Montage by Splice Killer Instincts: Slasher Horror

You move through the dense woods, the crunch of leaves beneath your feet barely audible over the pounding of your heart. The full moon casts eerie beams through the twisted branches above, but the shadows are thick, shifting like something alive. But then, you hear it - a soft rustle behind you. You stop, holding your breath. You try to convince yourself it's nothing, that your mind is playing tricks on you. But deep down, you know better.

And then you hear it again. The rustle, louder this time, closer. You whip around, your breath catching in your throat. The panic rises in your throat like bile. The sound takes a step forward, and you can’t move, rooted to the spot by terror. You feel the cold presence behind you, like a shadow stretching over your soul. You whirl around again, and there it is - a figure, cloaked in darkness, face obscured, but the glint of the moonlight catches on something sharp. A knife. This is the end…welcome to Killer Instinct.

This terrifying pack created by sound designer and composer Adrian Sosa is a love letter to directors and films that shaped his love of the slasher/horror genre when he was a kid. The sounds are inspired by the scores from directors like Dario Argento, John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and Wes Craven for classic horror films from the 70’s and 80’s.

The pack was captured at Splice’s Sound Factory Studios in LA with incredible sessions from Megan Shung and Dan Cantrell. Megan created a myriad of gut wrenching violin fx and spine tingling one shots while Dan played a series of very unconventional instruments and percussion like the thunder drum, bowed saw, zither, dragon cymbals and Indian bells. These sounds were run through a series of designed effects and vintage processors like tape echos, phasers, plate, spring verbs, and tape modulation and through some great new outboard gear and mods to add a shiny futuristic finish to it. 

The overall result is a classic slasher feel with a modern twist ready for any kind of bloody production. Use these sounds for a horror film score, a dark techno track, a deadly video game score or for anything else you can have nightmares of. 

The amazing artwork was designed and illustrated by hand by the very talented Nick Lopez who shares a very similar love for the genre. 

196 Samples