How Godzilla’s terrifying roar was created for the original 1954 film, reused in GODZILLA MINUS ONE

Thanks to Godzilla minus one, Godzilla is more popular now than he has been in a long time. Fans flocked to theaters to watch the film, and for the most part, everyone who saw it loved it.

There are several aspects of Godzilla that make him so iconic, such as his epic size and his destructive atomic breath. But it is his roar that sets the initial terrifying tone for the Kaiju creature. It’s that roar that makes people run through the streets! I would say in the most iconic monstrous roar ever seen in a movie.

Over the years since Godzilla was first introduced to the world in 1954, the roar has undergone an evolution, with sound designers trying new things using different types of sound recipes to create a slightly different version of the roar.

The original roar for the 1954 version of Godzilla initially attempted to use animal sounds to create the roar, but this did not have the desired effect the creative team was looking for. Thus, Japanese composer Akira Ifukube came up with the idea of ​​using a musical instrument to create the roaring scream that became Godzilla’s signature sound.

During a past interview with NPR, the sound designers of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla movie, Ethan Van der Ryn AND Erik Aadahlrevealed how Godzilla’s original sound was created, saying:

“It was actually a double bass, using a leather glove coated in pine tar resin to create friction. They would rub it against the double bass string to create that sound.”

It’s really cool that Ifukube thought this was what they needed to conjure up that incredibly terrifying sound, the accepted spelling of which is “SKREEONK!”

Godzilla Minus One reused the Kaiju roars from the 1954 film’s opening titles, but they were more amplified and had a more reverberant quality. His initial form in the film also uses this roar, but with the addition of some additional growls and squeals. It worked perfectly!