Uzumaki and Hereditary Prove Colin Stetson Is the Best Horror Composer

The recent release of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror has given horror anime a needed jolt, offering a unique vision of terror unlike anything before it. The project, which took over five years to release past its initial announcement, uses unique visuals, an abstract approach to horror, and hapless protagonists caught up in an inconceivably large-scale nightmarish event. Yet, many components make the anime series exceptional, including the composer behind the project, Colin Stetson.

Not all horror or anime fans pay close attention to who makes the soundtrack for a film or a TV series and only acknowledge that it is either ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ However, Colin Stetson has been vital in crafting some of the most frightening modern soundtracks to exceptional movies. Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror is Stetson’s latest masterpiece of aural terrors, but we will look at why that is and how he has become one of the most acclaimed horror composers of his time.

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Colin Stetson and Junji Ito’s Uzumaki were the Perfect Pairing

Mangaka Junji Ito excels at crafting stories of terror beyond human comprehension, touching on the same cosmic and metaphysical horrors as beloved purveyors of the genre in authors H.P. Lovecraft and William Hope Hodgson. Uzumaki is considered by many to be Junji Ito’s most masterful work, capturing large-scale madness, an ancient curse, and body-melding transformations that overtake and slowly warp the very foundation of a sleepy town.

The recent adaptation, from studio Drive and directed by Hiroshi Nagahama, has already proven, with its first episode, to be the most faithful adaptation of Ito’s work to date. It fully capitalizes on that fear of the unknown and sense of cosmic dread that hasn’t been successfully captured in other projects such as Netflix’s recent Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre. The series has proven to be a critic and fan-pleaser, with everything from the visuals to sound being touted as masterfully crafted.

For the score of Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror, Colin Stetson offers swirling instrumentation that loops into itself, creating an oddly serene yet disorienting soundscape that perfectly fits the show’s namesake. The score throughout the series utilizes atmospheric noise with a semblance of calm in the background. Playing with familiar soundscapes but disorienting them creates a pervasive dread lingering over fleeting normality. The mix of neoclassical music offset by disruptive noise is perfect for exploring themes of madness and facing the unknown. The score is isolating, all-consuming, yet oddly serene.

It is hard to quantify how effective Stetson’s score is in Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror without experiencing it firsthand. Fans should consider listening to it inside and outside the anime series as it is one of the most masterfully constructed pieces of distorted ambiance; for collectors, Black Screen Records even has a stunning vinyl release on pre-sale. As anime fandom and horror do not always intersect, the stunning original score may be a surprise for those new to the composer’s work. However, Stetson has already proven himself a master of crafting terrifying soundscapes.

Colin Stetson’s Music Crawls Under Your Skin and Makes Itself Uncomfortable

Colin Stetson has been making music since the early 2000s, with his first solo album, Slow Descent, released in 2003. Stetson, a master of the saxophone, used unorthodox methods like circular breathing to create unique sounds on the instrument. He has released 11 solo studio albums and has worked with other musicians on projects, including Sarah Neufeld, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, and Tom Waits. Horror fans will recognize Stetson for his chilling soundtracks, including Hereditary, Color Out of Space, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), and The Menu. Stetson saw particular praise for his work on Hereditary, with many calling it one of, if not the scariest, scores of all time.

Drawing similarities between his work on Uzumaki, the Hereditary original score used droning noise with sporadic bursts of music to create an inescapable sense of dread. For theatergoers or those with a great home sound system, the effect was even more prominent with the use of three-dimensional sound mixing, creating an assault on the senses from all sides, perfectly integrated into each scene.

While Hereditary and Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror is sure to bring in the most accolades for Stetson’s soundtrack work, a good companion piece to the latest horror anime would have to be the underrated Nicolas Cage-led horror Color Out of Space. Much like Junji Ito draws inspiration from the works of Lovecraft, Color Out of Space is an adaptation of a story by the same name by the famous horror author. This score offers a slightly more picturesque soundscape, with the horror elements being more subtle but effective in conveying terrors from beyond. To experience Colin Stetson’s mastery of creating terror-fueled audio landscapes, Uzumaki, Hereditary, and Color Out of Space are essential listening.

Where to Watch Horror Movies Scored by Colin Stetson

It just so happens that all the scores that Colin Stetson has worked on are also attached to critically acclaimed horror movies, well, except for 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Regardless, each film is worthy of your time, particularly if you are approaching it as a fan of horror movie scores and have a better understanding of how essential they can be to elevating an already exceptional visual and narrative experience. Here is how you can watch every film scored by Stetson:

You can stream Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror on Max. Episode one of four aired on September 29, 2024, with subsequent episodes following every Sunday.