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Kevin Riepl On Composing for ‘Cabin Fever: Patient Zero’, ‘ABCs of Death’

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Composer Kevin Riepl’s resume includes a wide variety of video games, movies, and television. His movie credits include last year’s highly-disturbing Contracted and 2012’s Silent Night. He’s composed music for the Gears of War series, Borderlands 2 and Twisted Metal: Black.  Recently, he scored the Square Enix-published Nosgoth, and last week he sat down with Bloody-Disgusting to talk about working with ABCs of Death contributing director Kaare Andrews on Cabin Fever: Patient Zero and crafting the folk soundscape for the game Ascend: Hand of Kul, from Signal Studios.

BD: How did you come to be involved with Cabin Fever: Patient Zero?

I had previously worked with the director, Kaare Andrews, on his contribution to The ABCs of Death anthology, “V is for Vagitus”. I loved his ability to craft a story in such a short format and have it look as good as it did with a very limited budget. So when he was asked to helm Cabin Fever: Patient Zero I expressed my interest early on. Kaare asked me to submit a pitch reel to get the producers on board and once they were, we were ready to move forward.

BD: What was your experience like working with Kaare Andrews again?

Kaare is a great director to work with. He is very passionate about creating, whether it is art, comics, visuals, directing, props, special effects, he loves it all and is always 100% committed.  On top of all that, he has a great sense of storytelling. Not only do I love working with people like Kaare, I love just knowing and being around creative people like him. He is a very collaborative director. With Cabin Fever: Patient Zero he allowed me the freedom to explore interesting ways to create the score. He loves music and was into every part of the process, not in a micro-managing sort of way but in how to make sure we both were on the same page and the music was the best it could be to help support the story.

BD: ‘V is for Vagitus’ is one of the standout segments on The ABCs of Death. Did you see the cut of that short before or after you composed the score, or how did that come together?

Yes, I saw the cut prior to working on it and the cut after it was all completed. When I first saw the storyboards I actually thought to myself, “How the hell is he going to pull this off with little to no budget and an extremely limited amount of time?”  Once the edit was locked, it was sent to me to score. Of course it had limited visual fx, color correction, sound design etc. When I saw the final cut, I was pretty damn impressed at how awesome it all looked, especially the robot which Kaare built himself in his basement. I loved that he did that. There’s a segment Kaare posted on Vimeo that shows how he did it. It’s pretty awesome. Kaare put a lot of time and effort into this short and it made me think, this is the type of director I want to work with.

BD: In what way was working on Patient Zero different from V is for Vagitus?

‘V is for Vagitus’ was a quick post-production schedule, so things needed to be turned around rather fast. Patient Zero had a considerably more relaxed schedule. Both were approached with an equal amount of effort and passion. Patient Zero allowed Kaare and I to have a collaborative process during the creation of the score.

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BD: The score for the Microsoft game Ascend has a much more ethereal, chant-based aesthetic than some of your previous work. Where did you draw inspiration for creating a horror / fantasy soundtrack?

During the early stages of development there was talk of having the Ascend music be very Nordic in nature, whether it be of the Viking nature or old Nordic folk music.  Months prior to signing on to Ascend I had discovered the band Wardruna, who I fell in love with upon first listening.  I sent one of their albums to Kristofor Mellroth, the audio director on the game and he loved the direction.  It went right along with his vision of wanting the score to have a sound in the vein of Valhalla Rising. With those two reference points and researching old Nordic folk music, the Ascend score took shape.

BD: Video games need way more music than movies. How do you approach the huge gap between the two? How does the difference force you to think differently about the material?

I don’t think I approach either of them differently. In fact, for me, the process is very similar, the only difference really being the amount of pieces needed to be written. That being said, at the start I love to create a spreadsheet of all the music that is needed, whether it’s an asset sheet for games or a spotting cue sheet for film. This gives me a visual for the amount of music I need to write, a checklist of sorts to help keep me on schedule.

BD: How do you prefer to write music for movies? Do you need to see a final cut, or can you work from the feel the filmmakers describe?

I always like working with as close as I can get to the final cut. There will always be edits that happen after I get the reels of the film. But I find it best to work with the closest thing to the director’s vision. Sometimes early in the process before the film is edited, I create ideas and possibly some themes based off the filmmaker’s vision and whatever scenes they may have available in the early stages of post-production.

BD: Do you play the games you score? If so, what are some moments that make you proudest as a composer?

I always try to allot some time to play the games I’ve scored. I’m always eager to see how it all came together. A lot of creative people put in many hours of hard work so it’s nice to see the final product and how it all paid off.

BD: What are some of your favorite games, horror or otherwise, from the last few years?

That is a tough one because there are so many. Some of the games I’ve enjoyed the most have been the Batman: Arkham games, the Uncharted series, The Last of Us and presently I am really enjoying Puppeteer.

BD: What projects do you have coming up?

I am currently working on an unannounced game. I just finished up the action thriller film The Night Crew directed by Christian Sesma, and also in the midst of writing a score for the thriller Beacon Point.

Cabin Fever: Patient Zero can be watched via VOD and limited theatrical release, and Ascend: Hand of Kul is a Free-To-Play game available on Steam and other platforms for Windows. Check out Kevin Riepl’s other works on his web site, KevilRiepl.com.

Samples of the Cabin Fever: Patient Zero soundtrack can be found at the Sumthing Else Music Works SoundCloud page, and work from Ascend: Hand of Kul is available on Kevin Riepl’s own SoundCloud stream.

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Interviews

‘Immaculate’ Director Michael Mohan on Religious Horror and Why You Can’t Pull Punches [Halloweenies Podcast]

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Immaculate SXSW Horror

This weekend, Neon is releasing its highly anticipated new slice of horror Immaculate. Directed by Michael Mohan, Sydney Sweeney stars as an American nun named Cecilia who joins a remote convent in the Italian countryside. What begins as a warm welcome quickly devolves into a living nightmare as Cecilia discovers her new home harbors a sinister secret and unspeakable horrors. You can see it with a crowd this Friday.

In anticipation, Halloweenies co-host/executive producer Michael Roffman sits down with director Michael Mohan to discuss how he approached making his first horror film. Together, the two chat about the effects of religious horror in 2024, Sweeney’s Scream Queen magic, the ending everyone’s going to be talking about, and why Horror needs zero rules. He also offers some choice Horror recommendations.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, and this past year’s Chucky! This year? The Alien franchise.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Jaws), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers ), and even spinoffs like their recent run Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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