Qurbani is a cult/survival horror soundscape created from scratch using high-quality sound assets.
The word Qurbani translates to “sacrifice” in both Urdu and Hindi. All assets used in the track were retrieved from Epidemic Sound. The main inspiration for the soundscape came from the image above. The picture is a still from Hellblade II: Senua’s Saga, an upcoming game from the recently acquired Microsoft studio, Ninja Theory. Some of the inspiration also came from the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot and director Ari Aster’s psychological horror film Midsommar.
The Midsommar trailer uses an eerie yet whimsical score while Hellblade gloriously uses a song from experimental folk band Heilung.
Taking the imagery from these existing properties as a reference, I started working on the soundscape. The end result was different from what I initially had in mind.
Scene Breakdown
The track starts with ambient sounds in a forest. Shortly afterward, a camera flash is heard indicating the presence of our main character in the scene. While our protagonist is busy taking pictures, a mob starts to emerge in the distance out of nowhere.
After taking a few steps, the photographer finds himself as a witness to a horrendous ritual where a cult group burns men alive. The members of the cult stomp their feet and chant, building the anticipation before each man is thrown into the fire. Our protagonist gets to experience a second “sacrifice” as another man is tossed into the raging fire. The noisy mob once again stomps before the ritual but the chants die down as soon as the sacrifice ends.
The photographer clicks the button to document the scene; he gets detected and the mob starts to shout and stomp, demanding for a third sacrifice. He runs through the forest to escape the mob but he gets caught up in a branch and gets knocked out by a cult member. The protagonist’s cry slowly distorts and becomes inaudible.
Flash forward to a few hours later, he opens his eyes to find himself in the forest once again. The story begs the question: did the photographer outrun his death or was he just hallucinating?
