That Sounds Scary
Gabrielle Margocs' Independent Study @ Austin College
Scene 1 - Friendly visit
Major differences arise in this scene Taguchi/Josh suddenly appears in the background. Visually, the friend walks out of the shadows in the same place with the same reaction in both films, yet the sound varies at his arrival.
Kairo
When Taguchi’s figure appears, there is a dissonant creak , like a door opening. This sound is uncanny- familiar to the ear (a door creaking) but strange within the context of action.
Michi quietly wanders around the room looking for a floppy disc; in both scenes, a humming/ringing sound and orchestrated soundtrack respectively grows louder as the climax grows near. Musically, we are now being conditioned for a loud startle effect, Heimerdinger’s “stinger”.
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Michi reaches the room where we see her gasp- the background hum now becomes orchestrated dissonant chorded trills while we wait for the “stinger”, only currently being able to see Michi. When the cut takes us to Michi’s POV, we finally see what has happened: Taguchi has hung himself. The strings sharply cut off at the quick glimpse of Taguchi, and the end of the scene.
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WARNING: Video might be unsettling to some.
Pulse
Josh steps into view with a ghostly ‘swoosh’,a sound only believable/understandable because of the suspension of disbelief we have as an audience of a horror film.
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Unlike Michi's quiet wandering, Matti unfortunately finds a visually (dying cat) and auditory (pitiful meowing) startle effect in a closet.
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Matti, walks to Josh’s room with the same dissonant trills already accompanying her; practically warning the audience of some ill-will or grief that dissonance sound can trigger. We find Josh at the same moment Matti does, and four ‘thud’s combine with the visual shocks of varying angles of Josh’s hung body.
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WARNING: Video might be unsettling to some.
As the mise-en-scene are mostly the same for both parts, the two versions offer differing types of fear and suspense from the sound design alone. In the American version, there is a constant non-diegetic sound (an orchestrated soundtrack), while the original features more diegetic sounds (walking, talking, computer hums, picking up floppy discs).