Extreme Frequencies

In his foreword to Michel Chion’s seminal book Audio-Vision, film editor and sound designer Walter Murch suggests that ‘whatever virtues sound brings to the film are largely perceived and appreciated by the audience in visual terms – the better the sound, the better the image’ (1994: viii). By contrast, this chapter focuses on two mutilation films in particular – with references to others – that subvert the dominance of the image in cinema. Although there are few focused studies on the horror film soundtrack,1 it is well accepted among fans and aficionados that sound is essential for the generation of anxiety.2 The following chapter explores how sound has been used and experimented with to create a powerful and sustained physicality, thereby questioning and challenging the assumed hierarchy that is highlighted in the above quote – that sound functions only to enhance the image.