Premiered at the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Festival, director and producer Annick Blanc’s first feature film, Hunting Daze, is an elusive affair. Is it a thriller, as some suggested? The composer of the film’s original music score, Peter Venne, frowns. “It does have certain traits of a thriller, but it also has many aspects that are typical of A24 horror movies,” he says, referring to the American independent production company that has re-vamped the horror genre with films such as Hereditary (2018) and Men (2022) – which have been called “art house horror” or “elevated horror.”
“Whatever the case may be, it’s a film in which you can feel an enormous amount of tension, both psychological and sexual, as well as in the action,” says Venne. “A kind of huis clos [shuttered room] in the middle of a forest.”
It focuses on the character of Nina – as the synopsis of the movie reads, “a young woman with an unpredictable character who joins a group of hunters in their remote cabin. The arrival of a mysterious stranger upsets her new-found place in this masculine micro-society.”
“Needless to say, the audience isn’t sitting comfortably while they watch the movie,” says Venne. “People have no choice but to feel uncomfortable.” Venne’s compositions, which you can hear on streaming platforms, strive to convey this discomfort.
Strings and synthesizers are the two main sonic ingredients of his evanescent score. “There’s also some electric guitar, which is quite funny,” says Venne, who’s a trained guitarist, and was the frontperson of an indie rock band that had a go at it in the 2000s. “I rarely use electric guitar in a movie score, but it totally worked for this one. The guitar part almost becomes like a snake, something that wiggles, and tries to bite you.”
Select the image to play the YouTube video of the Hunting Daze movie trailer
The string quartet assembled for the recording pops up at very specific moments “linked to a specific character, and it makes you jump every time,” he says. “I’m really happy with the result: you can feel it in the music, that everything’s in the right place, in this chamber music-like atmosphere – where you can feel the fact that there’s just a few musicians playing. Also, there’s a lot of drugs happening throughout the movie, and you will get the impression of a wisp of smoke in the music.”
Movie fans will recognize, sprinkled throughout the film, a few melodic themes and harmonic progressions, but melody isn’t the central element of Venne’s music cues. “The music is more akin to ambiance and sound design, and it fits perfectly with Annick’s movie,” he says. “And since it’s a very verbose film, the music pops up in choice spots, because we were looking for something evocative. It’s all about sensation and impression, rather than about an air you can whistle. The music moves in unpredictable ways, like the use of low frequencies that hit you right in the solar plexus. That was the whole idea: amalgamate sound design and ambient sounds.”
Venne capitalized on the experience he acquired as a composer, orchestrator, and film director with his first rock project, to explore the world of music for film – after earning a specialized graduate diploma (a DESS in Québec) in film music from UQAM’s Faculty of Arts in 2011. “That was the launchpad that allowed me to meet people in the film industry,” he says. “Like any other field, you need the right skills, but also the right network of contacts to find work. It’s especially true as a film composer.”
Annick Blanc
This is how, for about a dozen years now, Venne has managed to work on more and more projects, most notably with Eric K. Boulianne, ever since he started making shorts. He wrote the music for Boulianne’s Faire un enfant (Making Babies) released last year, as well as for Stéphane Moukarzel’s Sapin $, also released in 2023.
He works on at least two or three film scores a year, and Hunting Daze was his first collaboration with Annick Blanc, in her capacity of film director. “She’s a woman with a fearsome intelligence and an exemplary work ethic, which ensured this project happened without a hiccup,” says the composer.
“I think she sought to work with people who had experience working on feature films, since it was her first foray in this format,” says Venne. “Her last short [The Colour of Your Lips, 2018] was successful, but it was a silent film, whereas Hunting Daze features seven characters who are almost always onscreen, and constantly talking. The tone is distinctive, realistic, and offbeat, funny but ‘off’ at the same time, and the music had to match that vibe. What Annick and I came to understand is that the score had to be seductive, as if it was casting a spell on the characters.”