The Hallow Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score The Hallow by James Gosling.

Buy the score here (if available)

At a glance:

Geek Score: 70
Total Minutes Of Excellence: 1.8
Album Excellence: 3.2%

How are the scores calculated and what does it mean?

The Hallow AKA The Woods is a 2015 Horror film directed by Corin Hardy and starring Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic and Michael McElhatton. A family who moved into a remote mill house in Ireland finds themselves in a fight for survival with demonic creatures living in the woods. The score is composed by James Gosling.

So here we have some Irish horror which isn’t my usual kind of horror. I can only wonder if the music is reflected by it’s Irish roots or if it’s a typical American affair. The score opens with the title cue ‘The Hallow’, an unorthodox horror opening. The theme is lyrical, somber, dragging. A bit of fantasy mixed in as well. Love the subtle horns. It’s harmonies resonate well with me. The music feels so fragile, like it might break at any moment. There’s no “force” at all, just flowing, flying, nothing really pushing the limits. Still, it’s very nice to listen to but perhaps not in a stand-out way. ‘Investigation’ investigates deeper into the abyss as the music is lower, darker. Still lyrical though and a bit scary as well, particularly the atmospheric “wind” noises 1 minute in and onwards. This is much more interesting to me and it stands out compared to the opening theme. There’s still something missing though. ‘Race Agains Time’ is shifting the perspective once again, this time it shifts towards action in a much more fast-paced listening experience. Either of these cues are fine by themselves, good maybe even very good, but I still feel it could expand upon it’s base and give us something to really shout about.

The Hallow either doesn’t know what it wants to be musically or I don’t know what I want it to be. Maybe it’s a mixture of both. ‘Cora’s Story’ and ‘Who’s Out There?’ are trying to be scary using dark atmosphere and a subdued humming voice. I think the problem is that the voice doesn’t scare me at all, and that the music backing it up isn’t pushing it further down horror street. In fact it takes me away from it. It’s this “in-between” state which I find boring. It’s neither this or that, just stuck on middle ground. Still, it has some positives, particularly the opening cues which almost made my highlights list. One that did make it on my highlights list is the bittersweet ‘Claire’. Overall though this is the kind of horror score I usually skip. Maybe when I come back to it at some point it will make for a better listening experience but as it is right now it’s a score I won’t be re-visiting anytime soon.

HIGHLIGHTS:
16. Claire