Composer Douglas Pipes Discusses His KRAMPUS Movie Score

It’s the holiday season where most are thinking egg nog, fluffy snow, decorating cookies and Santa Claus. But if director Michael Dougherty has anything to say about it with his latest film KRAMPUS, this festive time of year will include a darker Christmas legend whose shadow over pop culture is growing.

Ancient folklore warns of Krampus, a myth that has been traced back centuries throughout European cultures. Santa rewards the nice; Krampus punishes the naughty. Santa brings laughter and joy; Krampus unleashes darkness and mayhem. Santa gives presents; Krampus takes souls.

Dougherty says, “The same way that Americans send out Christmas cards, Europeans have this rich tradition of sending out Krampus cards. I was shown these beautiful illustrations of this creature called Krampus, who stole children, and images of people cowering in fear. Still, they had such a fun, mischievous quality, similar to our Halloween. I found that appealing because it made Christmas more enjoyable to know that there was this dark side to the holiday that we Americans didn’t have yet. It was lurking in the shadows waiting to be rediscovered.”

It’s not the mice, but all the creatures who are stirring, in the new film starring Adam Scott and Toni Collette.

When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers.

All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive.

A dark and subversive alternative to the traditional holiday tale, the horror comedy is a fun movie with a fun soundtrack by composer Douglas Pipes (TRICK ‘r TREAT). With his latest score, the KRAMPUS cues are part merry, part monster and one you’ll want to add to both your horror and holiday collections.

During our recent conversation, Pipes and I discussed his KRAMPUS score that’s filled with a whole lot of mischief, including his delightfully terrifying take on such yuletide favorites “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Silent Night” and “Carol of the Bells,” as well as his work on the indie film, LITTLE PARADISE and composing for Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film, THE LODGER.

KRAMPUS recording session. Courtesy: Newzealandsymphonyorchestra/Facebook

WAMG: How was the Los Angeles screening and reaction to the film?

Douglas Pipes: It was great and everyone had a really fun time. It was the first time I had seen the final print in a theater.

WAMG: Which genre does KRAMPUS fall into?

DP: It plays well into not just in the horror side but the heartfelt side. It’s a Christmas movie – a dark fairytale of a Christmas movie. At the core of it, its heart is firmly a Christmas movie.

WAMG: You worked with Michael Dougherty on TRICK ‘r TREAT after he heard your score for MONSTER HOUSE. Both are really clever scores that put you right into the Halloween season. Did you immediately say yes when he asked you to score KRAMPUS?

DP: The thing with Mike, he’s so good at what he does – balancing the tones of writing comedy and horror. Plus the characters and emotions are so important to him and he handles all those elements so well.

I had never heard of Krampus and after he pitched the story to me, he sent me the script and I immediately started coming up with ideas. As soon as I read something he’s written, I get so inspired that I start working right away.

WAMG: As with the cult favorite that is TRICK ‘r TREAT, I feel like audiences will discover another unexpected surprise with KRAMPUS. I always suggest TRICK ‘r TREAT to anyone looking for something new on Halloween.

DP: It’s fun to have come across it a little bit more organically and that’s part of the charm of the film.  You don’t know what to expect because it hasn’t been marketed to you in a way that creates your expectations.

WAMG: I’ve read Michael Dougherty loves film scores. How was it to collaborate with him again?

DP: He does. He has such an encyclopedia-like knowledge of film scores and it’s one of the joys of working with him. He gets so involved and so excited about the scoring of the music.

WAMG: You can hear Christmas but a distorted Krampus Christmas in your music. It’s an interesting soundtrack to listen to outside of the movie. How much of the pre-visuals did you see prior to scoring?

DP: Before they left to go shoot in New Zealand, Mike and I had a meeting at Legendary Pictures where he showed me this fantastic concept art. The script gave me the tone, but the art gave me a sense of the color of the film and where they were going with it visually.

Once they started shooting, I was sent dailies to get a sense of the feeling of how it was going to unfold. It was a process I had never done before. I had never gotten involved as early as the dailies, but it was great and it gave me the opportunity, as far as the footwork, to begin exploring the sound.

WAMG: Did you see many of these scenes and then realize which instruments you’d have to go with for a Christmas sounding score?

DP: During our initial meeting, we talked about Christmas songs and how we could take everything from using Christmas songs to mangling them, so that the audience might recognize certain themes. We had these Christmas melodies playing out front as well as to the subconscious. I like to create something that is geared to have a clear root and is interwoven, especially the “Krampus Karol of the Bells.”

WAMG: “Krampus Karol of the Bells” contains some chilling lyrics and runs throughout the film. The “Creatures are Stirring” track includes a twisted version of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” – it’s an exciting scene and cue, with some great power chords.

DP: It’s an action cue and a fantasy cue and a horror cue, besides having the Christmas theme. I was able to play around a lot on that.

As a composer you want to bring something to the film that’s so off the traditional map, but you cringe and wonder, “Is this going to work or am I going to be laughed out of the room?”

It has a good mixture – part mischievous, part playful, but it’s horrific. It’s a nice moment finding that tonal transition for what happens in the movie.

WAMG: The vocals are equally creepy, especially your “Elfen” track.

DP: There are vocals throughout the score. I rearranged “Silent Night” (in German, “Stille Nacht”) to “Silent Power” (in German, “Stille Macht”) and I think it really works.

They also say “Gruss vom Krampus,” but in the middle of “Elfen,” there’s a Christmas carol within that cue they sing in German, where the vocals have been changed around.

Weihnachten ist hier – Christmas is here
Kinder sehen sich – Children watch yourselves
Sie sind in Gefahr – You are in danger
krampus weiß alles – Krampus knows all

WAMG: “Bells, Bones, and Chains” track, with the big orchestral motif, especially with the sound of the chains, is so ominous and so scary. The brass section is amazing.

DP: We recorded with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and had a huge brass section. It was six horns, five trombones, two trumpets and tubas, and we asked them to play as loud as they could. The entire score was recorded in New Zealand along with The Tudor Consort Choristers of  Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul, and the final “Krampus Karol of the Bells” was recorded in the US with the Brea Olinda High School Singers. That was the very last thing we did.

WAMG: There are some grand, larger than life cues such as “The Shadow of Saint Nicholas” and “Sacrifice.” When did you decide that the film needed these big orchestral moments?

DP: For me, the film musically goes through four arcs. It starts of as a family comedy, then a dark fantasy tale, then transitions into a straight horror film, and then a serious drama where the family is just trying to survive. The score comes full circle by the end. We embarked on a big budget film and wrote to match it.

WAMG: Tell me about LITTLE PARADISE and scoring for that indie film?

DP: One of my good friends, Natan Moss, directed this indie comedy and it just came out on iTunes recently. It’s really funny and an indie film in the truest sense of the word. It stars really talented LA actors and it’s not built on huge names, so it has all the challenges an indie film has of getting the word out and for me the score was fantastic and a complete u-turn from everything else I’ve done.

It’s a 70’s caper-style score with lots of horns and was a ton fun to record. 70’s score had a tighter, focused sound and that’s what I was shooting for on LITTLE PARADISE.

WAMG: What was it like to compose the score for the 1927 silent film THE LODGER?

DP: That was fantastic. It was commissioned by a group in Dallas, through a composer friend of mine, Brian Satterwhite, and he has scored a lot of these silent films for this Dallas Chamber Symphony. He set up a commission for me to do THE LODGER and they gave me the instrumentation where I had six weeks to work on the score, and a little more to orchestrate it.

It’s a uniquely rewarding experience – it’s a concert piece and even though it’s performed live in front of an audience, it is still a film score. It has to follow the tone of the movie, however with one hand in the past while approaching it as if it were scored in the last few decades. It’s not entirely supposed to sound as if it was composed at the time, but there are certainly some elements of the score that are meant to throwback to that period.

Douglas Pipes/Flickr ©All Rights Reserved

KRAMPUS is playing in theaters now.

Order KRAMPUS on Vinyl here: waxworkrecords.com/blogs/news/70095813-krampus

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