Sound Triggers Fear in
Hulu’s Books of Blood

By Patrick Birk

Halloween might be over, but our collective love of scary movies lives on. Last month, Hulu delivered Books of Blood, a creepy horror anthology based on Clive Barker’s 1984 book series of the same name. Directed and co-written by Brannon Braga, the film weaves together three stories, which at first seem to function as independent episodes before being tied together in the final chapter.

Books of Blood jumps between sets of characters, one of whom (Jenna) has a neurological disorder called misophonia, which is when certain sounds trigger rage or panic. The sensory disorder plays a big role in the film.

LA’s King Soundworks provided the audio post, largely during the pandemic. I caught up with re-recording mixer Greg King and sound designer Jon Greasley to find out about their process. The last time I spoke with the duo was to discuss their work on the series Cosmos: Possible Worlds, on which Braga was also the showrunner and the head writer.

Jenna’s misophonia was a huge plot point. Brannon Braga has a similar condition. Did that inform your sound design?
Jon Greasley: Some people are triggered by different sorts of sounds. Brannon said the most common one is a chewing, lip-smacking sound. That annoys a lot of people, so it’s possible a large portion of the population has a minor case of misophonia. I guess if you have a really bad case, it could be a wide range of sounds or just sound in general, which is how we approached it with Jenna’s character.

What were your techniques for developing misophonia for Jenna?
Greasley: We record sound effects and Foley to capture the sound of the room. There’s no sense putting the mic two inches away from something because that’s not how people hear things. You want to hear a door close
in a space, or a car drive down a street and bounce off surfaces.

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