Price of Horror

Every fall, auditions for Halloween and Christmas voices are certain to stream in. Although I’ve got solid impersonations of Karloff, Lorre, and Lugosi, Vincent Price’s voice had eluded me. This year, I’ve decided to pay homage to the “Master of the Macabre” by imitating his voice from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

I’d had the privilege of seeing Vincent Price in person when I was a teen. He was in the Cleveland area to attend a Sherlock Holmes film festival (featuring Basil Rathbone). After the film, Mr Price did a reading of Poe’s “The Raven”. What an amazing voice and delivery… I was awestruck.

To approach such a unique and memorable voice, I took the time to listen to his original recording of “Thriller” (hear it at the bottom of this post). The audio reveals the many complexities of his voice. Pacing, accent, enunciation, delivery and musicality of the phrases. Add to this his baritone/tenor range, age and the effects of smoking and you’ll begin to hear the many layers involved.

After a few hours of analysis and trial mimicry takes, I felt ready to make my own mix…

Here is my homage to Vincent Price’s voice from “Thriller”:

… And here are Vincent Price and Michael Jackson from the original vo recording session, with a bonus verse in the middle:

Now it’s your turn!

What voices do you do during the holidays? Maybe it’s Santa, elves, or Scrooge. Perhaps some of the Haunted Mansion vo, the Grinch or Charlie Brown.

Let me know in the comments below…

All content written and voiced by Joe J Thomas online at: JoeActor.com