Sounds of the Nightmare Machine

- [Mark] There's the rulers. (low chime) The reverb tank. (metal clanking) The ebow. (ominous, high-pitched whine) - [Tony] A normal instrument. You're playing it and you're expecting it to have a sound that is pleasing. But with an instrument like this, the goal is to just produce sounds that, in this case, are disturbing. (nightmare machine blares) (low strings music) - [Mark] The Apprehension Engine was an instrument that creates a variety of really creepy and some would say horrifying sounds

. My name is Mark Korven. I'm a film music composer and lately, I've been focusing on horror movie scores. (ominous strings) Two of my biggest hits as far as horror films are concerned was from the late nineties, a film called Cube. And, most recently, The Witch. (ominous music) (tapping) I originally commissioned the Apprehension Engine because I was tired of the same digital samples, which resulted in a lot of sameness of a lot of horror musics. (ominous music) So, I was looking for something

more experimental, more acoustic that would give me a little bit more of an original sound. That's where I contacted my friend, Tony Duggan-Smith. - So, Mark called me asking me to create a crazy instrument for horror films. Because I'd never done anything like that before, it made me empty out all my pockets and all my drawers of any knick-knacks and bits of bobs I could possibly string together to make it happen for him. And this is what came of it. (off-key string music) You're dealing with t

hings that stir primal emotions and feelings. And there actually is a skill set that you have to acquire in order to get the most out of it. (off-key string music) - [Mark] It expresses what really can't be expressed any other way. It's not music in the traditional sense, at all. But, let me put this way. The Apprehension Engine definitely evokes an emotion, so I would call it music. (tapping) (grinding)