There’s something incredibly admirable about a film that lays it all out there with its title. Case in point: PSYCHO STORM CHASER. Directed by Buz Wallick, this new addition to the Lifetime horror lineup is exactly what you think it is, in the absolute best way.
When a hurricane threatens a small peninsular community, part-time serial killer and full-time celebrity storm chaser Carl Highstrom (Rib Hillis) swoops into town. But, while most locals evacuate, it is those who can’t (or won’t) who wind up triggering the handsome, raincoat-clad killer. However, the winds soon begin to shift for Highstrom when he becomes drawn into the sphere of a local, dedicated nurse named Abby (Tara Erickson).
Wallick knew from the beginning that PSYCHO STORM CHASER would require a solid score to bring the film to life truly. Thankfully, he knew just the composer to call — Andrew Scott Bell. An incredibly versatile talent, Bell’s rich resume (including the 2022 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards) and passionate energy has quickly made fans throughout the filmmaking world. And as no stranger to the horror genre, Bell knew precisely how to balance PSYCHO STORM CHASER’s exciting blend of horror, humor, heart, and adventure.
Beautifully thematic, expertly orchestrated, and emotionally evocative, Bell’s music adds a rich layer of dynamic texture to PSYCHO STORM CHASER. It also delivers spooky vibes in spades. Indeed a *ahem* killer piece of music, it wasn’t long before Howlin’ Wolf Records came knocking in hopes of providing a worthy physical release of Bell’s score for the film. And boy did they. Not only does the new release include Bell’s entire film score, but it also features a host of fascinating bonus tracks. In celebration of this new release, I sat down with Bell to get to know him a bit and chat about PSYCHO STORM CHASER. So, strap in. We cover lots of ground here.
DG: Ok, first off, I just have to say how excited I am to chat with you about PSYCHO STORM CHASER. This film is wild.
Andrew Scott Bell: Thank you! I love PSYCHO STORM CHASER. It’s a Lifetime movie, but they made it independently of Lifetime and then sold it to them. So, it has its own flair that I think is cool and fun.
I honestly did have a lot of fun with it. And I love to see Lifetime doing horror movies like this.
Yeah, they definitely don’t take themselves too seriously. And then since the plan was to sell it to Lifetime, we didn’t really take it too seriously either. It was fun, over the top. Kind of campy, but there’s also some good performances in there. I think Tara Erickson does a really great job of really emoting. And then Rib Hillis, the psycho storm chaser himself, giving these big huge monologues, it was just so juicy. It was fun.
How did you initially connect with this project and team?
I met Buz, the director of PSYCHO STORM CHASER through a mutual friend — Chelsea Stardust. Buz was an executive producer on a project that I was set to score and we met at Chelsea’s birthday party. Chelsea introduced us and, sparks flew. We stood out on the patio chainsmoking basically talking about film scores that we loved for hours.
The little bit longer version of this story is that Chelsea added my music to a Spotify playlist. He started to listen to it and then one of my pieces of music inspired him to write a script. He then hired me because of that to then score that short film. And it did really well. It won some awards and when it came time to hire for PSYCHO STORM CHASER he was like, “I gotta go with Andrew again. He’s my guy. My John Williams.” Or whatever. I forgot exactly what Buz said, but it was something like that.
You mentioned speaking at length with Buz when you met about film scores. So when you two sat down to talk about the music for PSYCHO STORM CHASER, what were some creative ideas about the musical direction?
That’s a good question. We sat down and we started to talk as we normally do, even before a spotting session. And, a spotting session is where the director and the composer sit down together, watch the movie and spot the moments where music might come in and come out. We then talk about that music in detail. For example, what emotion we want the audience to feel, which character’s perspective we want the audience to be feeling, those kinds of really detailed discussions. It’s mostly to discuss where the music stops, where the music starts, and then to break down the emotion of each cue and talk about each cue in detail.
So even before then, he and I were talking about ideas. He sent me a Zoom table read that they did so I had a really strong sense that this movie would be kind of slasher-y for a Lifetime movie. And what’s really interesting about that is, when he started to send me clips and shots as he was editing the movie, it started to kind of morph from what was originally, just a guy going around killing people. The storm started to take more of this presence in the film as they shot it. But, it wasn’t really on the page in the script, you know? It started to feel bigger and kind of like an adventure horror. Almost like TWISTER or one of the JURASSIC PARK movies.
That changed our mindset because we were originally thinking really slashy, like SCREAM. But then that conversation shifted to like, ’90s James Horner, Alan Silvestri adventure, but still with some slashy strings. That was all before we actually sat down to watch the movie together. We were talking about ideas and that got me really excited.
The thing I like about working with Buz is that we seem to have similar loves. That’s what happened that first night we met. We talked for hours about composers we love, movies we love, and scores we love. We start at the same point and face the same direction and we get excited about similar things. So I got really excited when he and I started talking about 90s adventure horror. I love James Horner and I love John Williams and, it just seemed like we were making the same references that we both love.
I was struck by how beautifully thematic this score is, especially regarding the main characters. Talk a little bit about developing those themes.
Yeah! So, Abby is the protagonist and Carl is the main antagonist. Of course, there are several other protagonists as well. But, Abby’s theme was originally only supposed to be that guitar theme that starts with a hammer-on that’s like [sings melody]. It’s right when she wakes up and she’s brushing her teeth, right? That was kind of the original “Abby’s Theme” in my head. And then there’s this other “Love Theme” that was intended to be for her and Jack. Similar to how Princess Leia has her own theme in STAR WARS, but there’s also the “Han Solo and the Princess Theme,” which is their theme together.
What’s interesting about that (and I’ve heard other composers say similar things) is, as you evolve the music, as it comes through the movie, it starts to morph. Maybe it just starts as a love song. If we’re going to continue with STAR WARS, “The Force Theme” started out as Luke’s theme, but then over the course of the movies just turned into every time somebody uses The Force.
I think that “Love Theme” kind of became like, friendship. Between not just the two romances, but then Abby and Ella and when Abby’s fighting for Tony. So, it kind of evolved from what I thought was romance to something bigger than just romantic love. A grander love between friends. It happens in big moments. It happens in intimate moments.
Then Carl’s themes are all the really sinister, low cello growling, JAWS-like themes that were really fun. And that was something we talked about. From the beginning, Buz was like, “I want him to have his own shark theme.” So, we were making some intentional references there. And, Carl has a bunch of themes. There’s a “Stalking Theme” and different iterations of that. Carl’s themes are more of the horror vibe in the score and we kind of blend them together.
But, Buz is really smart and he definitely planned moments for me to have those themes come to the forefront of the picture. So it was really easy to write thematically because there would be big moments where it’s just Carl on screen, smiling in the rain.
Or in his van just being a creep and rehearsing his monologues. [Laughs]
Yeah, of course he has a creepy van. [Laughs] But we tried to be really specific about where we use certain things. For example, the “Stalking Theme” for Carl is only when he’s looking up Abby on his iPad because he thought he recognized her, or when he’s plotting how to stage a murder. It’s always the scheming or the stalking. We tried to be really specific about when that music is used. It was a delight. For me, it’s always fun writing thematic stuff. You can then find ways to intertwine them and they don’t always have to end the same. You can take this theme and pair it with this theme. You got me on something I’m really excited about so sorry if I’m talking too much.
No! I mean, this is what I live for! [Laughs]
Okay, cool. Well then I just say finally, one of my favorite moments is near the end when Abby says, “I stayed behind for her” and points to Hannah. We have the “Love Theme” play with “Hannah’s Theme,” which is the falling [progression]. When I get to do that and write melodies together, that’s some of my favorite stuff. Thank you for asking me about that.
I wanted to ask you about building and holding tension without giving anything away. How did you approach that? Do you have any tricks you’ve developed over the years?
Similar to a director always chasing the good scare, it’s kind of something that you feel. It doesn’t necessarily have a template every time. I think for me there’s…especially in a score that has quite a symphonic and thematic richness to it, it does a lot of handholding. It tells you, “Oh. We feel sad now. This is an adventure. This is fun. The storm is starting.” I describe that as handholding for the audience. Like, “Come on! We’re going on an adventure.” And the music is telling you that, right?
So in that type of score, when it drops out and there’s just this [plays long eerie note on keyboard], suddenly the music isn’t telling you anything. I think that can feel really empty when you’re subconsciously used to being told, “Ok. Here’s a sad moment. Here’s a lovely moment.” We want them to get together because the piano is telling us to. When you strip all of that out, everything the audience is used to hearing and it’s just a cello going [sings low cello sound], it’s telling you to be scared, but it’s not giving you any other information. I think that feeling of being slightly disoriented leads to the suspense. At least in the case of PSYCHO STORM CHASER.
It sounds like ambiguity is the trick. Not tipping the tone too far in any direction.
Sometimes people say, “I don’t want the music to tell you how to feel.” But like, it always kind of does, you know? You can say you don’t want the music to tell you how to feel too much, but it’s always going to slightly, somewhat inform you. And the reason I think it should is so that when we pull it back, it’s effective. The absence of music in a film should be just as effective as the presence of music.
For example, a scene that is just an argument between two fantastic actors might not need music. Sometimes that is more powerful than scoring it to try and make it more sad or impactful because they’re doing it on their own. We talk a lot about that in spotting. Like, “Where should music be? Where should music not be?” And, where the music starts is really crucial. So is where the music ends. Even just one string note at the right line of dialogue can hit people really emotionally.
I want to chat about this CD release as it has some bonus content I’ve never seen on a film score release before. Tell us a bit about these special features and why it was important for you to include them.
Thank you! You’re not the first person to tell me that this is something they’ve never seen before. And, I wasn’t really thinking about it that way until Wall Crumpler, who runs Howlin’ Wolf Records, said that to me as well. And he’s fantastic by the way. He’s such a passionate soundtrack fan. He really cares that this release is close to my vision for what I want the music to be and what I want it to feel like when you open it. Everything we did, he helped me pay a lot of attention to detail.
There are nine bonus tracks. Three of them are from the movie, but not in the soundtrack. One of them is a note from me that tells you what you’re about to hear in the rest of the bonus tracks. And then five of the bonus tracks are iPhone voice memos. But then also paired with a little clip of the music that the voice memo eventually led to. And one of them is the piano demo of the theme. You can hear me singing and then it goes into the piano where I play it to picture just to make sure it feels right and isn’t going to be too fast or something. Then I work out the chords and it goes into the fully orchestrated cue.
The thing that led to that idea was Wall saying, “Do you have any unused cues for bonus features? Or original versions of cues that the director had you rewrite? Those are sometimes cool to include.” But honestly, on this one, I felt so honored to be on the same wavelength with Buz. There were so few notes. And I was like, “Well, geez. What can I do? I want to have something that is a little extra for people who want to buy the CD.”
And then it dawned on me that I have these voice memos that I record when I’m walking my dog or something. Where, I have an idea but I’m not at my computer and if I wait, it might be gone. I might not exactly remember what it is. So I just pull up my voice memo and record it on my phone so that I have it later. It’s a weird thing. Like you see a car drive by that’s the color green that looks like the tree in a scene and it just pops in your head. I just don’t want to forget it. So I had the idea to give people that behind-the-scenes look. It’s kind of embarrassing, but ultimately I’m glad that I did it.
It’s a really intimate look at your composing method and how all-consuming the creative process can be. Even when you’re “clocked out” for the day, your brain is still chipping away at it in the background. People like yourself don’t get enough credit for how it takes over your life.
Thank you. It does. My wife and I have this word for it actually that we made up. We say, you know, it sounds German when we say it, but it’s really just the combination of the word “composer” and “noggin.” Like, composer-head. She’ll be like, “Is something bothering you?” And I’m just like, “Huh? Oh, no. Just composenhäagen.” Once you start a project, you’re never really off the clock. At any given moment, your brain is always there with the movie.
You’ve worked on a lot of horror projects over the years including projects for Fangoria and Shudder — some real genre heavy-hitters. What do you love about the genre and working in it?
Well, I’ll say at the onset that I was not someone that was a horror fan from childhood. It wasn’t something that my parents brought into our home for whatever reason. My mom was really afraid of horror. She saw THE EXORCIST when she was in high school and then came home to her home all alone. For whatever reason, she was home alone that night and was so scared of it. So I think from that she just was like, “I’m done. I won’t watch another scary movie again.”
It wasn’t that I wasn’t allowed to watch horror, I was just more interested in Muppets, Jim Henson, and THE DARK CRYSTAL. I mean, there are some things that are definitely spooky that I loved. I loved Scooby-Doo. That was probably my gateway to horror. That was pretty fun, but I just don’t remember ever having that moment, you know? Until I was scoring very early on in my career.
One of the first couple of films that I scored was for a 48-hour film project. You should up and get assigned a genre so that you can’t preplan what you’re going to write. The team that I had agreed to work with was assigned horror. While they were shooting, I didn’t have anything to write to. So my friend Kevin and I were like, “Well, let’s just go see a horror movie and get some ideas, and then we’ll come and record some sounds in preparation.”
So we went to see INSIDIOUS. And, I love that movie. A couple of rows ahead of me was this woman with a big bucket of popcorn and at one of the scares, she jumped so much that the popcorn flew up in front of the screen. I’ll never forget the feeling of terror and joy in that moment where my view was obstructed by popcorn. I was just hooked. The thing that got me was, everyone in the theater had this catharsis moment of laughing with this woman who spilled her popcorn after being really scared. We shared that moment. It certainly happens in STAR WARS and it certainly happens in dramas, but horror is just that juiced up on steroids.
There are some really beautiful stories that come from horror too. I have this theory that most genres prime you with a basic emotion to open you up so that you can actually feel what the storyteller wants to tell you. You’re primed by the emotion to receive it. Like, really great comedies aren’t just jokes. There’s heart and a really touching story in there too. The same thing is true about horror. The scares are there to open you up so that you can feel what they’re trying to tell you.
I think a really great example of this is THE BABADOOK. That was so scary, but it was also such an emotionally rich movie about the journey of grief and a mother who is struggling with that. The fear and the terror open you up. I keep motioning like I’m in ALIEN and ripping my chest, but it really does feel like that. You’re then open to receiving what the artist wants you to feel. That’s what I love about horror. It’s the strongest version of that.
PSYCHO STORM CHASER is currently available on VOD. You can also pick up the CD release of Bell’s music from the film (with special features) from Howlin’ Wolf Records, here.
Tags: Andrew Scott Bell, Buz Wallick, Howlin’ Wolf Records, music, Rib Hillis, Tara Erickson
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