Movie and television’s fascination with true-like serial killers continue to reach a horrifying fever pitch. Yet sometimes lost in the race to confront the worst of humanity, we lose a feeling for the victims, as well as the damage done to those pursuing pure evil. Though the case might be unsolved as filmmaker Matt Ruskin’s “Boston Strangler” shockingly convinces us of, what comes through in his empathetic approach and composer Paul Leonard-Morgan’s transfixing score is a sense of empowering emotion and tragic loss as crusading real-life reporters Loretta McLaughlin (Kiera Knightley) and Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) try to bring the criminal to justice. That’s perilously in spite of the chauvinistic roadblocks thrown in their way by fellow newspapermen and cops who’d prefer they haplessly try to solve the case themselves instead of sharing facts with reporters they view as incapable by nature of their sex.
It’s a beyond tense and heartbreaking trip down a maniacal rabbit hole, yet one that Loretta and Jean are determined to break open – a conviction embodied in the melancholy, rhythmic and unsettling approach by Paul Leonard-Morgan. The Scottish-born composer has certainly seen and heard it all in a career now reaching 100 soundtracks, a variety that includes the electrified brain of “Limitless’” feature and Emmy-nominated TV versions, the soaring grandeur of “Walking with Dinosaurs,” the spy percussion of “MI-5” and “The Numbers Station,” the pulsating future shock of “Dredd” and “Cyberpunk 2077,” the torrid drama of “Dynasty’s” TV reboot and the pure smiles of “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever” – all along with Morgan’s work with such bands as Snow Patrol, Mogwai and No Doubt.
Yet in the annals of musical cases he’s solved, “Boston Strangler” stands out in shadow for its impressive mixture of dread, emotion and most unexpected of all in its particular genre, melody. It’s a feeling of rhythmic perseverance against darkness that conveys savagery for a film that thankfully shies away from the worst of it, while tenderly getting to the bond of sisterhood that compels its heroines to risk their own careers, and perhaps lives to give voice and justice to a city of women risking all to open their doors. Rarely does a serial killer score, and movie, get to the heart of humanity in all of its twisted and soulful dimensions as this literally gripping “Strangler” does.
You’ve also done exceptional work in the suspense genre with projects like “MI-5” and “The Numbers Station.” Did they help put you in good stead for “Boston Strangler” as well?
They’re different beasts. I would say “MI-5” was quite an in-your-face kind of score. It’s what I would call more commercial soundtrack, whereas “Boston Strangler” is “film-y,” but filmy in a different way. It’s the intimate the sound of it. Whereas “MI-5” had lots of drums and lots of chase sequences, “Boston Strangler” is much more about the story behind Loretta. Obviously, this is a serial killer film, but it’s not just about the strangler. So there’s much more tension in this. There are so many moments where you’re just trying to underscore the feeling of “Oh my goodness, is Loretta gonna get caught by the serial killer?”
What were your impressions of the Boston Strangler killings before you did this score? And did you do any research of your own into the case once you got the assignment? If so, what surprised you the most about the revelations?
I’m from the U.K., so I’ve vaguely heard of the Boston Strangler, but not in the same way that Americans obviously know about the case. So I did research and I think what surprised me the most was that no one had ever really been caught for the murders. That means that was still a serial killer at large, or a bunch of serial killer at large if no one knows who was behind the killings.
I think what really intrigued me was the fact that throughout all of the Boston police force, throughout all the journalists, no one ever really seemed to know who it was that did it. So imagine the sheer terror on the streets, the sheer terror of going out. I think that’s what I wanted to get across in the score. No one is safe. And I think when you do that, it’s driving up then the stakes in the soundtrack. The listener feels like they’re actually going through the case files. There’s a sequence called something like “Have you searched the files yet?” You could have that sequence without any music whatsoever, and it would still work brilliantly. But if you add music to it and you start adding a bit of driving force and a bit of suspense, then sudden it’s case of “Look, there are stakes here. If you don’t check the files, if you don’t go and fight to catch this killer, he’s gonna keep on killing and killing and killing.” So I think that’s what surprised me the most, as I said, was that no one ever actually found out who was really doing this.
“Boston Strangler” writer-director Matt Ruskin
Tell us about collaborating with director Matt Ruskin.
Matt was a dream to collaborate with. He got in touch with me in May of last year. We started talking about styles and how we didn’t want it to be a traditional serial killer score. This definitely wasn’t gonna be an in-your-face Hollywood score where it’s just full of drums and so on.
How did you decide on the instrumental approach to the score?
This was going to have a sensibility to it, which is how we decided on the instrumental approach where we’d have a quartet and a piano because the movie is very much Loretta. So the sound is slightly innocent and slightly naïve. But you get a tenderness to Loretta. And then gradually, as Loretta starts really pushing herself outside her comfort zone to start finding out about the murders we’d bring in a really unusual, nontraditional approach, which was to use the orchestra as the sound of the Boston Strangler.
There are tons of winds playing really weird harmonics and clusters, strings, just gliscando’ing up and down as they make strange sounds. Really close to the bridge. And then I took that score and put it through 8,000 volts of electricity, using this thing called the plasma rack. It just destroys the sound. Yet you also have tenderness and intimacy of Loretta with the piano and the string quartet. So the orchestra doesn’t have to be massive as it plays off of this weird, crazy stuff. Gradually as the strangler meets Loretta, these two approaches combined, and suddenly this big orchestra starts playing Loretta’s theme which we’ve previously had on the piano and the quartet as the strangler takes over. We recorded the orchestra at the Skywalker Ranch in the San Francisco area, which was amazing.
How did you want to convey the idea of femininity in the score, given that the heroes and victims are women?
This is about two-woman journalists taking on a male dominated society. Back then, women just didn’t have those kinds of jobs. Loretta was like, “No, I’m gonna have a family life. I’m gonna have work life. I’m gonna have it all.” She was so ahead of her time and so inspiring. And then when she needed to prove to people, I think the, the line which comes from the boss or the commissioner was, “Oh, these people are nobody’s.”
But to her, these people are everybody. They could be you or me. Just because they victims are women doesn’t mean they’re nobodies. And so Loretta and Jean take it on themselves to prove that women can be fine journalists, and they scooped the male reporters. The piano is a feminine sound because I think it’s much gentler and softer. And there are moments when Loretta is chatting away to the victim’s mom and she starts identifying with her. So there are some beautiful harmonic and muted strings up top. It’s Loretta’s theme that we’ve heard from the beginning, and it’s a theme that gets hinted at in different places until the very end cue in the credits without giving the game away. It’s gone from simplicity of the piano. It’s gone through this massive orchestra and the distortion to come full circle, back to the piano. And it’s just Loretta finding peace after becoming obsessed with this case.
“Boston Strangler” takes a judicious approach to depicting the actual killings. Do you think it made the music even darker in these scenes to reflect the horrors that we weren’t seeing?
Absolutely. And I love the fact that you spotted that. For me it makes it the film even creepier, doesn’t it? Instead of just showing all the gore, instead of showing all these serial killings, what Matt did so brilliantly was to cuts away at the last moment. Yeah, you got a murder in the bath, but you don’t actually see the murder or the body going under. For me that was the challenge in the music. You are creating this really unsettling feeling with these musical “bends” and the strings. You’re being unnerved with the combination of orchestra and synths. All of that makes these scenes even darker because you’re emphasizing the fact that you’re not seeing the killings. The music is helping your mind to see them, which makes the murders even creepier and darker.
How did you want to embody the strangler himself, given that he’s usually shown in the shadows?
The strangler himself was the sound of these ten double basses being put through the distortion. Matt at first asked how my idea would sound. So I got out a double bass that I had in m studio and just did a little version myself. I told him it was like that, but times ten, and the sound would be going through all of this distortion. The guys at 20th Century Studios were also very supportive of my idea, as well as providing this massive orchestra that I would do these really weird things to. They told me to go for whatever I needed.
Would you view this as much of a newspaper movie as a serial killer one, given that the crusading reporters have a deadline as such to save lives?
Yes, absolutely. It’s not so much a “newspaper” movie as it’s more about the journalists and the reporters and the story of Loretta and Jean. I think that’s what so different about “Boston Strangler.” It’s not a typical serial killer film. Sure, it’s obviously about the Boston Strangler and the murders that happened. But it’s really about Loretta’s voyage of self-discovery.
Rhythm is all-important to the soundtrack. How did you want to vary it?
It’s much more about the idea of a “heartbeat,” so I recorded myself tapping underneath my piano, which I mic’d up with five different mics, especially the really bass-y ones. You hear that on the very opening queue, then at different times in the score. The BPM gradually speeds up every time that Loretta is getting closer to the strangler. But it’s a very subtle, a “dom-dom” that’s almost like a kick drum. The other thing with the rhythm is the use of triplets without being too in your face because obviously there is a lot of dialogue in this that you don’t want to distract from. Gradually, as the strangler comes into his own and the city’s gripped by the strangler, that rhythm suddenly gets played on the ten bases and becomes a lot fuller. But again, it was the very simplicity, the minimalism of these triplets, which keeps on driving the film forward.
It struck me how relatively melodic “Boston Strangler” is. Why did you choose this direction as opposed to one that could have been way more dissonant, and often is for a subject like this?
I think the melodic nature comes from Loretta’s theme. The melodies and motifs help you know who’s side you’re on. Am I with Loretta? Am I with the strangler? Who’s in charge in this? The Strangler stuff is really dissonant whenever he’s there, particularly in a scene where Loretta’s coming down the stairs with a baseball bat. It’s edgy and subtle, but there’s lots of creepy dissonance going on.
How did you want to get across the idea of the many false leads the reporters go on, as well as the idea that there are multiple killers?
I think there were multiple killers, and I think that comes across musically with the idea that Loretta’s off to go and see someone, but we don’t know who this person is. But she thinks it could well be the killer. So again, you’re trying to get the audience on edge without going “This is the person!” Again, that comes from the sound of the orchestra and the bends and the synths whenever we’re with the strangler, as opposed to the quartet and the piano when we are with Loretta.
How important are the feelings of tenderness and tragedy to a score like this? Unlike “Zodiac,” which ends with a big question mark, this has more of an emotional resolution as such, even though the killer (s) hasn’t really been caught.
For me that’s a massive part of the score, and that comes from Loretta’s motif and how it gets developed. While she has a “victory” in the end, it’s not a happy, happy victory. And I think that Matt was very clear as to how that should sound in the end credits. A lot of people have been in touch with me about how much they responded to it. It’s capturing the tenderness and tragedy we’ve seen in a true story. I think it’s also the longest end credit piece I’ve ever done. It’s like five or six minutes long.
You have a whole other, pulsating synth action sound you’ve shown off in scores for both the “Limitless” movie and series as well as “Dredd” and “Cyberpunk 2077.” Do you have a preference for that kind of style, or a measured, symphonic one like “Boston Strangler.”
I don’t just do film soundtracks, I do classical soundtracks, concert pieces, theater and video games. I like doing it all. I work with a lot of bands, so I tend to go off after I’ve done an orchestral soundtrack and then go into a hardcore electronic project. Then after that, maybe go onto a rock guitar thing. I think it’s important to cleanse your palette in that way. So I don’t really have a preference. I like, I just like combining them all to be honest. I just go for it all.
How do you think your score for “Boston Strangler,” and the movie stand in this particular genre? And does it give you a taste to do more movies like it, or avoid them and go for another score like “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever?”
I think what I love about “Boston Strangler” is the sense of gravitas that you can give a score like this. I think someone called it “dread drenched.” Yet it’s not a total downer, and that comes from the melodic nature of the music. It just can’t be drones the whole time, so you’re trying to introduce the themes subtly, which makes them cinematic. I think drama is just a wonderful thing.
In music, you help the emotion of a director, so I love all genres. I love doing dark stuff. That’s not to say that happy stuff doesn’t make me happy. I was the animation guy for a while with projects like “Walking with Dinosaurs.” I remember doing these Minions short films, and it was just lovely seeing the minions in your studio every day. I just like writing in different styles.
(Photo by Diana Feil)
Watch “Boston Stranger” on Hulu, and buy Paul Leonard-Morgan’s soundtrack on Hollywood Records HERE
Visit Paul Leonard-Morgan’s website HERE
Special thanks to Christian-Gabriel Endicio at White Bear PR