Sam Spiegel on Cult Horror Movies

"Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve had a recurring dream in which everybody but me is a zombie or a body snatcher, and I’m looking for people, hoping that some people are normal, but actually everybody’s out to get me. I think these sorts of dreams deal with a fundamental human fear, which is not belonging. Deep down, we’re scared that we’re not going to belong and that everybody is in this secret cult, that they’re all trying to get us. Zombie and body snatcher films have resonated with people for so long, and I think that’s why. I’ve loved those films since I was first exposed to them, and eventually I was forced me to start analysing my dreams.

As far as a favourite goes, I really like the 70s body snatcher films. 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers with Donald Sutherland is the best, because there’s so much good tension. Every shot makes you wonder, 'Why is the camera focusing on that person? Why is that person shouting?' I love horror films in general, and Dario Argento is another one of my favourite directors. The music in Argento’s films has been greatly influential to me. Goblin did a lot of his soundtracks for films like Tenebre and Suspiria, which is probably one of the scariest movies ever made! All of Argento’s scores have this great combination of weird sound effects, whisper vocals, tape delay, synthesizers, obscure instruments, and interesting time signatures. It’s great. I love that stuff.

Goblin also created the soundtrack for George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which is set in Pittsburgh. A lot of great zombie films have come out of Pittsburgh actually… I have no idea why! It used to be a steel mill town, so maybe it’s the infrastructure. That city just seems to breed fucked up horror movies. The great thing about Romero is that he’s still making zombie movies after all this time. He pretty much invented the genre thirty years ago, and he’s still making the same films! I wonder if he’s having the same dreams as me?"

"Deep down, we’re scared that we’re not going to belong and that everybody is in this secret cult, that they’re all trying to get us. Zombie and body snatcher films have resonated with people for so long, and I think that’s why."

Sam Spiegel AKA Squeak E Clean is a man of many talents. One half of LA-based hip hop duoN.A.S.A., and brother to indie filmmaker Spike Jonze, he’s credited as an artist, a producer, a DJ, a composer, and more recently, a director.

This year, N.A.S.A. will release their new documentary The Spirit of Apollo, which chronicles the duo's collaborative work with artists such as Kanye West, M.I.A., Karen O, Ghostface Killah, and David Byrne. The film highlights the reasons that N.A.S.A.’s music feels so fresh. On one hand, there’s obvious passion and a sense of camaraderie present in the recording studio, and on the other, Spiegel and his co-conspirator DJ Zegon are masters in the art of pairing up musicians who probably wouldn’t have worked together otherwise. For example, who might have guessed that Kanye West, Santigold and Lykke Li were a match made in heaven?

During his career, the young artist’s scored a number of films — many of which were directed by Jonze — and written original tracks for plenty more. Recently, he sat down with AnOther to discuss his no-longer secret dream of working on a cult horror flick in the vein of George Romero’s apocalyptic zombie gore-fests or the Philip Kaufman-directed late-70s filmic adaptation of Jack Finney’s sci-fi literary classic, The Body Snatchers. These films have been the subjects of endless academic analysis since their releases, and here, Spiegel shares his thoughts on why they hold so much appeal to their legions of die-hard fans.

Text by Zac Bayly

Zac Bayly is a London-based writer, who has contributed to titles including Dazed Digital, thelovemagazine.co.uk, i-D, BUTT and HERO.