It’s a bummer that we tend to only recognize one or a small handful of people for bringing our favorite movies to life, because the reality is that it requires a behind-the-scenes army to make any given movie.
Take The Thing, for example. You of course know it was directed by John Carpenter, but do you know who was responsible for the incredible sound effects?
That’d be the Emmy-nominated David Lewis Yewdall, who we’re honoring under the saddest of circumstances today. Deadline just reported that Yewdall died this past Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. He was 66 years old.
David Yewdall’s career as a sound editor/designer began way back in the late 1970s, working alongside the legendary Roger Corman. Yewdall was the sound effects editor for 1978’s Piranha, and he went on to become a frequent collaborator with John Carpenter. Yewdall’s work can be heard in Escape from New York, The Thing and Christine, and he also served as sound editor for both Halloween 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
Fellow sound man Steve Lee stressed to Deadline the importance of Yewdall’s contributions to Carpenter’s films, particularly highlighting The Thing.
“The Thing is arguably his masterpiece,” Lee told the site. “All those frightening creature sounds he created are just fantastic, and just as scary today as they were when the film opened 35 years ago — almost to the week.”
Other horror films that David Yewdall worked on include April Fool’s Day, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Evil Dead 2, Near Dark, Predator 2, and Return of the Living Dead 3. An impressive resume, to say the very least.
