WaterTower Music is pleased to announce the release of the Soundtrack to Evil Dead Rise, New Line Cinema and Renaissance Pictures' return to the iconic horror franchise, which features the music of composer Stephen McKeon. The film opens in theaters in North America on April 21, 2023 and began opening internationally on 19 April.
The 20-track Evil Dead Rise (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), featuring the music of composer Stephen McKeon is now available for streaming and digital purchase. A vinyl configuration will be released by Waxwork Records, and is now available for preorder.
To create the music for the film, Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin turned to composer Stephen McKeon, who previously worked with the filmmaker on The Hole in the Ground." McKeon, an admitted 'huge horror fan,' discussed his approach to the film's soundtrack. "Lee liked the idea of something offscreen laughing and delighting at the suffering and terror of the characters, so I recorded two female vocalists performing 'taunting' sounds and vocal effects.
(Lee) wanted a score that was visceral, immersive and confrontational, while still leaving room for an emotional theme. So, I began to create sounds and textures based on guitar feedback; guitar strings stretching and breaking; strings being ripped with knives and scissors; and many other weird effects. Many of these made it into the score as part of the texture and tapestry. But ultimately, for the signature, we hit upon an idea we called 'the meat grinder.' I spent a week creating lots of sounds using a variety of methods, but eventually, the one that worked was the result of me dragging carving knives along the strings of my beautiful grand piano and then chopping and stretching the audio into something that eventually sounded like a demonic meat grinder being revved up."
The composer also used a decidedly non-traditional approach when writing for the orchestra and female chorus that provided the music for the main body of the score. For example, one instruction for the 50-plus string players read simply, 'Rage for 15 seconds.'
McKeon also recorded various stringed and percussion instruments, "being tortured, broken and slowly dismembered. Then, these recordings were chopped up, bent and stretched before being fed, screaming for mercy, into the score."