‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Composer Mac Quayle Turned a Horror Theme Into a Funeral Song — Watch

Quayle discussed his work on the Netflix drama series while appearing on IndieWire's Craft Roundtables.

Ryan Murphy’s latest series “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” tells the terrifying true story of Ed Gein, an American murderer and body snatcher whose crimes inspired movies like “The Silence of the Lambs.” To write the score for the series, composer Mac Quayle knew he needed a great theme song to match the killer’s notoriety.

“I just was like, ‘Okay I need a creepy theme for Ed and his mother.’ And I’m hoping it’s going to be able to do some other things,” Quayle said during IndieWire’s Craft Roundtables. “The creepy part is what I started with, and that’s what I presented to Ryan.”

Quayle was joined by some of the season’s best TV composers at our roundtable. Other panelists included “Alien: Earth” composer Jeff Russo, “The Madison” composer Brenton Vivian, “Spider-Noir” composer Kris Bowers, “Murderbot” composer Amanda Jones, and “The Boroughs” composer John Paesano to discuss their shows and how they created scores that matched the material onscreen.

Quayle said that when he unlocked and figured out the main theme for Gein to use throughout the show, he was able to remix and reinterpret it for several different key scenes in a way that provided a throughline for the series. The theme was used in modified versions for a funeral scene and uplifting moments, which helped provide continuity for the show.

“Sure enough, I took it for a funeral scene and I made it said, and I was like ‘Whew, it worked.’ It was dramatic,” Quayle said. “Then, later on, I needed an uplifting version. I reharmonized it, a few major chords, and boom, it worked. So I kind of lucked out that the theme could do all those things.”

Watch the complete panel in the video above. IndieWire’s TV Craft Roundtables is now streaming on @PBSSoCal and the PBS App as well as IndieWire.com and our social channels.