The Screams Of The Goats In Thor: Love And Thunder Come From EDM Songs — Or Maybe Taika Waititi
When Redditors discuss "The GOAT of EDM," they're usually talking about musical artists and who the Greatest of All Time in the Electronic Dance Music genre is. "Thor: Love and Thunder" director Taiki Waititi marches to the beat of a different goat-skinned drum. For him, the Goat of EDM is the spirit of dance music sound effects, made Marvel characters.
With his sequel to "Thor: Ragnarok," Waititi is introducing a new screaming addition to the pantheon of movie goats. Whereas Black Phillip, the devilish goat from "The Witch," prefers to communicate quietly via telepathy, the so-called "goat-kind" in "Love and Thunder" are much more vocal in their desire to be heard. In Marvel Comics, they go by the names Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, and depending on how you're wired, the sounds they make may set your teeth on edge, too.
The goat-kind reared their heads in the most recent trailer for "Love and Thunder," where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Waititi's mo-cap character, Korg, bantered about how "they are wonderful" but "they also scream quite a lot." At a recent press conference for "Love and Thunder," attended by /Film's own Hoai-Tran Bui, Waititi revealed:
"The goat-kind, those screams came from a dance or an EDM song. We were listening to it, and I thought, 'Oh, I'll just put those in.'"
Hemsworth, however, had a different recollection of how the goat-kind's screams originated. He said to Waititi, "I've been telling people that was you. I've heard that scream."
The GOAT of movie goats
While the release of the umpteenth Marvel movie may have some critics channeling their inner goat, scoffing, "Bah," early reactions to "Love and Thunder" have praised the goat-kind as the GOAT. Oh, and if it's starting to feel like we've slipped into some kind of loopy "Being Goat Malkovich"-speak here, that's just the effect of thinking about Thor and his goat-drawn rainbow chariot all day as "civilization is crumbling," like Bill the Butcher said.
Speaking of butchery, while this kind of behavior is usually reserved for the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park," I have a confession to make. I have eaten raw goat meat. In Japan (where it's by no means a common food), it's called yagi sashimi. I'd love to share a photo of a plate of the stuff here, but I feel like that could be triggering for vegetarians and goat-lovers alike. So instead, I'll just link to this Anthony Bourdain-inspired food tour (you can skip to the Okinawa section) and segue from there into mentioning that Jordan Peele's production company, Monkeypaw, recently scooped up a pitch for a psychological horror movie called "GOAT."
Alas, it's set in the world of sports and has nothing to do with farm animals. Goats are a fixture of folk horror, however.
If you prefer love to horror, "Thor: Love and Thunder" rides its screaming goat boat into theaters on July 8, 2022.