It’s not often you get to rock out to your favorite horror soundtracks live on screen. The Evil Dead, composed by Joe LoDuca, is famous for its screaming strings and punchy jumps that follow evil forces through the forest and straight into forgotten cabins. This year, The Evil Dead rises once more with a tour featuring its Deadite-driving music — and I got to go! Its first-ever national tour, Evil Dead in Concert brings the screams to your ears and eyes with a live-to-film orchestral ensemble playing to the 1981 Sam Raimi classic.
How could this opportunity get even better? Why, speaking with the man himself on what makes his music the soundtrack to our nightmares.
Who is Joe LoDuca? Freaks, Frights, and Quickfire Questions
First horror movie you ever watched — and did it scar you for life?
It was a drive-in movie. Women kept disappearing. At the end, the killer was revealed. He had assembled his favorite parts of each. Really bad news.
Creepiest instrument sound you’ve ever created, whether on purpose or not?
Scraping the edge of a huge cake dish with a bass bow was a great find. Blowing screams from a Chinese Guan Zi (a small double reed pipe) is quite frightening. Any thing resembling a human voice in agony is at the top of the list!
Instrument you’d NEVER want to hear possessed by a Deadite?
Alto Sax, hands down. Good one!
If you could replace Ash’s chainsaw with a musical instrument, what would it be?
A Musical Saw?
Which is harder: making people laugh, scream, or cry with music?
Each presents its own challenge, and with each timing is everything.
If your life had a horror soundtrack, what instrument would dominate it?
A moaning cello would come pretty close.
What’s your personal ritual before diving into composing something terrifying?
Actually not what one might expect.; it involves getting into a zen state where ideas present themselves.
If given the opportunity, would you write the soundtrack for the Necronomicon itself?
I already have; for a film entitled Necronomicon directed by Cristof Gans.
The World of Evil Dead
The Evil Dead was your very first film score — what was it like being thrown into what is now considered one of the goriest, wildest horror movies ever made?
A blast and a challenge. Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Rop Tapert invited me to be in their band of nutty kooks. They were and are, extremely talented, driven and having fun. The hardest part was figuring out how to sync to picture with an antiquated video machine and a click track book. I had to calculate each hit point in feet and frames.
The score is a mix of eerie strings, pounding percussion, and screeching chaos. What makes you lean toward melodic beauty one moment, and sheer terror the next?
The scene informs the music. The overarching goal is to create dread. A lyrical moment provides a reset. The violence provides a release from the tenor. In EVIL DEAD movies, you just might laugh at the violence. Remember, the filmmakers early efforts were about recreating Three Stooges gags.
When you were composing, do you find yourself imagining what it would be like as a character in that movie? For example, did you ever picture yourself as one of the cabin survivors as a Deadite chases you through the woods? Do you write music from a first-person or third-person perspective?
Good question: I need to give myself over to the tone of the film. In that sense, I am like an actor. I need to generate a genuine emotional response. That can be tough sometimes.
Horror and comedy meld together in Evil Dead. How do you score a scene so it’s terrifying, but still leaves room for campiness? Are there any specific instruments or movements you like to use?
In EVIL DEAD films, the music is the straight man. There are times where the music just has to give into the humor, as in the scene where Ash breaks up into mini-Ashes in Army of Darkness. Then we are in cartoon.
What gives that “possessed camera” energy into music?
Initially, it was created by Sam’s voice pitched down and in echo. I enhanced it with a synthesizer. Many companies released synthesizers with an Evil Dead patch after that.
The Evil Dead films are soaked in blood, guts, and absolute madness. When you’re writing music for scenes this outrageous, how do you stop yourself from going too over-the-top (or is there no such thing)?
I don’t. My aesthetic tends to be “less is more.” I am always encouraged to push further. I have been goaded by the statement “There is no such thing as over the top!”
Evil Dead In Concert and What’s to Come
Looking back, what was the hardest sound or feeling to capture in the original score? And in the concert version, what moment are you most excited for audiences to feel live?
I wrote a pretty cool overture, and I am particularly happy with the chase back to the cabin after the “Rape of the Vines” sequence. The scores is mostly reimagined music written for the original films’ instrumentation.
Evil Dead in Concert is letting fans experience your music live with the film — how does hearing a crowd scream, laugh, and gasp in sync with your score change the way you see your own work?
Not at all. I just want them to have a good time, which is pretty much guaranteed. Audience participation is a hallmark of all the EVIL DEAD films.
How does it feel to know your music is the soundtrack to so many nightmares?
Are we sure it’s the music? My recurrent nightmare is not delivering on time, which by the way never happens. That is a mystery to me.
What is your dream composing opportunity?
Working with collaborators who love music and are encouraging. That sums up 99% of my career. I am so grateful.
What’s next for Joe LoDuca? More horror?
Many projects. A family comedy entitled ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY drops October 3rd. SPARTACUS: HOUSE OF ASHUR airs on STARZ this winter. I composed the score for Bruce Campbell’s latest film, ERNIE and EMMA. I am writing songs with David Javerbaum, a wonderful lyricist. Currently I am working on the second Season of THE LIBRARIANS: A NEW CHAPTER for Dean Devlin. Oddly, no horror at the moment. That said, the EVIL DEAD: LIVE IN CONCERT tour is coming to a town near you! Go see it!
Evil Dead in Concert was mindblowing. Playing alongside scenes from the films, I relived each and every death in stereo. And you can too! Evil Dead in Concert is still touring for a few more weeks with a special 3-day Halloween event; check out their remaining dates and venues below, and follow the madness on Instagram.
Groovy.
