‘Hope’ Composer Michael Abels Played Even The Gross-Out Comedy Parts Like A Thriller – Sound & Screen Film

Director Na Hong-jin’s Hope took Cannes by storm, after which it opened in South Korea over the summer and came to the U.S. this fall. In it, the police and locals of Hope Harbor find they are facing an alien threat. But, even when the film takes surprising comedic directions, the music never lets on that it’s funny.

Speaking at Deadline’s Sound & Screen Film, composer Michael Abels referenced a scene in which a man recounts his alien encounter while going to the bathroom in minute detail.

“There’s a very long discussion of bowel habits and the music during that all plays it very tense, but it’s pretty funny,” Abels said. “It’s the type of comedy where it’s the situation that’s funny. In that sort of situation, it helps when the music plays it straight. You just let the audience realize, this is pretty funny.”

Abels said if the music lets on that it’s comedic, “then you feel like you’re forced to laugh and that’s not funny anymore. I don’t think there’s any funny music in the film.”

Humor extended to Abels’ relationship with Na, who understands English but spoke in Korean through a translator.

“He’d speak in these long paragraphs in Korean,” Abels said. “Then about one minute or two minutes into what he was saying, the translator would burst out laughing. Then I just had to pray that by the time the translation got to me, I would get the joke.”

He did pass the Na test, at least.

“I think that I laughed at the right time and he said, ‘Oh, you’re Korean’s getting better,’” Abels said. “So my Korean got a little better. I’m not sure how.”

Director Na asked Abels to score Hope based on Abels’ work with Jordan Peele. Abels said Na used his horror movie scores as temp tracks.

“The first part of the film is actually much more textural sort of score and you think it’s going this one way,” Abels said. “Then it suddenly turns into this big action movie with all this pounding chase music.”

As the film begins, officer Beom Seok (Hwang Jung-min) investigates the destruction left in the wake of a creature. When the creature (Cameron Britton) finally reveals himself, it’s only the beginning. Three other aliens (Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell) are involved in the second half of the movie.

“The first part of it really demands keeping the audience on the edge of the seat and you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” Abels said. “You just realize the aliens might be the good guys. The humans aren’t that smart in spite of they’re trying to be smart. That shift is really great.”