Exclusive Interview: Celebrating Halloween with TRICK ‘R TREAT soundtrack composer Douglas Pipes

October 31, 4:23 AMSoundtracks ExaminerMark Morton

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What is more appropriate for Halloween than to spotlight an individual whose recent musical output so brilliantly paints the landscape for the season? Douglas Pipes may be a relative newcomer to the film scoring community, but the man has serious chops and an ear for creativity.

Citing Jerry Goldsmith among his compositional heroes, Pipes brings a sense of fun back to the movie-watching experience. And the reviews of his work on Trick ‘r Treat have been nothing short of amazing. Although this is only his second major film score, he is already being compared to the likes of Bernard Herrmann, Danny Elfman, and his aforementioned idol.

Join us, as we ring the doorbell, with bags outstretched, and see what goodies Mr. Pipes has in store for us today.

What is your reaction when all these reviews of Trick ‘r Treat come out constantly comparing you to the pantheon of soundtrack legends?

I’m beyond flattered. When these comparisons come in, I don’t know what to say. I can’t turn around and really reply at all, because it is so beyond my grasp. I’m too shy a person to even use the names of those composers in responses to emails.

I was even a little taken aback when I saw that the first line of the Trick ‘r Treat press release immediately compared you to Bernard Herrmann.

I think it was the sensibility of the music. Trying to recreate an experience that those composers brought to their films is a big part of it. I guess I’m looking at music in the same way that they did.

When you were doing Monster House and Trick ‘r Treat, did you research any of the classic horror movie soundtracks to actively set the tone for yourself inspirationally? I am wondering, because even though these are scary kinds of films, there is an underlying sense of innocence, almost Disney-esque about the subtext of the music.

Yeah, there’s a big part of the early conversations Mike [Dougherty, director] and I had about how music was used in films that touched on innocence and bringing you in, developing characters along with the horror and the creepiness effects. It’s the combination of those things that bring you in and then shock you, as opposed to being less dynamic. The intent is to be more dynamic, focusing so much on characters that when scary things happen, it’s a change of pace; you’re not constantly building up tension and scares – if you do it like that, during the course of the film, you’re always in the same frame of mind. One of the big factors is, those movies we discussed – when you walked out after seeing them, you’d say, “Oh man, that was so fun, I’m glad I went to see it. It was an exhilarating experience.” We really tried to capture that.

And that is exactly how I felt after watching Trick ‘r Treat. Sure, it was freaky, offbeat and bizarre, but at the end, I realized that I had a really good time watching it.

Good! Success. That was the goal, that the popcorn tastes good, the movie’s fun, you have a smile on your face, and hopefully the date turns out good afterwards. Those are the kinds of fun movie-going experiences we wanted to try to bring forward.

Did you find any moments more challenging to pull together compositionally? I noticed that the Laurie / Werewolf scene actually used songs instead of orchestration.

As far as I knew, that scene was never going to be scored. Dealing with her transition from innocence to sexuality and the transformation, I don’t think the score would have worked there. I think I spent the most time on the Kreeg and Sam scene inside Kreeg’s house and really bringing the Trick ‘r Treat theme to its fruition, kind of like the big musical payoff. So I spent a little more time on that, because the “trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat” theme is intricately woven throughout, and I wanted it to really come together, because it went through quite a bit of musical emotion.

How did you come to develop the “trick or treat…” theme for the movie? From my experience, some of those really great things take a roundabout way of presenting themselves.

To be honest with you, once I was brought in and began thinking about themes after having read the script, it was clear that this was a movie ABOUT Halloween, and not just a movie that TAKES PLACE on Halloween. The central theme is Halloween, so the question was, how are we going to capture that? And the fact that it was an anthology with different stories, how can we tie these together? And I just thought I would take that theme and play it a little off the nose, with a bit of a skewed rhythm, harmonized a little more sinister than you would naturally harmonize it. And I just deconstructed it throughout the film. When it came to me, I really thought it would really hold everything together. Even when the movie is over and you hear the music, you KNOW its Halloween; it can’t be anything but Halloween.

It was a really great theme to help bring people into the film. Because Halloween is all about being a kid. It’s a time when adults get to be kids again. It’s a very endearing time for a lot of people, helping them to recapture a bit of their youth, be it innocence or mischief.

Is that one of the reasons you love Gremlins so much?

Oh definitely. Gremlins was such a fun movie, and I’m a huge fan of Jerry Goldsmith. When he wrote scores, he wrote scores for THAT movie. I just felt that whenever he would come to do a score for a film, he would try different things to make that film original and create something that gave that film its voice. I mean, you hear similarities to other films, but it was fun going between the lightness and the darkness, which he did so well. That movie struck a chord with me.

Because Trick ‘r Treat has a Tarantino-esque flow to it, with the movie occurring out of sequence and the chapters weaving in and out of each other, did you score the film linearly or chapter-by-chapter?

Chapter-by-chapter; but with the overall idea that each chapter would have its elements. But I also wanted to find ways to connect them together musically (not just by the “trick or treat” theme), even in the most subtle ways. I wanted to make the music help bring the film an extra element of cohesion and not necessarily play to the time-shifts.

And there are some themes, like “Meet Rhonda” and “Meet Sam” that have similarities in their composition that ever-so-slightly brings them together, so as they pass each other, if you analyze the score, you’d see the connection.

Do you find it difficult as a young composer to break into an industry where there is such a tight group of known musicians who seem to be at the beck and call of their respective production companies?

Yeah, I think it is difficult. But I think if the director-composer relationship is something that grows and gets better over time, because you learn the little things that they are looking for, how they work and react. If you can meet directors and they go on to do things, that would be your best bet.

So how did you end up partnering with Michael? I only ask, because on paper, Trick ‘r Treat seems like it would have been a no-brainer for someone like Danny Elfman?

Probably because they didn’t have the budget for him. The budget probably wasn’t there for a lot of people. But it was there for an emerging composer.

So, with two “scary” movies under your belt, do you have any concerns about becoming a known “horror guy”?

No, not really. I do understand that composers can get pigeonholed by the types of projects they do, but most composers, whatever their first project was, that’s what they do. It could have been any number of things. Whatever the film is, I’m confident in my abilities to tackle the best of them.