{"id":348310,"date":"2025-12-16T06:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348310\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T06:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:10:13","slug":"wake-up-dead-man-score-interview-with-composer-nathan-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/348310\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wake Up Dead Man’ Score Interview with Composer Nathan Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each \u201cKnives Out<\/a>\u201d film<\/a> has a distinct \u2014 if distinctly arch \u2014 feel to it. There\u2019s the woodsy New England setting for the first film and the bloated Billionaire Island for the second mystery from director Rian Johnson<\/a>. But for the third entry, composer Nathan Johnson\u00a0did not want to lean on traditional tropes of church music for \u201cWake Up Dead Man<\/a>\u201d \u2014 even though much of it takes place inside the bleakest parish church put to screen in some time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So Nathan Johnson, not so unlike Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig<\/a>), while investigating the seemingly impossible murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin), zagged instead of zigged. \u201cWake Up Dead Man<\/a>\u201d does feature a smattering of organ and a little bit of harp, which wouldn\u2019t be out of place under the Gothic arches of Our Lady of Fortitude. But the bulk of the score is sneakier and subtler, leaning on tonal and thematic ideas rather than character-focused melodies. Johnson did this not only to subvert expectations but also to make the music an active force in the conflict at the heart of the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NORTH<\/a> \"Rob<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cThis tug of war between ugliness and beauty, or between darkness and light [is] what this movie feels like to me,\u201d Johnson told IndieWire. \u201cIn my mind, it makes me think of money and power in our world today. We see it in religion with this movie, and how that can be twisted really darkly or used really generously and beautifully. To me, that is the balancing act that the whole score plays with, and that this movie is playing with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a balance that Johnson had to strike without being too obvious or intrusive when it comes to placing the score. Some of the scenes where the characters show themselves to be at their best (or their worst) happen without a music cue at all. Johnson said he needed almost a Wagnerian \u201cRing Cycle\u201d-type theme, but one that could go from zero to 60 and then tuck back into the mystery again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The way to achieve that, for Johnson, was to think about music as coming out of the desires for \u201cEve\u2019s Apple\u201d and the darkness of Wicks\u2019 preaching, rather than specific characters or plot twists. It also came out of doing a lot of \u2014 and this is a technical term \u2014 really weird rhythmic stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wake\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\u201c[We used] what\u2019s called a metric modulation where one rhythm and tempo is introduced on top of a completely different rhythm and tempo. They\u2019re mathematically related, but the effect of it is you feel completely unsettled. It\u2019s almost like conflicting messages,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt almost represents this idea of hypocrisy and double-speak where people in power are telling us something that feels like it doesn\u2019t ring true,\u201d Johnson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sense of unease, a lack of balance, in the \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d score is designed to keep the viewer as in the dark as idealistic young Father Jud (Josh O\u2019Connor) through the movie\u2019s various twists and turns. Johnson wanted the audience to have that intuitive sense of wrongness and hypocrisy around Wicks and his acolytes, but not quite be able to place it \u2014 at least not until it\u2019s too late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No spoilers, but even in the climactic confrontation between Blanc, Jud, and Wicks\u2019 \u201cChosen,\u201d Johnson wanted the score to be almost an invisible hand, deepening the emotion of the moment without overwhelming it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really took a while, watching [the scene] on the screen and then saying, like, \u2018Let\u2019s try the solo a little bit softer. Let\u2019s try it one more time, but let\u2019s take it down a little bit more.\u2019 We were really fine-tuning that moment, so that there was a softness there,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThe last thing Rian wanted was for us to put a hat on a hat and really underline what everybody needs to be feeling [and] from the first time I saw the movie, I knew I needed to protect that moment. It really is the heart of the movie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wake\u2018Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u2019 Courtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

The depth of the emotion that the music is tapping into is what Johnson thinks sets the score for \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d apart from the previous \u201cKnives Out\u201d films. Every Benoit Blanc caper needs music that, well, capers. Johnson has gotten very good at designing music that can dip in and out of many different registers and emotional places while speaking to a large ensemble of characters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re shifting gears every 30 seconds as we reveal a new thing. Now we lean into the excitement, now we pull back,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThose sort of end wrap-up moments always end up being the most challenging [to score]. But I think for this one, there is this added layer of deep empathy and emotion. It\u2019s a really fun dance. It has to be a really subtle in and out, and that\u2019s what I hope we keep getting better at.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u201d is streaming on Netflix<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each \u201cKnives Out\u201d film has a distinct \u2014 if distinctly arch \u2014 feel to it. There\u2019s the woodsy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,1554,18320,1316,2558,70083],"class_list":["post-348310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-josh-oconnor","tag-netflix","tag-rian-johnson","tag-wake-up-dead-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}