American Horror Story: 1984

Immersive Activation at San Diego Comic Con 2019

Produced by Creative Riff

Directed by Justin Fix

I was contracted through Diablo Sound to do the creative sound design for this activation at San Diego Comic Con. I love American Horror Story, so I was over the moon about this opportunity! I worked very closely with the director to build a very detailed world that would sell the immersive and intimate walk through. It was a success; the audience was so captivated that they never noticed the other activation next door, or the chaos of the convention outside.

For inspiration, I referred to 1980s horror tropes as well as an amazing instrument called the apprehension machine. You can hear a manifestation of it in the Forest clip. A cellist and I had great fun recording musical noise for a couple of hours! Music from the 80s was also used and made to sound like it was coming from radios in the Office and the Cabin. It is impossible to present the sound design accurately out of context, but you can get the idea through the recreated mixes on the right.