how of course the intense visual world they created based on Dante’s descriptions of hell.
Adam: What’s it like creating music for a game before it’s done then seeing your work incorporated into the world as a finished product?
Garry: It’s interesting writing music for a game and really having no good idea how your music will sound and feel in the finished product. I always play my games when they come out to see how it all feels and sounds. In the case of BioShock 2 I had a bit of an idea as my discussions with the audio director led me to believe the music implementation would be similar in the 2nd game to what it was in the first. That said I have been happily enjoying hearing my music in the game as I have been playing through BioShock 2.
TJ: Do any video game companies have you compose the game as it is being made? Or is it always a finished product before it touches your magic fingers?
Garry: I have always been hired to score the game while the game is being made. With films the score is one of the last things done, as you need a finished picture to score to. But with games you’re hired somewhere in the middle of the process and finish well before they are finished as the music has to be incorporated into the game along with all of the other audio as they go.
Adam: There are rumors that a BioShock film is underway; if that’s true do you have any interest in composing the music for the film?
Garry: As far as any movies are concerned – there has been much in the press about that potential for a BioShock film. Though the idea seems to ebb and flow. If there were to be a movie I would love to score it.
TJ: Seeing as we are mainly a horror movies site, we like to ask, what are some of your favorite horror movies?
Garry: Oh well – I have many but here’s a few: The Shining (Kubrick’s of course), Carrie, Rosemary’s Baby, The Thing (1951 version), Dracula (with Bela Lagosi of course), Jaws was pretty amazing. I could go on and on. But as you can see I tend to love the vintage ones the best!
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We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Terrifier 3’: Filming Has Wrapped on Damien Leone’s Christmas Slasher Sequel!
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