Since the indie horror film The Hallow hit the Sundance Film Festival last year fans and critics worldwide have praised it with “The Hollywood Reporter” remarking “What’s most gratifying is that The Hallow continues the trend of recent superior horror like The Conjuring, The Babadook and It Follows, by placing the emphasis on practical effects and using the digital paintbox only for subtle enhancement.”
The UK outlet “Den of Geek” goes on to call it “A horror movie bursting with ideas, The Hallow is a real treat.” There are many elements that contributed to the film’s success and we decided to explore on that is not always discussed, the score. The film’s director, Corin Hardy, entrusted UK composer James Gosling to bring his film to life musically.
After winning the 2015 Screamfest award for “Best Musical Score” and “Scream Horror Mag” saying, “James Gosling’s score really gives this modestly budgeted movie much more of a cinematic clout” it is apparent Hardy picked the right man. We decided to sit down with Gosling and learn more about his process for creating the film’s score.
Read the full interview below.
When you composed the score for The Hallow did you do it based on the dailies or did you watch the whole thing first?
I watched the whole thing first. For the most part it’s really only once a film is edited together that the composer can get a feel for atmosphere, mood and pace etc. and this is generally when the work starts.
How much input did the director Corin Hardy have on the score?
Corin had a good deal of input. It was a continual process of dialogue, experimentation and collaboration which started with me scoring the film reel by reel, presenting ideas, and we would discuss and hone from there.
Can you explain the specific instruments used in The Hallow?
Well the main solo instruments are the solo violin and a solo child’s voice. The rest of the score was a mix of electronic and sampled orchestra.
The Hallow has been very well received by critics and fans. If there was to be a sequel and you were to score it, what would you do different?
Difficult to say without knowing anything about the specifics of the new story but in general terms one would normally look to take through running themes and then add new themes drawing on the new dramatic material so that the end result has a familiarity but also a freshness.
What was the biggest challenge composing this score?
It would have to be the time and budget constraints. With The Hallow finding itself accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, it meant the post-production period was truncated, and with the budget for the score being as tight as it was, that meant this was coupled with an inability to finance many delegation opportunities, so it was effectively a music department consisting of one, which meant I was doing the job of, well more than 100 if you count the orchestra!
As the film progresses it is very similar to Jeff Goldblum’s character in The Fly, meaning the transformation that happens to this main character. Did you watch this film before scoring The Hallow? Get any inspiration from that soundtrack?
No, that was actually a film I didn’t watch as it goes. Kicking myself for not thinking of it. I did watch Alien, The Thing, Under The Skin and a good few others to get in the mood but not The Fly. Though had it occurred to me at the time I was scoring I definitely would have taken a look!
How closely did you work with the sound designer on this film? Did you create the sounds of the camera flashing? That sound was very creepy and definitely intensified the scenes.
Yes, I agree the camera flashing sounds were brilliantly conceived and executed and played an important role in ratcheting the tension in those scenes, and while I’d love to take credit for them it would be unfair to the splendid Mr. Steve Fanagan, our sound designer, who is their true creator. And yes Steve and I were in touch throughout the post-production process, though we weren’t working particularly close as most of the time we are doing 2 very different jobs. Steve in the main is working on the diegetic sound world, i.e. sounds whose source is part of the onscreen action, the foley, dialogue etc while the score is responsible for the more abstract sound world, and we only really needed to check in with each other if Steve was working on anything abstract that might mean our roles were overlapping. But for the most part our two roles did not overlap.
The Hallow references Lucio Fulci’s famous eyeball-punishing scene in Zombie. How did you approach intensifying this scene in particular?
Well with that scene the challenge was to slowly ratchet up the tension and to gradually intensify the building horror, culminating in this disturbing climax, so it was a case of starting extremely quietly and menacingly, and then developing and shifting gears, and adding and building until by the end, if it works well, the audience leaves wishing they’d brought spare underwear.
Interview by Rand John
You can learn more about James at www.jamesgosling.net
