Some of the earliest, most well-known examples of body horror can be seen in films such as the original versions of The Blob and The Fly, both released in 1958. Almost seven decades later, the subgenre is still going strong thanks to directors such as David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon, and Clive Barker. More recently, female-oriented body horror has been thrust into the spotlight thanks to the success of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. Another new title in the subgenre making waves is Sasha Rainbow’s Grafted, which recently premiered on Shudder.
In the film, “Chinese scholarship student Wei travels to New Zealand to study medical research at a prestigious university. Shy, introverted, and hiding a genetic facial birthmark, Wei is shunned by her social butterfly cousin Angela and her glamorous friends. Determined to change her fate, Wei immerses herself in her late father’s research, working on a revolutionary skin grafting procedure that could cure her deformity. As her experiments take a dark turn, she becomes more dangerous and unhinged, willing to eliminate anyone who threatens her secret.”
Just like most body horror tales, Grafted centers around the deconstruction of the human body, this time through the loss of control from mutation. Intensifying that physical and psychological transformation is the score by composer Lachlan Anderson, who describes his work as “fun and unhinged”. Rainbow also wanted the score to reflect the film’s different genre mashups, so to do this Anderson used everything from a rattling fan to his own whispering voice.
He explained, “I recorded my voice whispering quietly and layered it up with a lot of different performances (from whispers to screams) to make it sound quite monstrous. There are a lot of instances of vocals in the score that have been mangled to sound really abstract. Voice/body sounds were an important part of the score, which helped us tap into some of the themes of the film.”
Anderson talks about creating these sounds, balancing comedy and horror in music, and much more in the below interview.
Dread Central: How did you first get connected to Grafted?
Lachlan Anderson: Sasha Rainbow was familiar with my work and the band I play in (Die! Die! Die!). We had a lovely chat about how she wanted the film to feel, I pitched some ideas/demos and it seemed to work well with her vision.
DC: How would you describe your score for Grafted?
LA: My aim for the score was to be fun and unhinged. As Wei arrives in New Zealand things seem like a fairy tale and slowly descend into madness as the story develops. The music begins organic and as we realize Wei is in too deep, the score drastically morphs into more electronic territory. There are also a lot of creepy vocals in the score which foreshadow Wei’s final metamorphosis.
DC: What were Sasha Rainbow’s notes on how she wanted the film’s score to sound?
LA: Sasha wanted the score to reflect the different genre mashups or tones of the film. Strings, vocals, and electronics became the main body of the sound.
DC: Did the score for any other body horror films inspire your work on Grafted? If so, which ones?
LA: I tried to have a playfulness to the score to keep up with the dark comedy side of things, while keeping in the horror genre. Some of the classic body horror films do that well, such as Society, Re-animator, and The Fly. They were a few of the films that I think balance dread with humor.
DC: One of the signature sounds in the film replicates human whispers. How did you create those sounds?
LA: I recorded my voice whispering really quietly and layered it up with different performances (from whispers to screams) to make it sound quite monstrous. There are a lot of instances of vocals in the score, which have been mangled to sound abstract including the first scene with Wei and her father in the lab, the scene where Wei is looking for her notebook, and the final piece of music before the credits. I used all types of effects to change the tone of the voice, from slowing things down or speeding up. I also used this vocal synth called The Pipe for some extreme, out-of-this-world vocal effects. Voice/body sounds were an important part of the score which helped us tap into some of the themes of the film.
DC: You are going to be releasing the score album for Grafted. Do you have a favorite track from the film? Why is it your favorite?
LA: “The Work” stands out for me, it is the music you hear in the science montage at the start, the track has a “kick drum” sound which is actually a sound within the scene called an “Orbital Shaker” a laboratory mixing device used in Wei’s experiments. The rhythm propels us forward while the vocals in the track descend, underpinning the experiments failing.
DC: Did you use any unique instruments or “found objects” for this score?
LA: Yes, we did. Aside from the lab equipment I just mentioned, we also made use of the rattling fan in the opening sequence with Wei’s Father. I incorporated the fan into the score and had it grow from tiny to monstrous with distortion and other effects and timed it with the other parts of the score until the scene came to a head. Also, in that scene, I experimented with reversing the double bass and vocals, stretching things or affecting them to sound different became an important part of the sound.
DC: Can you talk about the end credit music? It’s a mix between electronic and classic horror. What gave you the idea to incorporate these two together?
LA: I had a lot of fun with this piece. It was intended to be a fairly aggressive electronic track to score as Wei is running away from the police. The classic horror elements you mention were a synth sequence originally, I saw the potential in recording it with violins and it really gave us that old-school flavor, lots of fun.
DC: You have scored projects in a lot of different genres. How would you say scoring horror is different from other genres?
LA: I usually change my process with every project. I like to find a starting point that I can relate to in the script, whether that’s a specific instrument I can play or a style of music that I love, which I can put into the film. With horror films, all kinds of experiments are rewarded, and you can really dive deep into creating a new sound world, if the script allows.
DC: Has there been a horror film score that has recently stuck out to you? Why?
LA: I think the last thing I saw at the theatre was Longlegs. That score had the perfect amount of dread and lots of unexpected sounds. All that alongside T Rex tracks made it a fun time.
DC: What are you working on next?
LA: I just finished working on a dark comedy/thriller Dood Spoor (Dead End), a series from Malin-Sarah Gozin (Tabula Rasa, Clan/ Bad Sisters) and co-directed by Hans Vercauter. This project is coming out soon. It’s a story about Ed, a man with an eating disorder, who as soon as he puts something in his mouth, sees what happened to it. He uses this special gift in his unusual job, when a body is found in an airtight bag, he is asked to help solve the murder case. It was a lot of fun to score, it has a great story and lots of awkward/absurd situations.
Grafted is available now on Shudder. Lachlan Anderson’s score is also available digitally.
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