Marco Beltrami – “Woman in Black”

Album Reviews | Jul 16th, 2012

Record Label: Silva Screen Records
Genre: Film Score
Buy on Amazon.com

Woman in Black is a 2012 horror/thriller directed by James Watkins and stars Daniel Radcliffe. It’s based on the Susan Hill novel and it’s already out on Blu-Ray and DVD. The film score by Marco Beltrami was released back in March and it’s something to get if you enjoyed the movie & its music. Even if you didn’t see the movie, I think it’s worth at least listening to it once.

For a horror/thriller movie, this music is great. I’m not usually a fan of horror/thriller scores but this one has a bit of elegant, haunting sound to it. At least in the beginning of the score anyway. It has sweeping strings and creepy motif that sounds like something Danny Elfman would compose. Good Danny Elfman anyway. Even though Beltrami scored this, this definitely has that Elfman/Burton feel to it.

“Tea For Three Plus One” is the stand out track and it also opens up the album. It’s got that mysterious keys/notes (hard to describe the sound) that I like in these type of scores. A lot of the time horror/thriller scores have that atmospheric sound and it doesn’t really work for me when listening to it separately. This isn’t the case with Woman in Black. This would be a perfect score to play around Halloween time.

Other tracks that stand out for me is “Journey North,” because it has that epic, old-horror type of sound. “The Door Opens” is effective in using the music and some subtle sound effects. “Into The Fire” is just a fun action cue that stands out from other tracks. The entire album is pretty damn good.

Based on the score, I might even check this movie out because it seems like the type of thriller I usually can tolerate it and like.

Bottom Line: A great horror/thriller score that isn’t boring background sound.
Notable Tracks: Tea For Three Plus One, Journey North, The Door Opens, Into The Fire
Overall Rating:

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