Them: Takeover
Halloween may be a half year away, but at Milan Records we’re listening to horror music all year round! If you’re in need of a scary score, look no further than Little Marvin & Lena Waithe’s new horror anthology series Them, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The show’s first season, set in the 1950s, centers on a Black family that moves from North Carolina to an all-white Los Angeles neighborhood during the period known as The Great Migration. The family’s idyllic home becomes ground zero where malevolent forces, next-door and otherworldly, threaten to taunt, ravage and destroy them.
To celebrate the soundtrack release, we invited Them creator Little Marvin & Them composer Mark Korven (who you might know from his terrifying scores to The Witch & The Lighthouse) to take over our Spooky Scores & Soundtracks Spotify playlist for the months of May & June!
Little Marvin & Mark share their thoughts on some of the music that inspired Them, along with the playlist below!
LITTLE MARVIN
True Story: A few years back while I wrote the pilot for THEM I listened almost exclusively to my favorite domestic horror scores of the 50s-70s. Chief among the composers: Bernard Herrmann, The Krzysztofs (Penderecki and Komeda), Lalo Schifrin and Pino Donaggio. The only modern composer I listened to? Mark Korven and his score to The Witch. So you can imagine my stunned shock 2 years later when I was handed a short list of potential composers with his name on it… Musical kismet. Love how those classic sounds were shredded through Mark’s insane brain to create a score that’s both throwback and timeless. Enjoy!
MARK KORVEN
For the score for THEM, you can hear some of my influences such as Bernard Hermann and Penderecki. I brought along some of their sonic madness which fit well in the disturbing world of THEM.
The playlist begins with 12 tracks selected by Little Marvin and ends with 16 tracks selected by Mark Korven. Listen below!
Them stars Deborah Ayorinde, Ashley Thomas, Alison Pill, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Melody Hurd, and Ryan Kwanten. The series is created and executive produced by Little Marvin along with executive producers Lena Waithe, Miri Yoon and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment, David Matthews, and Don Kurt. Them is a co-production from Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios. Listen to the Amazon Original Series soundtrack here.